The remaining item on the agenda is the document from the Department of Finance on proposals to introduce a carbon energy tax. Other Oireachtas committees, Environment and Local Government, Finance and General Affairs, Agriculture and Food, Transport and Enterprise and Small Business - received this document also. It may have some relevance, particularly in relation to——
Business of Joint Committee.
Which document? Did we all get a copy or did we receive it another day?
It was circulated previously but we will ensure Deputy Ryan is provided with another copy.
As the provision in this document will have a serious impact on those on social welfare, I propose that we list this matter on the agenda for a future meeting with a view to giving more time to consider it.
We should give a lot of time to considering this document and give opinions on it because it deals with the Kyoto protocol and so on. A number of aspects of it will have a significant impact on people, particularly the elderly, in the future.
This day fortnight we have a very full agenda and I ask for a full turnout of members. Six organisations will appear before the committee to deal with the position of carers. We received submissions on this issue and we are making some progress in that regard. Members were circulated with a first draft of the report and I ask them to give some time to analysing it. Much work has gone into that and eventually we will bring forward our conclusions and recommendations. We will have to give it our best shot and try to help the Minister in that regard. Carers are monitoring what this committee is doing and they are depending on us to bring forward a fairly comprehensive report on this matter, and we intend to do so.
On the carbon tax, it is important that we discuss that matter as early as possible in October because it could be a major issue in the budget. We need to set out our stall on that.
On 23 September we might fix a date for a discussion on the introduction of a carbon energy tax. Is that agreed? Agreed.
Chairman, what format do you propose for the meeting on 7 October? At what time will it begin?
It will begin at 2 p.m. and continue until 6 p.m.
How many groups will be attending?
Six groups, representing a cross-section of carers. We could not invite everybody; there were 77 or 78 submissions.
Will we be responding to the six or seven groups when they come in? We have been saying the same thing to the six or seven——
When I was a member of the finance and general affairs committee we often invited three or four groups in and we allocated them ten minutes to present their case. I will have to be firm with members on this issue. I was in their position and I would often go off at a tangent. I suggest that for group one, Deputy Callanan will represent Fianna Fáil; Deputy Ring will represent Fine Gael; Deputy Ryan will represent Labour; Senator Walsh will represent the Progressive Democrats and Deputy Connolly, or whoever, will represent the Independents, rather than have a number of members from the one party asking questions. We may have Senator Cummins representing group two.
We should have a time schedule.
I will have a strict schedule and, unfortunately, I may have to cut off members.
That is fine because we could be here all day otherwise.
I intend to implement that time schedule because many of the people who will make the presentations will have travelled long distances. Some of them representing the elderly are from the Donegal-Tyrone area. Others are from the various health board regions while others will represent women in the home. There are also people from north Leitrim and west Cavan and others from Clare. They will have travelled considerable distances and at that time of the evening, with darkness descending and——
We will have to ask brief questions rather than make statements.
We do not want any statements.
There may not be a need to ask any questions.
There may not be a need to ask any questions. Their presentations will be very clear. We are giving them an opportunity to follow up on the work they have done. For example, the presentation by the health boards is probably one in which many people would be interested. We have received a significant number of submissions.
Will that presentation be dealt with on a different day?
We are trying to deal with all the submissions as best we can. If one representative of each party was to deal with, say, group one; another representative of each party was to deal with, say, group two and so on and then it would come back around, that would be the best way to deal with this matter. There is no use in getting into the tautology of merely asking questions for the sake of doing so.
Were members circulated with a list of those who have been invited?
Yes, the list is set out on theagenda.
I do not have an agenda with that list.
It is not on the agenda. I apologise; I have a note of the groups.
The Chairman might circulate the list to our offices?
Has the group Abhaile been invited to appear before the committee?
No.
It has not been.
The groups we have invited are the National Council for Ageing and Older People, the national group representing older people; the DergFinn Partnership; Finn Valley Carers Group, a cross-Border group based in Donegal-Tyrone. To develop and manage a co-ordination of services by carers in health boards, we have invited a group comprising the Mid-Western, Midland, South-Eastern and Southern Health boards, who still have yet to confirm their attendance. We have invited: Women in the Home, a national grouprepresenting women who care for all categories of people; Community Connections, a north Leitrim and west Cavan carers group; andCaring for the Carers, a group based in Clare. The groups invited are from across the country and are as widely representative as possible,a matter on which we decided at the lastmeeting.
The Carers Association has made a presentation as has Comhairle. Those groups I mentioned are as much as we can handle because we are trying to prepare a document on this by the end of October for presentation to the Minister prior to the budget. We have done as best we can in this regard. We advertised for submissions and we were lucky to get a response from those groups.
I thank colleagues for their co-operation. The next meeting of the joint committee will be held at 2.00 p.m. on Tuesday, 23 September 2003.
The joint committee adjourned at 3.55 p.m. until 2.00 p.m. on Tuesday, 23 September 2003.