Mr. Jim Higgins:

The Minister came back to me and said he does not want to impose it as a strict obligation on schools, and he basically wants to leave it to the discretion of school management. I believe, given the growing obesity problem that has been highlighted through "Operation Transformation" and the statistics on the medical costs to the HSE and the wider social costs, that this should be done immediately. Unfortunately, it is a problem we are not coming to grips with.

The Senator mentioned the role of the citizens. As a result of the Lisbon treaty, a petition can be made to the Parliament, although this requires 1 million signatures. However, many people are not aware that the Parliament has a procedure known as "written declarations". If somebody comes forward with a particular policy proposal and can get that policy proposal signed by 50% of MEPs, it then becomes an obligation on the European Commission to produce a report based on it, which forces the Commission to take action.

To give one example, a number of years ago, I happened to spot in a newspaper during the summer recess that the European Commission was taking the Kingdom of Denmark to the European Court of Justice because Denmark was introducing a maximum threshold of 3% for hydrogenated fats, or trans-fats, which are found in, for example, spreadable margarines, and are a major cause of coronary disease. Here we had the European Commission, which hands out diktats in regard to how citizens and countries should behave, taking Denmark to the European Court of Justice. After I spotted it, Ms Linda McAvan, the UK MEP, Mr. Dan Jørgensen, the Danish MEP, and I got a written declaration signed by more than 50% of the European Parliament, which forced the Commission to withdraw its proceedings. Not alone that, it is now introducing as a mandatory minimum the measure for which it was going to take the Kingdom of Denmark to the European Court of Justice. This shows the value of the procedure.

To give one example, a number of years ago, I happened to spot in a newspaper during the summer recess that the European Commission was taking the Kingdom of Denmark to the European Court of Justice because the Kingdom of Denmark was introducing a maximum threshold of 3% for hydrogenated fats, or trans-fats, which are found in, for example, spreadable margarines, and are a major cause of coronary disease. Here we had the European Commission, which hands out diktats in regard to how citizens and countries should behave, taking Denmark to the European Court of Justice. After I spotted it, Ms Linda McAvan, the UK MEP, Mr. Dan Jørgensen, the Danish MEP, and myself got a written declaration signed by more than 50% of the European Parliament, which forced the Commission to withdraw its proceedings. Not alone that, it is now introducing as a mandatory minimum the measure it was going to take the Kingdom of Denmark to the European Court of Justice for. This shows the value of the procedure.

Another very useful committee from the point of view of citizens engaging is the petitions committee. Where an individual or a community feel they have a grievance against a state agency, such as a local authority, a Government department or a semi-state body, they can bring a petition before the petitions committee and have it heard and adjudicated upon. Three families, the Farren family from Carndonagh, County Donegal, the Gallagher family from Achill, County Mayo, and the Keane family from Ballylongford, County Kerry, came to me some time ago. The situation in regard to the Farren family is that they lost their beautiful daughter, Sinead Farren-McDaid. She was travelling on a road she travelled every day. Donegal County Council had resurfaced the road, left loose chippings on the road and provided only a small sign, which I understand had fallen on the grass. Having travelled that road every day, Sinead thought she could drive at normal speed. She came over a bump in the road, hit the loose chippings, which had not been swept, and it was the equivalent of driving on black ice. She died in the ambulance on the way to Altnagelvin Hospital.

In the case of Ashling Gallagher, Mayo County Council put down a sub-surface known as dense bitumen macadam, which had not been finished. The signs were left up stating one could drive at 100 km/h and the markings were on the road as if it was a 100 km/h safe driving zone. It was a wet day. Ashling went in under a dump truck and her body was laid out on Christmas day at her home. In the case of the Keane family of Ballylongford, Eileen Keane and her boyfriend, Trevor Tuite, went through a junction where there was no yield sign or any other sign.

The families could get absolutely no joy from the local authorities in question. They were not looking for compensation. All they wanted was an acknowledgement that the local authorities were responsible for the deaths of their three beautiful daughters. They came out to Europe at my invitation.

Tina Leonard came to do a documentary for RTE. She had tracked the family from their home in Donegal to their hotel and to the European Parliament and as a result the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport is conducting a major inquiry into the deaths of the three girls, which I think will hear experts from the Netherlands.

The week before last the West on Track people, of whom Senator Leyden is well aware, came to air their grievance that money has not been provided to enable the final phase of the railway line from Athenry to Tuam and Claremorris to go ahead and they got an excellent hearing. As a result the Petitions Committee is coming to the west to see the underspend on infrastructure, even though this has increased and improved greatly as a result of our accession to the European Union.

I do not think that power is moving to the centre. There is a perception that France and Germany are the engines but we have always used the slogan that we are at the heart of Europe and it is generally recognised that even though this is an island off an island, we are very much at the heart of Europe. As regards the MFF, which Senator Reilly also raised, the way to go is to have a multi-annual financial framework rather than coming back every year. If it gets through the Parliament, it will be worth €960 billion, which will cover 2014 to 2020. The hold up is that it is looking for an additional €11 billion for the rest of this year. That is the fly in the ointment.

