Susan O'Keeffe (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Mr. Seán Kelly, MEP. As Senator Cummins has rightly said, credit is due to him for the enormous amount of work he does in Europe and for his work in his previous role as president of the GAA. I wonder, as I sit here, which EU country is closest to counties Kilkenny or Kerry in their race to be supreme at various sports.

One of the main dilemmas, and Mr. Kelly touched on it, is the way we reach out to Europe and Europe reaches out to us. Mr. Kelly referred to the disconnect, and people always do that. We have not made the progress we should have been able to make by now with modern technology, our understanding of politics and our greater capacity to travel as ordinary citizens of Ireland, and that does not apply just to Ireland. For example, the greater power granted to the European Parliament under the Lisbon treaty is very welcome. Voting to cap bankers' bonuses, as the Parliament did last week, and the Parliament voting for a new policy on discards for the Common Fisheries Policy are two welcome and timely initiatives that are in touch with what Members here are interested in. However, I suspect if people on the street were asked if they knew the European Parliament had voted for any of those measures, they would ask what we were talking about.

Is the difficulty, as Mr. Kelly said, that one gets only a minute to speak? Is it because Europe is still based in Brussels and people do not believe it is relative to home? Is it because of the huge variety of activities in which an MEP engages? People here and in other countries find it difficult to find something that is happening in Europe that is relevant to their daily lives. All the work about which Mr. Kelly spoke - the blue growth strategy, the patents and so on - is relevant. I speak having had only a brush with Europe having stood in the European elections and I found that was a matter people would raise constantly. They would ask what Europe does for us and when one tried to explain a number of issues their eyes would glaze over.

There is clearly no quick fix, nor should there be one, for an issue as important as this, but does Mr. Kelly believe there ought to be something proposed. Many people in this room would share his view on the Seanad having a greater role in regard to European legislative scrutiny. That would help but if it is the case that the people decide to abolish the Seanad, is there another solution to the enormous amount of scrutiny required of European legislation and to that disconnect because if the Seanad cannot fulfil that role, who will?

In addition to that disconnect we have the rise of any number of right wing parties across any number of countries in Europe including Finland, Switzerland, Austria, Greece and the Netherlands to name a few. Right wing parties-----