JOINT COMMITTEE ON EUROPEAN UNION AFFAIRS debate -
Thursday, 7 Jul 2011

Role of European Institutions in European Affairs: Discussion

Chairman

I welcome Mr. Francis Jacobs, head of the European Parliament information office in Ireland, and Ms Barbara Nolan, head of the European Commission Representation in Ireland. The committee is very interested to hear how the European organisations operate.

Members are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice that Members should not comment on, criticise or make charges against a person outside the House or an official either by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable.

By virtue of section 17(2)(l) of the Defamation Act 2009, witnesses are protected by absolute privilege in respect of the evidence they are to give this committee. If a witness is directed by the committee to cease giving evidence in relation to a particular matter and the witness continues to so do, the witness is entitled thereafter only to a qualified privilege in respect of his or her evidence. Witnesses are directed that only evidence connected with the subject matter of these proceedings is to be given and witnesses are asked to respect the parliamentary practice to the effect that, where possible, they should not criticise nor make charges against any person or persons or entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable.

Ms Barbara Nolan

I thank the Chairman, Deputy Costello, and the members of the committee for the invitation to speak about the role of the European Commission Representation in Ireland and the ways in which the committee and the Commission can work more closely together to enhance knowledge of European affairs issues and to improve co-operation on legislative matters, something very close to the heart of this committee.

I took up my post as head of the European Commission Representation in Dublin last October. I have had close working relations with the Houses of the Oireachtas since then. I am looking forward to continuing this co-operation with this new committee.

The committee members will be familiar with the work of the European Commission and its core tasks. The Commission consists of a college of 27 Commissioners, one for each EU member state. This is thanks to Ireland's insistence during the Lisbon referenda. The Commissioners are nominated by their national governments for a period of five years. The Irish Commissioner is Máire Geoghegan-Quinn.

The European Commission has four functions but the main function is to represent and uphold the interests of the EU as a whole, to strike a balance between member states, small and large, between different interests and to develop compromises and fair outcomes which strike a balance between the different interests in the European Union.

The key function is to propose legislation to the European Parliament and the Council. The Commission a hybrid institution which is the EU's executive branch and has the sole right of legislative initiative. This is very important and of particular interest to the committee. The Commission also manages the day-to-day business of the EU, such as implementing its policies, running its programmes and spending the funds.The Commission also enforces European law jointly with the European Court of Justice. The Commission is, in effect, the guardian of the treaties and it endeavours to ensure that member states correctly implement the laws to which they have agreed. We represent the European Union on the international stage and negotiate with non-EU countries in areas in which the European has competence. On the important relationship between the Oireachtas and the European Commission, the aim is to ensure Ireland's national concerns are adequately reflected in European legislative proposals. For this to happen there needs to be intervention at a very early stage.

We are the official representative of the European Commission in Ireland and part of its network of offices throughout the 27 member states. We act as an interface between the Commission and the political world and civil society in Ireland. We are the Commission's voice in Ireland. We communicate on EU affairs at national, regional and local level and provide information for the general public, the media and all interested parties. I underline that the Oireachtas - this committee in particular - plays a very important role in this communication work.

We run a free European public information centre in our office on the corner of Molesworth Street and Dawson Street which many members have probably visited from time to time. We offer services to NGOs, in particular, as a free facility where they can hold meetings and do their business. We are not very demanding as to whether they have to have a European link, although we seek to encourage this. It is a much used facility and very valuable to NGOs.

We also support a countrywide network of EU information offices in libraries, business information centres and universities. I underline that we try to reach out at a local level. One example is the county reports, a copy of which was sent to all Deputies, new and old, following the general election in February. The reports provide useful background information on the projects the European Union is funding in particular areas.

We have embassies. We listen and provide our headquarters in Brussels with timely and accurate information on developments in Ireland. We also try to ensure Irish voices, including those on this committee, are heard in Brussels. We try to provide feedback on what is happening in Ireland.

There is a huge volume of press releases issued from Brussels each day. Our press office tries to select the ones of interest to the Irish public and puts them in user-friendly language for issue to Irish news desks and other interested parties. They are all put on our website. We have daily contact with local radio stations, etc. We are on Facebook, Twitter and carried in all the new media. We would be happy to put all members of the committee on our list if they want to receive press releases on matters of relevance to Ireland.

