Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Taoiseach to the House. A number of people have referred to EU legislation. I have spent a short number of years in the European Parliament. One of the things that struck me when I returned home was the lack of scrutiny that takes place in Ireland about what happens at European level. It was one of the matters that I raised at a Fine Gael parliamentary meeting about three or four months after entering the Seanad. I want time to be set aside for such scrutiny. I agree with Senator Naughton's suggestion to set aside two days a month and do not believe that it needs to be any longer.

The problem with EU legislative directives is that they are not media friendly and are technical in nature but they are very important. Let me give a simple example. Yesterday the European Parliament in Strasbourg held a major debate on an EU directive on medical devices. One might ask whether we had an input but we did not. Should we have had? Yes, we should because 26,000 people are employed in the industry in this country.

Let me give another example of the medical devices directive that came before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children a number of months ago. The committee was asked to rubber-stamp it but during the meeting, I asked whether we had consulted the industry. It turned out that no consultations had taken place yet we were prepared to rubber-stamp an EU directive. I clearly made my view known to the committee that unless we consulted the industry that we should not approve the directive and, as a result, we did not grant it approval. The industry was consulted and we discovered that it was unhappy with certain aspects of the directive. It is important that we keep track of what happens at European level, especially when 26,000 people are employed in the sector here. That means over 200,000 people are affected, directly and indirectly.

Cross-border health care is another area that I dealt with at European level. A directive on such health care went through in February 2011 and must be transposed into Irish law within the next few months. The directive is very important because it deals with the co-ordination of health care across European countries, especially when a country does not have the necessary expertise. We must make sure that Irish citizens can avail of medical expertise if it is not available here. It is an important directive from Ireland's point of view.

I wish to mention a simple fact. The European Parliament has 20 committees and there is no reason not to set up a structure to monitor their work. A simple way to monitor what happens at European level would be to assign six Senators to monitor two committees each so that would mean ten groups of six people. That would be a simple means of monitoring what is happening at European level.

I also have an issue with the fact that every November the European Commission publishes its programme for the next 12 months. Is the matter discussed in this House? No, it is not. Is it discussed in the other House? No, it is not. I refer to the programme that the Commission has in mind for the following 12 months. We should have a role to play. We could examine the programme, discuss it and focus on particular sections. Last year there were 129 items on the Commission's programme for 2013. Have we discussed any of the items? No, we have not but those issues, before the Commission, are extremely important.

I wish to touch on one other area that we have allowed to lapse in this country. The Law Reform Commission publishes a number of reports but they are left on the shelf. The Seanad could play a very useful role by publicly debating the published reports and ensuring they are followed up. I have published a draft Bill following a Law Reform Commission report on missing persons. Again, the work was parked because the relevant Department did not view the matter as a priority. The Law Reform Commission felt that it was a priority to such an extent that it produced a comprehensive report. The same applies for a number of areas where published reports are left on the shelf. It is time that we moved at a faster pace when dealing with proposals. We have the ability to deal with the available proposals and the Seanad could play a very useful role in the area.