Little attention had been paid to the public examination and explanation of policy proposals emanating from the EU except in areas that were immediately and obviously politically "sexy", Mr Alan Dukes told a meeting of the National Forum on Europe in Cork City Hall last night.
The vice-president of European Movement Ireland said the primary responsibility for communicating the substance and rationale of EU decision-making lay with the governments of member-states.
He claimed there were significant differences between the heads of various countries in this regard.
"Some like the Danish government have ensured that there is close parliamentary scrutiny of EU policy-making activities.
"This scrutiny attracts considerable media and public attention.
"In the UK, too, there is a well-developed sense of parliamentary oversight."
Mr Dukes said recent proposals by the Government, accepted by the Houses of the Oireachtas, would substantially improve the situation here.
Ireland, he claimed, needs a system in which proposals for European legislation are examined by the Oireachtas with input from the relevant government departments before the process of negotiation begins in Brussels and in the European Parliament.
With this system in place the political parties, media and the public would be afforded the opportunity of forming a view of the potential consequences of EU legislative proposals before they become faits accomplis.
Mr Dukes said Irish people needed to realise that EU decisions were not made by faceless bureaucrats sitting behind desks in ivory towers in Brussels.
They were made by prime ministers and ministers of the member-states working together in the Council of Ministers and by the directly elected members of the European Parliament.
"We are all much more involved in Europe than we admit," he said.
"Making Europe more accessible and more responsive to the citizen is a process that begins at local level."