Managing Europe From Home: The Europeanisation of the Irish ...

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meetings and an inconsistency in the grading levels decided on by different Departments. (OECD, 1981, 15-18). The OECD report, which contained material from the deliberations of the Department of Public Service review in 1978, highlighted the fact that although the broad parameters of how Ireland managed EU business was institutionalised between 1973 and 1975, some of the structures and procedures established by the 1973 Circular did not really become operational. The Cabinet Sub-Committee met rarely and gradually fell into abeyance, as did the interdepartmental policy groups. An ad hoc, agenda driven approach to managing EU business took root, which allowed for considerable departmental autonomy and an informal manner of dealing with Brussels. Although formal interdepartmental structures were set up, they did not become institutionalised parts of the system. The third important period in the development of Ireland’s approach to EU matters was between 1987 and 1990 – marked by the signature of the Single European Act (SEA), the negotiation of the Delors I package and the 1990 Presidency. The referendum on the SEA, the work arising from the single market programme and the negotiations and implementation of the first national development plan placed new demands on the Irish Government and central administration. These events coincided with a new Government and a Taoiseach, Mr. Charles Haughey, who adopted a strong leadership role in Cabinet when he took over in February 1987. His administration made three important changes. First, the European Communities Committee which used be chaired by an Assistant Secretary from Foreign Affairs was transferred to the Department of the Taoiseach and the role of chair was given to a new political office holder, the Minister for State for European Affairs. Second, he set up a high level Committee of Ministers and Secretaries that met once a week in the period leading up to Ireland’s submission of the National Development Plan to the Commission in March 1989. The committee met frequently in the Prime Minister’s home and was attended mostly by departmental secretaries with the intermittent participation of ministers. A more restricted version of the Committee planned the 1990 Presidency. When the Presidency was over in July 1990, the interdepartmental co-ordination machinery fell into abeyance. A new Taoiseach, Mr. Albert Reynolds reactivated the European Communities Committee in February 1992 with a political chair. The third change initiated in the Haughey era was the establishment of seven
egions in 1988 in response to Commission demands for consultation and partnership in the planning and implementation of the National Development Plan. The impact of the changes under Haughey was to signal the growing involvement of the Taoiseach and his department in the overall management of EU business. The fourth period of significant review and evaluation of how EU business is handled occurred as a result of the deep shock to the Irish system following the ‘no’ to Nice in June 2001. Prior to this event, Ireland managed to portray itself as a constructive player in the Union with a relatively communautaire approach in general. Successive Governments could pursue their European policies in a benign domestic environment. The ‘no’ to Nice and the low turnout in the referendum (34 per cent) of the electorate highlighted the fact that the Government could no longer take its voters for granted. Ireland’s European policy was loose of its moorings, which in turn led to considerable soul searching at official and political level of how EU business was managed and how Europe was communicated at national level. The consequences of this review for how European issues are dealt with are outlined in the substantive sections of this report. Scrutiny of EU Legislation in Ireland As discussed in Section I, Ireland’s law-making procedure is closely based, in the letter and in the spirit, on that of Westminster. Because the idea of a strong committee system was not part of the Westminster system in 1922, it did not form part of the original procedures of Oireachtas Eireann either. Following membership of the EEC in 1973, the Oireachtas lost the ‘sole and exclusive power of making laws’ bestowed on it by Article 15.2.1 of the constitution (Coakley and Gallagher, 1999). Considerable parliamentary pressure for the establishment of a ‘watchdog’ committee on draft Community proposals grew as a consequence. This led to the creation of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Secondary Legislation of the European Communities in July 1973. The Joint Committee had twenty-five members (eighteen deputies and seven senators) and members operated through four sub-committees which, meeting in private, examined proposals and instruments in the first instance, studied memoranda received from Government departments and outside bodies and interviewed civil servants and representatives of interested organisations. In order
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The Permanent Representation The Pe
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SECTION III - PROCESSES AND PROCEDU
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departments have co-ordination unit
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Commission proposals on the introdu
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SECTION IV - THE AGENTS Participati
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margin and should use that margin w
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There are several well-entrenched n
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• Cultivating ever better relatio
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The above characteristics influence
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O’Donnell, Rory. Ed. 2000. Europe
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Appendix 1 Table 6: Attendance by M
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Bar Chart 2: Infringement Proceedin
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