Paul Bradford (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. We do not see him as often as we would wish but hopefully in years to come we will remedy that.

I welcome the Bill. We have dealt with Croatian accession on previous occasions in a more substantive way, with a welcome from all Members for that development. The bringing together of Europe continues apace. It was 20 years ago last week when I attended the famous Eurovision Song Contest in Millstreet in County Cork. Dublin was very excited at the time at the concept of such an event being held in a rural town without a hotel but it was an extraordinary success. That night was the first occasion when the new countries that had emerged from behind the Iron Curtain appeared on the international stage. There was huge excitement and emotion at the arrival of Croatia and Bosnia and other countries that had previously been suppressed. We have travelled significantly since then and bringing those countries into the European Union and its development is something we must all welcome.

The legislation relates to labour law and employment rights. Of course at a time when there is such significant unemployment in the country, people's reaction is that we must ensure there are jobs for Irish people and we must protect those jobs. We must also have vision. The tradition of Irish people working abroad was beneficial not just for those working abroad but to their families at home and we must be as generous as we can when allowing EU citizens to work in this country and therefore I support the Bill.

Senator Leyden spoke about the forthcoming elections to the European Parliament. Decisions have not yet been finalised but it looks like Ireland will lose a seat. The Senator made a valid point about Irish representation in the European Parliament, which is now down to 11 seats out of a Parliament of 751. I attended the Garrett FitzGerald memorial lecture given by Brendan Halligan, who served with distinction in the Oireachtas and who is now very much a scholar of European politics. He made a pertinent point about the importance of Irish representation in the European Parliament, stressing the fact that when we now have only 12 Members out of 751 Members so the quality of those representatives and their work is of huge significance to the country. He posed the question of what sort of electoral system should be in place to elect the 12 Members to represent Ireland on a stage that has 751 Members. He reminded us that when we acceded to the EEC in 1973, the Government suggested that unlike our electoral formula for Dáil elections, there should be a different electoral formula for the European Parliament. The proposal, however, was dropped and we ended up with a multi-seat PR system. As the Government will put in place the commission to redraw the European constituencies, there is no constitutional provision underpinning of the electoral system to the European Parliament and we should consider this.

We need to put forward a premier league team, rather than people who will be lost in the big debates taking place in Europe. I ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Phil Hogan, and others to consider this in view of the importance of having people of significant and weighty political ability on the European stage. For this reason, we must reflect on the electoral system and constituencies for electing Members of the European Parliament. As early as 40 years ago, Governments were wondering what was the best system for electing people to the European Parliament. Now, 40 years later, we should reflect again on the issue.

I apologise for wandering from the substance of the Bill. I support this legislation, which is about being generous. Our country has benefited from the generosity of other countries. Unfortunately, men and women from this country had to emigrate to find work found but they benefited from the generosity of other countries on many occasions. We, too, must be generous.

We will have many more debates with the Minister on the Government's agenda for job creation, which must be the primary purpose of government. It is great that the European project continues apace and a Continent once divided by an iron curtain and threatened by nuclear holocaust is now peaceful and prosperous. I hope this will continue to be the case in future.