The first item on the agenda is the minutes of the meeting of 19 February, which have been circulated. Are they agreed?
Business of Joint Committee
I have a point on that if the correspondence is relevant.
If the matter relates to correspondence, I would prefer the Deputy to leave it until we get to correspondence.
That is fair enough. It relates to both.
I will allow the Deputy to raise it when we deal with correspondence.
You are very kind. Thank you very much.
If there are no matters arising from the minutes, we will proceed with the main purpose of this afternoon's meeting. I remind members, witnesses and those in the Visitors Gallery to ensure their mobile telephones are switched off completely for the duration of the meeting as they cause interference, even on silent mode, with the recording equipment in committee rooms. Before commencing I congratulate Mr. Niall Burgess on his appointment as Secretary General of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He succeeds Mr. David Cooney, the outgoing Secretary General, who will retire at the end of April. Mr. Burgess has been director general of the Anglo-Irish division at the Department of Foreign Affairs since August 2010 and he served as Consul General in New York, as well as in Chicago, Geneva, Brussels and with the consul secretariat in the European Union. He brings a wealth of experience to the job. We wish him well and I am sure we look forward to working with him when he takes up his appointment on 29 April 2014. We also wish Mr. David Cooney well, as he has been an excellent Secretary General. Holding the position of ambassador to the Vatican, he has been an exceptional public servant, demonstrating major commitment throughout his career.
We all wish to be associated with those remarks. We extend good wishes to those who have moved on and welcome those who are incoming. It is always good to do this and acknowledge the role played by people. We express our appreciation in that regard to those who are entrusted with the role. I welcome the new Secretary General and assure him of our support.
I concur with the remarks of the Chairman and Deputy Durkan.
I should add my important voice to this too. It seems we are losing a very talented man to retirement.
He is not retiring.
I apologise. I thought the Chairman indicated he was retiring.
His term is completed.
That is a different story. I wish him luck and give my best wishes to his replacement. I read the press release in the The Irish Times, which is a great source of information about the foreign affairs committee and international affairs. I understand the Department will be considering developments in England and the UK as a whole, including the potential referendum on EU membership. It will take that matter very seriously. I wish the new Secretary General the best of luck.
I share those sentiments.