Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to mention a matter today of considerable importance. The European Commission has imposed a lump sum fine of €2.5 million and a daily fine of €10,000 on Ireland for failure to transpose the Audiovisual Media Services directive. This House established a committee, after grave difficulty and resistance from some quarters in the permanent government of Ireland, the function of which was to oversee the implementation of directives. We have had a number of meetings of that committee and we have been almost constantly faced with a foot-dragging approach to giving us the details of those directives which are or are not properly transposed.

In this particular case, the primary legislation to transpose the directive was enacted by the Oireachtas and the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, who is the responsible Minister, pushed that through. The Commission has now found that failure to follow that up with guidelines and implementation procedures has amounted, in effect, to a failure by the Irish State to implement a European directive. The consequence of that is as follows. We have to pay €2.5 million to the EU and to pay a daily fine of €10,000. That is being forfeited by the Irish State because of the failure of that Department to implement the follow-up procedures which are required. In this context, the committee believed what it was being told about all of the difficulties which arose with regard to non-implementation but at no time were we alerted to this difficulty or impending fine which has now been imposed on Ireland.

Two consequences flow from that. One is that we should include in the terms of reference of the committee follow-on arrangements, which are necessary to ensure implementation of a directive. Second, we should do that by changing the Standing Orders of the committee to make it clear that we cannot have a situation where these types of situations are concealed from us.

I am proposing that tomorrow's meeting of the Committee on Parliamentary Privileges and Oversight, CPPO, should consider as a matter of urgency changing the Standing Orders of our committee and that this House, at the earliest available opportunity - I would even suggest Thursday - makes this Chamber available for a meeting of the committee so that the relevant officials who are responsible for this non-transposition are brought in, asked to deal with the matter and to explain what has happened.

I am asking for those things to be done. I know the CPPO agenda is not set by this House but by the committee itself. However, the urgency of this matter is demonstrated by the fact that by Thursday morning, €20,000 more will have been lost due to non-action by the Irish State. I am asking the Leader to ensure that when this House sets up a committee, we are not playing blind man's buff and being deceived by the Executive as to what is really happening behind the scenes with the failure of the Irish Government to implement directives, with the financial consequences for the Irish taxpayer.