The Senator mentioned youth unemployment. That is a major issue when one considers that in Italy and Spain 56% of the youth are unemployed. The safety valve here is emigration which is not a desirable one, but it has certainly reduced the pressure. We must give the youth guarantee fund initiative, which has been announced, a chance and see how it operates. As for the comment about the role of national parliaments, when I told my colleagues in the bureau that I and other MEPs would be addressing the Seanad and exchanging views with it, they were envious. This is a model that can be adopted in other countries. We need greater liaison between the domestic parliaments and the European Parliament.

There are only four of us, Mairéad McGuinness, Seán Kelly, Gay Mitchell and me, and although we are small fish in a big pond, we have managed to get a considerable amount of leeway on reports and so on. For example, this week I finished a report on changing from analogue to digital tacographs which are tamper proof. I am now in the throes of preparing a report on barrier-free tolling throughout the European Union which we are hoping will be the norm by 2020. I like to think that we punch above our weight within our respective groups, not only my group but the Fianna Fáil and Labour MEPs within their group.

With regard to the debt deals and getting further concessions from the EU, an awful lot depends on the German elections. If they were out of the way we would be talking business and wringing more concessions from the EU. Dr. Merkel has a problem and the Bavarian and other local elections have not gone particularly well for her.

Senator Lorraine Higgins is right to say that Senator Cummins deserves to be commended on his initiative in inviting us here. As regards trade, if we compare our pre-1973 figures with today's figures we can see that the great advantage in our participation in the EU is that, first, it has freed us from the shackles of being almost entirely dependent on the UK market, and, second, it has given Ireland the role of a gateway for US investment which is beginning to flow in our direction again. We like to boast of our labour relations climate because we do not strike any more, and thankfully what is happening at the Labour Relations Commission and Croke Park II will ensure that we have stable labour relations for the foreseeable future. We are English speaking, highly educated and so on, and the Americans see us as the gateway to that huge market of almost 500 million people.

I take the point about the fodder. I am confident that as the history of this decade is written it will be seen as only a bump on the horizon and that Europe will get back to being a prosperous union based on principles of economic stability and solidarity.

Senator Cáit Keane spoke about the future of Europe. I am optimistic that General De Gaulle's dream of a united Europe, stretching from the Atlantic to the Urals, is happening, if slowly. I sit between Latvians and Lithuanians every day and they are very proud to be part and parcel of the Union. I have already given the example from Poland.

I was delighted that Senator Susan O'Keeffe was nominated to the Seanad. She spoke about the count in Castlebar, where there was an allegation regarding votes which backfired on the individual in question, and during the European election campaign Senator O'Keeffe played no small part in burying Libertas and consigning it to the dustbin, hopefully once and for all. Her nomination here was well deserved and I follow her career. She made a point about small farmers. I regularly meet the farming organisations and there are huge divisions between the IFA, the ICSA and the ICMSA around decoupling. The big issue is whether there will be redistribution of the single farm payment. I believe it is very wrong that some farmers get €50 per hectare whereas others get €1,200 per hectare. We need to re-balance that payment. The IFA is detached from the other two organisations in its stance on the issue. It is all to be played for. One of the big issues was that the Commissioner, Mr. Cioloş, wanted to propose a flattening of payments, in other words, one payment per hectare. The IFA says this would be a disincentive and is hung up on the active, productive farmer and so on. The Commissioner then proposed a guaranteed minimum payment of €196 per hectare but some of the farming organisations are against that. The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Coveney, has a battle on his hands on that issue.

Much of the easy stuff was disposed of at the trialogues but we are now into the heavy lifting. I hope that this will happen and deliver a final package to us that will give small farmers more assistance than they now get. I am reasonably confident that it will happen during the Irish Presidency because after this Lithuania holds the Presidency for the first time. No disrespect to Lithuania, but I do not know that it will have the skill and know-how to deal with the intractable issues if they are not dealt with before 30 June.

Senator Bacik made a point about the structures. They are very much the same as those in the Oireachtas. The Commission makes a proposal which goes to the Council and to the Parliament. It does not go straight into a full sitting of the Parliament but to the committees. That is where the work is done to improve something from the Commission. It then goes to trialogues where the Commission, Parliament and the Council sit down together and thrash it out. Then it goes for a second reading into the full sitting of the Parliament.

There is a great deal of scrutiny. It is a little like the work that is done by a joint or select committee in that what happens at committee level is seldom if ever reported. Unfortunately, it is only what is done in the plenary sessions that tends to be covered, but they do not receive all that much coverage either. The two newspapers which have permanent representatives in Brussels are The Irish Timesand the Irish Examiner, which would not have the same level of circulation. Unfortunately, the Irish Independent does not have a permanent presence in Brussels despite its large circulation at domestic level.

I hope I have dealt with most of the points raised. I thank the Members for their courtesy, kind words, attention and input.