Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I offer a warm welcome to Ms Nessa Childers on behalf of the Fianna Fáil side of the House. I admire her recent stand in respect of the policies of this country. She deserves great support. She is a chip off the old block. I had the honour of supporting her father's campaign for election as President of Ireland and I had the honour of launching a stamp down on the docks with her mother when I was a Minister of State. It was in honour of the Asgard and the great work that her grandfather and grandmother did for the country.

Ms Childers comes from a great tradition and is continuing on that vein in the European Parliament. I know from being in Brussels over the years that since her election to the European Parliament in 2009 - she is in her fourth year - she has worked with the advantage of having such a distinctive name and reputation. These are a help in meeting other parliamentarians from throughout the world who would know of her background. She has shown her independent spirit on particular issues and I am most impressed by what she has outlined today.

One specific area in this regard is the question of the tobacco industry. The lobbying that is going on is sinister. She remarked that two senior Ministers have been lobbied and their officials have met representatives of Philip Morris, John Player and Japan Tobacco. I am interested in the background to the booklet, The illicit tobacco trade review 2012, issued by a certain organisation. I am unsure whether those involved are lobbyists; they do not state who they are. The organisation appears to be called JTI. It has a regulatory affairs adviser and it is a limited liability company registered in Dublin, Ireland with offices at Arthur Cox buildings, Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2. The director is John Freda. I am unsure whether they are lobbyists or a front for the tobacco industry. In recent weeks the Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, who has expressed his opposition to smoking, has stated that he wishes to bring about a situation whereby there would be at least a €1 charge on each cigarette. This matter was highlighted by Senators Mary White and David Norris and others. From my recollection the relevant Bill was to allow for under-cost selling of tobacco and cigarettes. It is supposed to be acting on a directive of the European Union. We have practically no scrutiny of the situation here.

I was a member of the Joint Committee on European Scrutiny. We laid out various recommendations in a report. The committee recommended as an initial measure that the Dáil and Seanad should each allocate at least one sitting day per month to EU matters. Among the matters to be considered in plenary session were the reports of the Joint Committee on European Scrutiny on important draft EU laws, the ongoing work of the Joint Committee on European Affairs and the implementation of the Lisbon treaty, which is now in place. The Lisbon treaty clearly indicated the powers of both Parliaments. I do not believe there has been any referral under the yellow card system from either House, the Dáil or the Seanad, to Europe on legislation or directives. I have examined the matter. The Minister of State with responsibility for European affairs, Deputy Lucinda Creighton, was a member of that committee and was in favour of this House scrutinising these matters, as was the Leader of the House, Deputy Maurice Cummins. They put a good deal of work into this.

Ms Childers has certain responsibilities as an MEP to scrutinise those directives. I wish her well for re-election. There was a directive in respect of fishing in eel fisheries which has been banned for 99 years.

It is most unsatisfactory that we voted for and supported the admission of Croatia to the European Union only to find that as a result we are possibly going down from 12 to 11 seats in the next European Parliament. Not knowing the constituencies at this stage, a little over one year from the next election, is grossly unfair to Ms Childers as a member of the European Parliament. The more countries that are admitted to the European Union, the greater the problem. We will end up with six seats for Ireland if we do not start to increase the number of seats in the Parliament. That is the inevitable solution. No country should lose as a result of bringing in another country. If that is the case, if Turkey comes in to the European Union Ireland might as well forget about having membership at all. We would be reduced to six members, the same as Malta. We need numbers in the European Parliament and I realise Ms Childers works with her colleagues in this regard. It is a vast complex and she needs all the back-up she can get. I wish her well as a candidate in the next election and if she runs as an Independent socialist I am confident she will be re-elected. I believe she has made the right move at this point.