Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It was fine to coast along on the coat tails of the United Kingdom and hope that they would examine these things and weed out the excessive or repugnant aspects of European legislative initiatives. They are no longer there. I repeat the following point, which I have said this before in this House, and I will keep saying it. We talk about being politically exposed, but Ireland is now politically exposed in Europe. We do not have the manpower, the studies and the input into what is happening in Europe. We have lived a charmed life on the coat tails of the United Kingdom. Our whole Government mechanism is now going to have to be tooled up so that it can perform its correct function. We, in our recently revamped Houses of the Oireachtas, have got to take our role seriously, under the Lisbon treaty, in terms of European legislation. Before we get worried about buttons and all the rest of it, and I am sorry Senator Norris thinks he is paid buttons-----