Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 35: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs his views on the report on the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty provisions on the enhanced role for national parliaments of the joint committees on European affairs and European scrutiny; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46840/09]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome this report which contains a series of recommendations designed to enable the Houses to exercise their new powers under the Lisbon Treaty. I was happy to support the motion approved last week by this House which gives effect to a number of these recommendations. I am glad that arrangements are now in place which correspond to the powers laid out in S. 7 of the European Union Act 2009, the Act that brings the Lisbon Treaty into our domestic law. These cover Oireachtas interventions on grounds of breach of subsidiarity and in some limited areas of Treaty revision.

I fully appreciate that these are interim arrangements which will apply until the summer recess. During the intervening period, I understand the two Joint Committees intend to conduct a comprehensive consultation on the future role of the Houses of the Oireachtas in EU affairs and the permanent structures which should be put in place to enable the Oireachtas to engage more effectively on EU affairs. I note that the Committees intend to consult widely with key stakeholders, including the Government, as part of that review process. I welcome this initiative and I would be happy to participate in these consultations in due course.

I do not wish in any way to pre-empt the Committees' review process but, as members of this House will be aware, prior to each Council meeting I attend before the Joint Committee on European Affairs where we have had a number of useful conversations on the role of the Oireachtas generally in EU affairs. At a recent such meeting, I told the Committee that Ireland needs to develop a more strategic engagement with the EU in the months and years ahead. That will involve an intensification of engagement with our EU partners on a range of issues such as climate change, energy security and the global economy. The Oireachtas has an important part to play here and I hope the forthcoming review by the Joint Committees will lead to structures and arrangements which facilitate that role. It is not for me to prescribe any particular approach as to how the Oireachtas should engage with the EU from here onwards: that is a matter for the Oireachtas to judge. However, the particular arrangements proposed in this Report by the Joint Committees for dealing with the subsidiarity issue appear sensible to me and I support them.

As the Oireachtas undertakes its new role in EU matters in the coming months, my Department, in its coordinating role on EU matters, is ready to offer full cooperation and assistance to the Oireachtas and its European committees. The Department has already been in contact with all other Departments to ensure that every assistance is given to the Oireachtas in meeting the tight timelines for its new subsidiarity powers, as set out at Recommendation no. 5 of the Report. I am convinced that the effective exercise by the Oireachtas of its new role under the Lisbon Treaty will be an important contribution to the good functioning of the Union and to spreading a wider and more informed awareness in Ireland of EU developments and their relevance to us.