During an address to the Seanad by Phil Prendergast, MEP, I said: Like everybody else I welcome Ms Prendergast back to the Seanad where she played a very active part over a number of years. It is great to see her facing us rather than with her back to me as it used to be...

I had the duty of being president of EuroCommerce for three years and vice president for another three years. EuroCommerce represents the 6 million shops in Europe, a sector which employs the very large number of people, 31 million. I found a constant battle between those who wanted more European control and those who believed in subsidiarity. Subsidiarity states we pass laws as close to the citizen as we can, but it is a continuous battle to avoid going the other way.

To give an example, the late payments directive comes into operation next month and states public bodies should pay within 30 days but no later than 60 days. I believe the Irish are the worst in Europe in this regard so this will mean 60 days. Will Ms Prendergast comment on this? Where does it come from? How do we manage to do something about it?

With regard to the cost of EU legislation on small and medium enterprises in particular, as somebody who has been in business I would love to see more research done on the cost of each piece of legislation before it is implemented. Will Ms Prendergast comment on whether she believes an audit to find the cost of European Union legislation for businesses, particularly small and medium enterprises, would be a good idea? I believe it is a big problem.

Recently Angela Merkel stated the EU Commission will eventually become a government, the Council of member states will become an upper chamber and the European Parliament will be more powerful, but fixing the eurozone problem is more urgent for now. She is clearly a federalist and this is what she wants to see. She states this is our objective and what we plan to do, but we will not do it just yet because we have other things to do at present. What are Ms Prendergast's view on this? How does she think the European Parliament would feel about it? Are we looking for more power to go to Europe? Are we looking for a united states of Europe in the years ahead? How does Ms Prendergast feel about this and how does she believe others feel about it?

On Monday the European Commission stated the horsemeat scandal is a labelling problem and does not represent a health issue. I do not agree. There seems to be a big problem with the way Europe labels products. In 2013, directives will be introduced in this regard which will decide on crucial rules on the labelling of food products. I would not like to see best before dates being encouraged. In my business we used to sell potatoes and the potato supplier stated if one wanted new potatoes to taste well one should eat them within three days of being picked. This meant a best before date of three days for these potatoes. Many people do not understand that best before has to do with taste and they throw away products. We have a huge food wastage problem and we can do something about it at a European level to give a direction elsewhere.

Last week the European Parliament voted on a draft law which stated patients should have faster access to cheaper generic drugs. We are all happy to do this, but I am not sure where we go in this area. Only 4% of European hospitals allow people direct access to their medical records. This could come from Europe; whatever about as a directive, an example could be set with regard to access for patients to their medical records online. This would be a very useful step.

If we discuss value for money and serving customers, we should also discuss what happens at EU level. There is austerity throughout Europe but Brussels is still dominated by thousands of highly paid mandarins. The German newspaper Die Welt stated this month that thousands of senior EU officials who earn a basic salary of more than €18,000 a month earn more than Angela Merkel, who earns approximately €16,000 a month. A group of net contributors to the EU, including Germany, the Netherlands and the UK, want deeper cuts in the pay of European Union officials to fit in with national austerity programmes. The President of the European Parliament stated last year he asked member states to disclose how much they pay their Brussels-based diplomats, to compare this with EU staff. He received a partial reply which he described as a series of disaggregated data. Staff at the Council and European Parliament recently went on strike in spite of their massive salaries and perks. Does Ms Prendergast agree with her fellow workers at the European Parliament going on strike, particularly given the massive amount of austerity at home? A number of EU officials have received several pay rises in recent years. At a time when practically every country in Europe is cutting back, the EU itself is expanding.

Kenneth Cork was a leading liquidator and wrote that he found businesses which got into trouble often had one thing in common, namely, they built a new head office, and it was a guarantee if a fountain was built in the foyer of that new head office. Will Ms Prendergast remind us whether the lovely new head office which the European Parliament has in Brussels has a fountain in the foyer? I cannot remember.

For a full record of the address and the debate, please click here.