Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Black for that provocative and interesting contribution. I now move to questions and ask our MEPs if they might agree to hold back on the global themes until their concluding remarks. Perhaps they might answer the interlinking specific questions now. They will have two minutes to do that. Before inviting questions, I thank our colleagues for their contributions. Our MEPs can see how seriously colleagues take the linkages between this Chamber and the European Parliament by their presence today. This is taking place with many competing committee events and other matters. I thank colleagues for how seriously they are taking this initiative. In that respect they are voting with their feet and indicating in a very serious way to anybody with any degree of willingness to observe and listen that Seanad reform is a top priority here. This is a demonstration of that Seanad reform, which includes new initiatives of this sort in making a link with Europe. That is Seanad reform. It is not some abstract nonsense.

In turning to the questions we will adopt a European model and some of the people here who attend other European bodies will be familiar with it. The European model is that questions are allowed for one minute and the answers may take two minutes. The MEPs are used to that system. We have enough time to invite both MEPs to answer initially but if we see problems with time we can bunch or rotate those questions. We will ensure everybody can get in a question. Members can observe the clock and see how they are going. Senator Blaney of Fianna Fáil - or the ALDE group in a European context - will go first.