Vol. 87 No. 7
I move:
That Deputies Seán Brosnan, Michael Herbert, Liam Kavanagh, Gerry L'Estrange, Tom Nolan, Paddy Power and Richie Ryan and Senators Ruairí Brugha, Charles McDonald and Michael Yeats be and are hereby designated delegates to the Assembly of the European Communities.
I think the Minister indicated that this would be an opportunity to ascertain whether or not we have a valid delegation to the European Parliament.
It has already been agreed on the Order of Business, that Items Nos. 3 and 4 would be taken together. That concludes the debate at this stage.
If you recall, I raised the question as to whether or not there is a valid Irish delegation to the European Parliament at the moment. The Minister indicated that he would prefer to discuss it on this matter.
Just on a point of order, the reality is that the mandate for all but two of the delegation ran out on Friday last so that it is very important to get this motion through. I do not want to make any point on that beyond saying that if this motion were not in the Seanad perhaps we could have gone ahead in advance to ensure that they would have been re-nominated. However, the fact that this motion was here would seem to be in contempt of this House if we had gone ahead and nominated in advance of that.
Is it not the case that the delegates have to be approved by both Houses under our procedure and the names have to come before both Houses? They could have come before us six weeks ago. Is that not the case?
The matter came before the Dáil in the same format as it has come before us here. There was an issue on this as well. It was a question of finding time to discuss that issue in the Dáil. I would like to say that it is obviously very urgent and important to have this matter cleared now. I understand that arrangements have been made to telex the names of the delegates directly to the European Assembly.
I do not want to dwell on this point but I think it is the Government's responsibility to ensure that there is an Irish delegation to the European Parliament. In my view it is also the Government's responsibility to ensure that there is an Irish Joint Committee on the Secondary Legislation of the European Communities. On both those counts there has been a very unnecessary delay on the part of the Government.
There is a motion on that too and I can give further clarification as to the reasons for the delay in that case. There is a motion in both Houses in that regard.