Mr. Francis Jacobs, head of the European Parliament, is present. We also co-operate with the European Parliament and the Irish Government. We have an annual joint communication plan with the Parliament and the Irish Government in which we set out our priorities each year on communication and better understanding the European Union. It leads to good co-operation and messages on the issues we are prioritising.

One of our priorities is education which Senator Fidelma Healy Eames mentioned. It was an area in which we were shown to be lacking during the Lisbon treaty referenda. We finance a number of educational initiatives and would like to see better integration of EU issues, including the history of the European Union, within the Irish educational curriculum, which is, unfortunately, not currently the case.

On co-operation with the Joint Committee on European Union Affairs, the Chairman is well aware that there has been a strong history of good co-operation between the Oireachtas and its committees and the representation, on which we look forward to building, particularly with the committee. We greatly appreciated the efforts of the Government in respect of the special event held on 9 May. It is important that we try to do this together. It is not something for the European Union to do, rather the task should be shared with member states. It was seen as a very clear signal of the willingness of the Dáil to engage constructively with the Union. It was one of the recommendations contained in the report of the Minister of State, Deputy Lucinda Creighton and I am happy to see it is being implemented.

Legislation is a key priority for the committee. In recent years the European Commission has taken a number of steps to enhance the position of national parliaments in EU decision-making and proposing legislation and policy. In 2006, before the Lisbon treaty, we introduced new channels of open dialogue with national parliaments, notably through the introduction of an informal communication mechanism known as political dialogue. Under this mechanism, the Commission tries to ensure national parliaments have the power to intervene at a very early stage in EU legislation and policy development. We invite national parliaments to comment before a proposal is submitted to the Council or the European Parliament to try to have a strong and healthy conversation with legislators in Ireland and all other member states. How does this work in practice? We send White and Green Papers directly to national parliaments for comment. This privileged channel of communication is not to make them or us feel good. We reply to each and every opinion we receive from national parliaments and take their comments very seriously. I hope and trust the committee will exploit this mechanism to the full.

Innovations were brought forward by way of the Lisbon treaty. In concrete terms, we have a new formal mechanism to ensure the views of national parliaments are heeded in the European legislative process. This mechanism is called the subsidiarity check mechanism and strengthens the role of national parliaments by allowing them to ensure decisions are being taken at the appropriate level. As the committee knows about the principle of subsidiarity, it does not need me to tell it about it. Ireland used the mechanism recently in the discussions on the common consolidated corporate tax base. Several countries have used it and the threshold was almost reached to give the European Commission a yellow card. We would like to see the mechanism work in practice. It was an indication of the potential for the Government to have a direct impact on EU legislation and its opinion would be responded to. The fact that the yellow card was not triggered does not mean the comments made have not been taken on board and that the Government will not receive a reply from the Commission.

On the nuts and bolts of representation and how we see the future in terms of co-operation, we can co-operate with the committee in a range of areas to communicate Europe better and promote outreach to citizens. For example, whenever a Commissioner comes to Ireland -there are two to three visits a month - timetable permitting, we always strive to ensure he or she meets the members of the relevant Oireachtas committee to have an exchange of ideas and face-to-face interaction with Senators and Deputies. We should continue this co-operation.

We regularly host visits from primary and secondary schools. A typical school visit lasts over an hour and involves a presentation on the role of the representation, the main EU institutions, the decision-making process, the history of the European Union and the changes that have taken place in Ireland as a result of its EU membership. We even have a quiz at the end. A visit to Leinster House could be combined with a visit to the representation where possible. We also co-ordinate back to school exercises, whereby EU officials return to their own secondary schools to speak to students about the European Union and try to give their personal experiences about working in the European Commission or the European Parliament. This year's back to school exercise will take place in October.

We have just agreed with the Houses of the Oireachtas that information leaflets on the European Union will be placed at strategic locations around Leinster House for visitors. This is another recommendation made in the Minister of State, Deputy Lucinda Creighton's report that has been taken up. I thank the Captain of the Guard, Mr. Flaherty, for his co-operation in this matter.

