Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank all Senators who contributed to the debate. As stated at the outset, in this Bill we are continuing the practice of implementing, in full, the recommendations of an independent commission. I take into account people's concerns with regard to the geography and scale of the territory involved and their suggestions that we should examine the latter in the future. I have no difficulty doing that in the context of the review that will take place in 2016 of the elections that are due to be held in 2019.

A number of speakers indicated that the Government could have done more to ensure that Ireland would have in excess of 11 seats in the European Parliament. We previously had 12 seats. It must be noted that Croatia is going to obtain 11 seats. In that context, countries with populations that are similar in size to Ireland's ended up with approximately the same number of seats in proportion to their populations. Denmark, which has a population that is 500,000 greater than that of Ireland, has 13 seats. Croatia will have 11 and Slovenia is much the same as Ireland. However, Estonia, Latvia, Cyprus, Malta and a number of other countries will have considerably fewer seats than Ireland. It is extremely important that the 11 people who will be elected are linked to political groupings within the Parliament that have influence and clout. Fine Gael and the Labour Party are affiliated to the European People's Party and the Party of European Socialists, respectively. They are the two largest parties in the European Parliament, which is an important consideration. I do not subscribe to the view put forward by Senator Mullen that an independent Member of the European Parliament will in some way have a huge level of influence on decision making within the European Union. Independents will plough lone furrows and will not be working with groups such as the liberals, the European People's Party or the Party of European Socialists.