Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for bringing this legislation forward. It is extremely important that we elect 13 very good people to the European Parliament. The Minister of State has outlined the numbers. The European Parliament has a very large membership. People may not be aware that MEPs have only one minute of speaking time in the Parliament. The main work of the Parliament is in its committees. In the time I spent there, it was not unusual to attend up to 12 committee meetings in one day. If a Member did not attend a certain percentage of committees, he or she did not have speaking rights in the Parliament in the debate on that particular issue. One of the problems Members faced was dealing with the issues as they arose. Each and every item in the Parliament is important and MEPs must watch out for Irish interests. We enjoyed good support in the European Parliament from the permanent representatives based in Brussels. When I was a Member there were more than 90 permanent representatives from the Irish Civil Service. Within 24 hours of looking for clarification on an issue, I normally got a document of four or five pages clarifying each and every part of my concerns on an issue, outlining the Irish view and noting why our MEPs should be careful around it. It is extremely important. They are a group of people we do not acknowledge often enough.

It is important we elect people who are able to do the work, who will put in the research and who will give leadership in the Parliament. That is extremely important, especially within the committees. As I outlined yesterday, when I was there, I was on the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection. The committee work was intense. For instance, I was the leader of the EPP group dealing with the Cross-Border Healthcare Directive. More than 400 amendments to the document, which was drafted by the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, were moved. We had to watch each and every word and proposal in it. Despite what the media might say, this is not a gravy train. That seems to be the line that some people in the media take. I remember doing an interview with someone from Strasbourg in which the journalist complained about our expenses claims and pay. That same person was on ten times the salary of an MEP. On the topic of the media, Mr. Tony Connelly has done a superb job over many years in reporting on the Parliament and the work that is done in Brussels. He has provided very accurate and up-to-date reportage on each part of the Brexit proceedings.

It is important that we have a proper structure for elections. This Bill sets up that structure and gives voters an opportunity to vote for people who they feel are adequately equipped and experienced to represent this country. Given that we had only 11 MEPs and will now have 13, Ireland's big problem is the huge number of committees within the Parliament. I am not sure what the current number is. I believe it is well above 20. It is not always possible for Members from Ireland to be on each and every committee. During my service an MEP normally served on two committees. At times it was difficult to cover matters ongoing in the committees. Increasing our membership will therefore be of benefit in that we will now have two more people to attend committees, such as the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, the Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, the Committee on Foreign Affairs or the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection. It is important that MEPs sit on the committees that are relevant to Ireland. Our MEPs work hard, despite what some people may say. Our big problem in reporting back from the European Parliament is making the issues relevant to what is happening back home.I recall debating the cross-border healthcare directive in 2008-09, which was only finally signed-off by parliament in 2011. If one were to contact the media on the subject, the standard response was, "We have already covered that", and they would have covered it. It was, therefore, difficult to demonstrate subsequently that any further work had been done on it. This is a disadvantage in making what happens in the European Parliament relevant to people's lives here in Ireland. Numerous changes were initiated in the European Parliament. The current parliament is dealing with policy and decisions that affect 500 million people. Following the forthcoming changes it will be 440 million, which is still a large number of people for whom to develop policy.

I thank the Minister of State for bringing forward the Bill. I look forward to working with him on it, and for it to pass all Stages in the Oireachtas.