The MFF, multi-annual financial framework, was mentioned by several speakers, including the Minister of State. This is one issue I would like to highlight on which the European Commission and Ireland share a common interest. Last week the Commission made its proposals in respect of the EU budget for the period 2014 to 2020. The proposals translate the European Union's political priorities, as set out in the EU 2020 strategy, into financial commitments. A large part of the budget will be aimed at getting people back into work and the economy growing. Agriculture is a very important part of this and an important sector for Ireland. I underline that in the Commission's proposals, despite the gloom and doom merchants who were predicting something different, agriculture remains at the heart of the EU budget as a true common European policy of strategic importance. The proposed allocation for the CAP is 36.2% of the EU budget, which compares to a figure of 39.4% in the period 2007 to 2013. This is a good result for the future of the CAP, given the increased importance of other policy areas and the current difficult economic climate.

The European Commission would like to stress that we believe it is important that we work together with Ireland to ensure the outcome is a budget which will equip the European Union and its citizens to meet the challenges ahead. Recalling that 94% of the EU budget funds projects and policies in member states and beyond, we are not spending it on ourselves but in member states. The Irish Government's position will be extremely important. We should remember that the Commission's proposals are the maximum and likely to be under attack. The Minister of State mentioned the five member states that have already asked that there be zero growth. However, as any reduction in the budget would only hurt the CAP, we strongly recommend that Ireland aligns its position with that of the Commission because things will only go down.

Chairman

I thank Ms Nolan. I now call on Mr. Jacobs, head of the European Parliament's information office in Ireland.

Mr. Francis Jacobs

I am honoured to have been invited to make a presentation to the joint committee at this early stage of its important work. As a number of members will know, I have closely followed the work of the Joint Committee on European Affairs in the past few years, as well as the recommendations made to reinforce its role, including in the recent sub-committee's report and the programme for Government. I am pleased to see the first steps being taken to implement some of these recommendations, including the installation of a Europe Day in the marking of which, for example, our MEPs were able to participate.

I know it is late, but I would like to look briefly at the areas in which our work is directly relevant to that of the committee and some of the ways by which our office might be able to back up the committee in its future work. I would like to say a few words about the growing role of national parliaments in the complex EU decision-making process and how relations between the European Parliament and national parliaments have become much more intense than they were in the past. Second, I would like to say a few brief words about the role of our office and to offer a few specific suggestions for the future.

On the growing role of national parliaments in the EU decision-making process, in a past part of my career I worked as a staff member of an equivalent committee to this, the European Parliament's constitutional committee. In the mid-1990s I actually worked on a report with an MEP from Belgium on relations between the European Parliament and national parliaments. When I look back at this, I am struck by how much has changed since and how the roles played by the European Parliament and national parliaments have evolved.

I do not have to go into very much detail about the role of the European Parliament because the Minister of State emphasised it several times. The Parliament is a much more powerful body than it was 20 years ago, especially since the ratification of the Lisbon treaty. It also has one very important feature, the right to set its own agenda. In that sense, it is more like a weaker version of the US Congress, but unlike national parliaments, it is not subordinate to any government. It does not have permanent majorities and minorities, nor is it monolithic. There is a huge range of views on all issues. Obviously, its main powers relate to EU law and the budget. On EU laws, it co-decides with member states on practically all legislation. That gives it the right to amend or even reject all EU laws. Particularly important since ratification of the Lisbon treaty and in the light of the current EU legislative agenda, it now has that right in considering the future of the Common Agricultural Policy and the Common Fisheries Policy. It also co-decides on the annual EU budget and can state Yes or No to the longer term EU budget - the multi-annual financial framework mentioned by Ms Nolan and the Minister of State. In addition, it has the power to state Yes or No to future EU enlargement in terms of the accession of Croatia in the near future and perhaps other countries such as Turkey. It can also state Yes or No to key international agreements. It did this on an arrangement with the United States on SWIFT concerning the exchange of information material and will do so in respect of the world trade negotiations and the Mercosur negotiations which are of huge importance to Irish farmers.

The European Parliament has a growing role in key EU appointments, especially the appointment of the President and the European Commission but also the members of the European Court of Auditors and, perhaps even more importantly, the European Central Bank. It will also have a growing role in respect of any future EU treaty changes.

In addition to its formal powers, the European Parliament has growing informal powers in helping to set the EU agenda by working with the European Commission and member states on the annual and longer term legislative agenda. Probably the most practical way of ensuring subsidiarity is to asses what the European Union should be doing in the future. The Parliament also has an informal role. It is not formally consulted in the drafting of Green and White Papers, but it has an important role in commenting on them.

