JOINT COMMITTEE ON THE ENVIRONMENT, HERITAGE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT debate -
Tuesday, 31 Mar 2009

Business of Joint Committee.

Chairman

The minutes of the meeting of 24 March have been circulated and no matters arise. Are they agreed? Agreed.

No. 2 is correspondence. The first item is No. 407, a newsletter from Europe's World which we will note.

The next item is an information note from the Oireachtas representative in Brussels on the phasing out of inefficient light bulbs. It is noted, as is No. 409, an environmental newsletter from GLOBE.

The next item is a ministerial press release on the Resource and Recover exhibition at the RDS which we will note. No. 411 is Urban Policy: A Research Paper on Urban Governments from the European Urban Knowledge Network which we will also note. No. 412 is a newsletter from the European Water Partnership which is noted. The next item is a ministerial press release on the Common Forum on Contaminated Land in the European Union which we will note.

No. 414 is a list of requirements from the Irish Wheelchair Association requested for inclusion in the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill on Committee Stage. I suggest we note the correspondence. Members of the Opposition may choose to table amendments on Committee Stage. The Bill is currently before the Oireachtas.

No. 415 is a reply to the referral of a request by the Irish Direct Marketing Association to make a presentation to the committee on the commercial use of the electoral register. We received a document from the organisation and sent it to the Department as the people there are dealing with it. We have received a reply from the Department, which I am glancing through, and members are free to make comments. It states that it is a matter for the new electoral commission, which we know.

No. 416 is the Chambers Ireland yearbook, which is noted. No. 417 is a list of decisions taken at the Joint Committee on European Scrutiny, which has referred three proposals to us, so we have a bit of work from the committee on this occasion. COM (2008) 754 is a proposal for Council approval to place a genetically modified carnation — modified for flower colour — on the market for import, distribution and retailing; COM (2008) 809 is a proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and Council on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment; and COM (2008) 810 is a proposal for a new directive of the European Parliament and Council on waste electrical and electronic equipment, repealing Directive 2002/96/EC on WEEE. I suggest we ask for a briefing note from the Department on these.

Deputy Phil Hogan

Why has the committee sent these to us?

Chairman

The committee normally refers proposals to a line committee if it feels they are relevant to that committee. It does not do all the scrutiny itself. It asks us to note the first proposal, on the carnation, for information, so we do not need to discuss that. The second is purely technical and does not warrant further scrutiny, but the third one, in the important area of waste management, does raise concerns for Ireland and therefore warrants scrutiny by this committee. It has asked the line committee to consider it because it is to do with the directive on WEEE. We will not set a date for presentation but will get a briefing note from the Department and take it from there.

The next item is No. 418, a request from Deputy Eamon Scanlon that Mr. Colm Hamrogue, chair of Graduate Equality Ireland, be allowed to make a presentation to the committee. Does the Deputy wish to comment on that correspondence?

Deputy Eamon Scanlon

It is a request to meet the committee.

Chairman

What is the group? It seems to be in connection with Seanad reform and the university panels.

Deputy Eamon Scanlon

Yes.

Chairman

Will the group meet anyone else in connection with Seanad reform?

Deputy Eamon Scanlon

Not that I am aware of.

Deputy Phil Hogan

I understand from Senators Cassidy and Fitzgerald that the final meeting of the sub-committee on Seanad reform is to take place on 22 April. Perhaps he could make an initial submission to that, but I have no problem with his coming before the committee when we have something else to talk about. We could line up many people to come in.

Chairman

We will say we would be happy to meet him in due course but recommend he make immediate contact through the channel of the sub-committee on Seanad reform which is currently dealing with this matter.

Deputy Phil Hogan

It is Senator Cassidy.

Chairman

That committee is currently dealing with this issue, but it is not on our agenda. We can agree to meet him in due course.

Deputy Phil Hogan

I am sure Senator Cassidy would be more than pleased to accommodate Deputy Scanlon.

