Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Mr. Seán Kelly, MEP, to the House and wish him well in his work and his work as a former uachtarán of the GAA who contributed greatly to the work and development of the GAA during his period as president. I also congratulate him on his membership of very prestigious committees. He has detailed very comprehensively the amount of work he undertook in the industry, energy, and research committee, the committee on culture and education, the regional development committee, the delegation for relations with the United States, and the delegation for relations with Canada. It is very important to have Irish MEPs involved at that level given the significant connection we have with the US. I know Mr. Kelly is working very closely with the EU Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, who is an excellent and very experienced commissioner.

One of the issues affecting farming, which I am sure Mr. Kelly brought to the attention of the European Parliament, is the crisis in fodder in Ireland. It is a fodder famine. Farmers are disappointed by the lack of response from the EU. Perhaps Mr. Kelly can outline what the reaction has been because it is an emergency and in those circumstances, one expects an emergency response from the EU and the Government.

Has any action been taken or will it be taken to involve the European Commission in the crisis in this country? It is absolutely essential that the crisis is brought to the Commission's attention and that the Commissioner for Agriculture is aware of the situation and comes here to see at first hand how serious the situation is. It is imperative that every action is taken to support farming at this critical time.

The Leader of the House is making every effort to give this House a role in the scrutiny of EU legislation. During the debates on the Lisbon treaty this was clearly articulated, promised and committed to, and the Minister of State with responsibility for European affairs, Deputy Creighton, was very supportive of this suggestion. The Dáil is extremely busy and the Seanad could play a very strong role in scrutinising EU legislation. For example, a Bill on the below cost sale of cigarettes came before this House in the past two weeks. I am not sure whether Mr. Kelly is aware of its details although his portfolio might cover it. As Senators White and Norris highlighted, it was quite shocking that a directive and decision by the Commission, based on obvious lobbying by the tobacco industry, would provide for the below cost sale of cigarettes. There should be no tolerance of below cost selling of alcohol or cigarettes. To encourage anyone to engage in smoking or drinking by providing products at low cost seems to be contrary to the European Union. Those issues should have been scrutinised here and a yellow card should have been presented to the European Parliament and it should have been debated. I will not ask Mr. Kelly to respond to that point now but he might look at that situation when he returns to Brussels. That is something that people cannot understand and it gives the European Union a very bad reputation.

A question also arose about the eel fisheries. When a decision is made and a directive issued it should be reviewed after a certain number of years. There is a 99 year ban on the fishing of eels in the Republic of Ireland and that does not apply to Northern Ireland where there is a much more tolerant approach. I was appalled by the Ministers at the time, led by the Green Party Ministers, who pushed this agenda through. I know that we must conserve eels and that is fine but there should be a unified approach to this. Why are we the only country of the 27 that has a total outright ban on the development of eel fisheries? Those are the types of issues that bring the EU into disrepute in this country.

I am sorry I do not have more time to speak but I wish Mr. Kelly well in his work. I have one final point to make. I regret very much the reduction in the number of MEPs from 12 to 11. Will we lose an MEP every time a country joins the EU? I accept that we voted for that in the Lisbon treaty but is it really the situation? We need every MEP possible to represent this country in Europe. I hope that there will be no more reductions, if the number is reduced to 11. I assume Mr. Kelly will be able to respond to that question.