The role of the European Parliament on foreign and security policy issues is clearly weaker, but it can still play an influential role. Another important area is the transposition and implementation of EU law, not just in determining whether it is being correctly transposed by member states but, perhaps even more importantly, whether a particular EU law is working. For instance, the Parliament's environment committee has produced several reports on the implementation of the nitrates directive, not to try to point the finger at member states but to look at aspects of the directive which made it difficult to implement and uphold.

Besides the role of the European Parliament, national parliaments have a much greater role than they used to. The Lisbon treaty gives greater impetus to this process and the role of national parliaments is now specifically mentioned at the beginning of treaties. National parliaments have a number of new formal powers, especially in terms of subsidiarity control. Ms Nolan mentioned the recent work of the Oireachtas on the CCCTB with a number of other parliaments, but the necessary threshold was not reached.

I am convinced that in the longer term the development of the more informal role of this committee in terms of the substance of EU policy could be of even greater significance. This development of the European Parliament and national parliaments having more of a role in EU decision making will lead to even more intense contacts between us in the future.

I emphasise two points in this context. First, there are far greater contacts than there were previously between individual national parliaments and the EU, and between them and the European Parliament. Obviously this committee will be involved in regular meetings with other European committees in COSAC and there are the speakers' conferences. In recent years contacts between the sectoral committees has developed greatly. Transport, agriculture and other committees are now meeting on a very regular basis. In the past 18 months there have been 23 inter-parliamentary committee meetings involving, within the European Parliament, 13 of our committees. There have been recent discussions on Europol, the European semester and so on, and there is much more co-ordinated planning on these meetings than there was previously.

Second, national parliaments' contributions on EU issues are increasingly being sent to the European Parliament to be factored into the day-to-day work of its committees. Ms Nolan mentioned that with regard to the Commission, but they also now come to our sectoral committees. I checked with one of my colleagues in recent days and discovered that since the Lisbon treaty came into force, more than 100 EU draft laws have been sent to national parliaments and the European Parliament has received almost 400 national parliament contributions. Only approximately 60 of those have been on the formal aspects, on subsidiarity, and the remaining almost 340 have been on the substance of the proposals.

Our office is in the same building as the European Commission, as Ms Nolan mentioned, just down the road. It is much quicker to get from my office to here than it used to be within the European Parliament building to go to work with my chairman in the committee. The European Parliament office provides information within Ireland on the role and activities of the European Parliament, working with Government, Parliament, sectoral groups, NGOs, schools and the media. We also help our MEPs, not just the 12 Irish MEPs, who will come together to give evidence to this committee in a few weeks, but also visiting MEPs from other countries.

The Minister of State mentioned that the President of the European Parliament, Mr. Buzek, MEP, will come to Ireland on an official visit next Monday and Tuesday. We also have a large number of delegations from sectoral committees. They sometimes address general concerns, such as investigating agriculture or fisheries in Ireland. They sometimes deal with specific problems. For example, a delegation from our employment committee went not just to Dublin but to Limerick to investigate how the globalisation fund was helping or not helping the Dell workers. The economic committee visited a few weeks ago and was particularly interested in the question of the interest rate and so on.

We also provide information on political and economic development in Ireland to our colleagues. In all these contexts we build up networks with the Government, Irish NGOs and other organisations, and Irish civil society. Ms Nolan already mentioned the joint action plan we have on an annual basis on communicating on European issues with the Commission and the Government.

Like the Commission we put great emphasis on contacts with schools and the third level education sector. On a number of occasions in the year the European Parliament provides funding for schoolchildren to come to Strasbourg and act out a model European parliament. They see how the European Parliament works in a very concrete way. Increasingly we attribute those prizes on the basis of competitions in Ireland. We have a schools video competition with several partners and the winners go on this Euro scholar competition. We also try to facilitate not only schoolchildren but teachers to come to visit the EU institutions and see how they work in practice.

We also organise meetings with the networks I mentioned to highlight the work of the European Parliament on issues of concern to them. We have held meetings throughout Ireland on the CAP, tourism and so on. Earlier this year we held a meeting in Sligo on the Common Fisheries Policy, at which all three MEPs representing the Ireland North-West constituency participated. This year we are exploring the idea of holding a regional week where we would have a series of co-ordinated meetings in the south east, overlapping two of the European Parliament constituencies.

