Tea, coffee and mince pies are available upstairs. People need only say they were attending the committee. I was going to organise that for the committee but was advised we could not do it because of Covid restrictions. If people want to have a cup of tea and a mince pie after the meeting, they are on the house.
Business of Joint Committee
I thank the Chairman for that.
Following the meeting, it is intended to issue a statement to the effect that the committee is supportive of the vaccine programme. We had a discussion on that yesterday.
A member
We are all supportive of the vaccine programme but not everybody may be able to get vaccinated.
There is a debate to be had on that.
I covered that well this morning on "Morning Ireland". I gave that a good mention.
The draft minutes of last week's meeting of 9 December have been circulated. The minutes also addressed the issues and items of correspondence considered at our private meetings of 1 and 8 December. Are the draft minutes agreed? Agreed. As members do not wish to raise any other issues, we will proceed to our discussion.