Politicians 'must up their game on EU'

OIREACHTAS SUB-COMMITTEE ON EUROPEAN AFFAIRS:LEINSTER HOUSE needed to "up its game" very substantially to implement the powers conferred on it by the Lisbon treaty, former minister for justice Michael McDowell SC has said.

A new oversight role with regard to EU legislation was envisaged for the Dáil and Seanad under the treaty and this would require “a dramatically upgraded commitment in time and effort”.

TDs and Senators already had “many calls” on their time and the news media would give little coverage to members scrutinising EU legislation, he told a  sub-committee on the Review of the Role of the Oireachtas in European Affairs, chaired by Fine Gael TD Lucinda Creighton.

Mr McDowell said it was not enough to be reacting to EU proposals when they were put in front of you.

Recalling the period after the 9/11 terror attacks when the European arrest warrant was brought in, he said: “I was attorney general and had never heard of it.”

He soon discovered that the commission had been engaged in extensive consultation although nobody in Ireland was consulted before it was produced at a Council of Ministers’ meeting.

It was not sufficient to rely on the government of the day or the Department of Foreign Affairs. “A good committee system would have its own eyes and ears open,” Mr McDowell said.

Specialist in EU legislation Anthony M Collins SC said new powers were being given to national parliaments to review and challenge European laws, under the principle of subsidiarity.

Labour Senator Alex White said there was a difficulty in identifying what was “important and vital” in the long list of EU measures regularly coming before the Oireachtas. “I don’t think that we can blame the media if the politicians have not identified a way of presenting material that is interesting,” Mr White said.

Michael Kitt (Fianna Fáil) complained about the lateness of the hour at which RTÉ was broadcasting reports from the European Parliament which he said was “a crazy time to be showing debates”.