Apologies have been received from Senator Jim Walsh who is unable to attend this afternoon. Draft minutes of the meeting of 9 October have been circulated to members. Are the minutes of 9 October agreed?
Business of Joint Committee
I asked a question about the Irish International Immigrant Center and whether we had received a report on the incident that occurred in the summer. We asked for a report.
Another issue that I raised was the Wider Horizons programme. Did we get a final report from the Department? When the Minister was here he said that he would send us the report on what happened in that incident.
I presume that the Senator is referring to the Boston incident?
Yes.
As far as I am concerned the matter has been resolved and an apology has been issued to the family. A parliamentary question on that subject was tabled on 26 June. The matter has been dealt with.
We were promised a report.
That is the situation as far as I know. It is dealt with. It is over and done with.
When the Minister was here I asked whether we could get a copy of the report on what happened in the incident and we were told that we would get a copy but we still have not received one.
I have no update on that.
Could we ask for a copy of the report?
As circulated here, the Department has admitted what happened and has issued an apology on same.
Yes, but I asked for the report on the issue.
I have no update on a report on that for the Senator.
Can we ask for the report? The Minister said-----
We can ask for the report but we will probably get no more than what was given out in reply to the parliamentary question.
The Minister said he would give us-----
It has been outlined in the parliamentary question.
The parliamentary question is an entirely separate issue from the report that was made of the incident. We never got a copy of that. We asked for a copy and we were told that we would get it from the Minister.
I will certainly enquire about that report for the Senator for our next meeting but that is all I know about that case.
I think we received a reply on the Wider Horizons programme. The gentleman involved in that programme is our honorary consul in Philadelphia. It did some great work in the North. Several Congressmen had supported its funding and it was-----
I will return to that in private session, if the Senator does not mind. I will give him an update on that. Unless there are other matters arising from the minutes, we will proceed with the main business of the meeting. I remind members, witnesses and those in the Public Gallery to ensure their mobile telephones are completely switched off for the duration of the meeting as even in silent mode they cause interference with the recording equipment in the committee rooms.