We closely follow developments in the Oireachtas. My colleagues and I form a network on European Parliament-national Parliament relations with staff of the Houses of the Oireachtas and with the Oireachtas representative in Brussels with whom we work very closely and within the European Parliament's own service for relations with national parliaments.

I have a few suggestions as to how we might work with the committee more closely in the future. First is on the need for an improved information flow. We may be able to help in providing more information to the committee as to what is happening in the European Parliament, its future agenda and the timing of EU laws within the European Parliament. It is immensely difficult even for someone who has worked for as long as I have within the European Parliament to follow what is going on in the 20 committees and in all the other instances of the Parliament. If we can help in providing a guide through the maze we would be very happy to do so. We can help in advising when the best moment for this committee to make contributions is and what is happening to those contributions within the specific committees. For example, before every plenary agenda of the European Parliament we produce a newsletter, EP News, in which we provide an update on the major legislation going through the European Parliament during that session and the priorities of Irish MEPs during the session. We would be very happy to help the committee if it wishes to make a contribution on form or substance if we can provide any back-up information.

Second is facilitating contacts and meetings between Oireachtas Members and MEPs, as well as keeping the committee informed of future visits from the European Parliament and especially delegations from the committee meeting in Dublin with this committee or the sectoral committees or visiting Dáil constituencies. The big problem with facilitating meetings with specific MEPs is that they are working in Brussels at the time when this committee and the other sectoral committees are meeting. It is important to explore ways in which that problem can be overcome. One very practical way of doing that is through the use of video-conferencing. Just a week ago there was a very successful technical test between the Oireachtas staff and the European Parliament staff on how that might work. We have multilingual video-conferencing in three European Parliament committee rooms with permanent video-conference possibilities.

One very practical way in which that might be applied is not only to have contact with the Irish MEPs but with other MEPs who are preparing reports of major importance to Ireland. For example, we are about to consider the final legislative phase of the future of a Common Agricultural Policy. The Oireachtas committee with responsibility for agriculture and perhaps this committee might like to have a link with the European Parliament's rapporteur on the subject. Obviously this is most effective when done through English, but because of the multilingual facility it can also be done in other languages.

We may be able to provide additional information. Most people agree there is need for far more information on the European Union and the European Parliament within Ireland. We strongly support the recommendations in this committee's report and in the programme for Government on working together. When school or constituency groups visit Leinster House, they could also come down the road to our office. I know the committee is exploring the idea of having an information kiosk on European Union matters within the Oireachtas. We offer our help in any way, through the provision of speakers, publications and so on. We would also like to facilitate meetings of Irish groups visiting the European Parliament in Brussels or Strasbourg. We have a new visitor centre which will open in October, which will not only tell a great deal about the Parliament but will provide simulations as to the way the Parliament works. Having seen the way it is done in the Danish Parliament, it really engages schoolchildren in the work of the Danish Parliament and the role it plays. We are trying to do the same with the European Parliament.

If the members need any information on the European Parliament, they should not hesitate to contact us for our help. We look forward to working with the committee very closely over the next few years.

Chairman

I thank Mr. Jacobs and Ms Nolan for two excellent contributions. Mr. Jacobs might be able to give us his contribution in written form at some stage as there is much detail in it and it would be useful to members. Both speakers outlined clearly the role of the Commission and the European Parliament, which are clearly the major institutions we have to deal with in the European Union. It is very important that we get such a detailed account, first, of how they operate, and, second, of how they can communicate with us and be of assistance to us. Obviously, a huge amount can be done on education in both outreach and on the in-house operation. We will explore that as we proceed.

Unless someone is anxious to ask a question, as we have had a detailed presentation, we should be happy with that. If there are further queries, we can transmit them to Mr. Jacobs and Ms Nolan.

Deputy Paschal Donohoe

On the visit by the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee to Ireland some weeks ago, is it possible, if a report on the visit is prepared, for the members of the committee to receive a copy of the report? It would be of interest to all of us and would give us an understanding of how a committee like this would engage with an issue here in Ireland.

Mr. Francis Jacobs

When committees come to Ireland they do not necessarily prepare a formal report but they often prepare informal reports. I will contact the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee and see what material it has and whether it is available to transmit to the committee. There will certainly be a summary note of whom they met and the main meetings. How detailed it is, I do not know, but I am happy to contact the committee and forward that.

Chairman

It can be forwarded to the secretariat. Deputy Kyne wanted to make a brief comment.

Deputy Seán Kyne

Mr. Jacobs referred to the debate in the Parliament regarding the nitrates directive and how that was initiated. How would debates regarding existing directives such as the habitats directive, which has been in the EU since 1992 and in Irish law since 1997, be dealt with? Do MEPs or Irish MEPs, whom we will have an opportunity to question at some future stage, initiate this?

Mr. Francis Jacobs

Yes. It is a very important issue because the Commission plays a crucial role in the whole implementation of EU law whereas the Parliament does not have a formal role in that. However, it is important for its work as MEPs have their own constituencies, whether formal constituencies or national constituencies, and they get many complaints and concerns from their constituents about issues.

The habitats directive is for practically all EU member states an extremely sensitive issue in terms of getting the right balance between protecting biodiversity and protecting all the other rights with which it comes into conflict. It is a terrifically sensitive issue on which there have been huge debates. The role of the Parliament has been to see how it has worked. It has been the initiative of individual MEPs saying "Let us do a report on this thing" and also to work with the Commission. Very often Commissioner Wallström was invited in and she was very active and would have been given these reports.

This was a concern of the committee of the Parliament because the whole object is not just to tick boxes but to make sure that EU laws are working properly and, if there are problems, to try to correct them. One of the issues about the better regulation agenda is that sometimes proposals are not working and should be dropped. Much more commonly, they need to be improved in several ways and perhaps implemented in a more sensitive way. It is a very difficult issue but it has come again and again on to our agenda in spite of the fact that we do not have formal power because of the concerns of individual members.

There is also implementation question time in one or two committees. The environment committee had a regular process whereby it would collect questions from members on a particular issue, which might sometimes be a very specific constituency concern. There would be a question to the Commission as to how a measure was being implemented and why there was a problem in that area.

Deputy Seán Kyne

Are transcripts of these debates available? While I am new in the Oireachtas, at county council level the habitats directive and the impact on infrastructure and infrastructural development has been an issue for many years yet we have never heard of the Parliament debating these issues or of any discussions on it. One of the major infrastructural projects in Galway at present, the Galway city outer bypass, is with the European Court of Justice and, from what we hear, likely to be there for up to 18 months. Are transcripts available or where do we get this information on what our MEPs have discussed in the Parliament on this issue?

Mr. Francis Jacobs

There are certainly lists of the questions that have been asked in the committees and the initial replies of the Commission. However, there is not a full transcript of those debates. The multilingual nature of the European Parliament makes it almost impossible to do a full transcript of committee meetings, although it is done for the plenary. Nonetheless, all the committee meetings are now web-streamed, so perhaps this would be a way forward. When this issue is coming up in the future, if a member has a specific interest, his or her staff or the member can watch the debate being web-streamed and it can be followed directly from all around Europe.

Ms Barbara Nolan

To go back to what I said earlier, these directives stand as they are. It is only if the Commission makes a proposal to change them that there is a discussion about modifying them. It is no secret that there are many problems in Ireland regarding environmental directives, including the habitats directive. We are at quite an advanced stage in proceedings against Ireland on that directive. For the present, this is Community law and it has to be implemented. That is where the matter stands.

Deputy Joe O’Reilly

I am very anxious, as I am sure are my colleagues, to accept Ms Nolan's offer to give committee members and our parliamentary assistants access to the Commission's media material. It would be appreciated if she could put that process in train and include our parliamentary assistants. While not germane to the present discussion although we will discuss it again, I am heartened by the initial budgetary position in regard to CAP.

Chairman

We will take that on board. It has been an interesting and valuable discussion in the sense that we now see the role of the European Commission and its representation here in Ireland through the eyes of Ms Barbara Nolan and Mr. Francis Jacobs of the European Parliament information office in Ireland. We can link up and communicate with them to enhance the work we do. Obviously, a major issue we must consider in terms of the Government programme and so on is the whole area of outreach and education in terms of materials and the work the Parliament has been doing already in that respect. I am sure we will be able to avail of much of this in the context of our work programme as we deliberate somewhat further on that.

I thank our guests for attending. I am sure we will see each other on a regular basis in the coming months and years.

The joint committee adjourned at 2.10 p.m. until 3 p.m. on Tuesday, 12 July 2011.