Chairman

Is that agreed? Agreed.

The next item is the environmental policy newsletter from GLOBE International, which we will note. It also includes notice of a conference in Edmonton, Canada, from 14 to 18 June 2009. Deputy Bannon rang to seek agreement for the committee to attend. We need to get agreement with regard to costs and so on before we can make a final decision. Can we get costings for this before we see whether the Oireachtas budget will allow it to happen?

Senator Camillus Glynn

I am interested too, subject to what the Chairman has said.

Chairman

Okay. We cannot give any commitment until we see the costings.

Senator Camillus Glynn

We will wait until the next meeting.

Chairman

It could cost a few bob to send somebody to Canada for a few days.

The next item on the agenda is the circulars that were issued by the Department to the County and City Managers Association some time ago. We received copies of the circulars in question. Copies of further circulars were sent to the committee last week and e-mailed to members last Friday. I can read them out if the committee wishes. We will come back to them. We had asked the Department to send this committee, as a matter of course, a copy of every circular that is issued to the city and county managers. The Department does not seem to be doing that. We end up having to chase them up.

Senator Camillus Glynn

What does the Chairman mean when he says that the Department is not inclined to do that?

Chairman

They are not doing it.

Senator Camillus Glynn

Why are they not doing it?

Chairman

Members of this committee became aware of the circulars we are about to discuss through individual members of local authorities. When we contacted the Department last week, we were told that staff in certain sections of the Department did not understand they were supposed to send the circulars to us. We wrote to the Secretary General last week to ask her to instruct every section of the Department that issues circulars to local authorities to send copies of such circulars directly to this committee. We requested that last year, but it has not been happening. Today, we will consider a long string of circulars that went out, but about which we did not know.

Senator Camillus Glynn

Can I have clarification on that? The Chairman is saying that we made a request.

Chairman

We did.

Senator Camillus Glynn

Was the request made to each individual local authority?

Chairman

No. The request was quite simple. We asked the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to furnish us with a copy of every circular it issues to all local authorities across the board, or to city and county managers as the case may be.

Senator Camillus Glynn

A copy should come here to us.

Chairman

A copy should be sent to us. In the last couple of weeks, we became aware of the existence of certain circulars.

Senator Camillus Glynn

I apologise for labouring the point. Do we have any idea who was the bright spark who decided not to send the required information to us?

Chairman

The information we got back was that it was happening in one section of the Department, but not in some of the other sections, which did not know about it.

Senator Camillus Glynn

Did one section fall out with the other?

Chairman

It is clear that there was a communications deficit in the Department on this issue.

Senator Camillus Glynn

Now that is——

Chairman

That is why we have the people here today. We only found out about some circulars through our own work, when members were made aware of them through local authorities rather than through the Department. A number of circulars need to be considered on foot of what was discovered last week. Copies of five documents — circulars and letters — from 2007 have been e-mailed to the committee. They relate to the following: training programmes for local authority staff; the need to accelerate the implementation of the reform of the planning of public construction procurement in the local government sector, in the context of public procurement directives; guidance for State authorities regarding value for money in public private partnership processes; the development finance agency; and the main representative clauses of design, build, finance, operate and manage contracts. Is it agreed to defer our consideration of them until the next meeting, when members will have had the time to study them? Agreed. We will have to make sure we get copies of all circulars in future.

Deputy Michael Fitzpatrick

I do not know whether my question is in order. The County and City Managers Association is mentioned a number of times in one of the circulars that has been circulated to us. The Department has said it appreciates the association's co-operation in this regard. While I am very happy with that, I believe it should come from the bottom up. Consideration of issues relevant to the funding of local authorities should start at the level of the county managers, who will be spending and distributing such funds. The local councillors need to have an input. Can we ask such questions at today's meeting of the committee?

Chairman

Yes, that is the main item on today's agenda.

Deputy Michael Fitzpatrick

The withdrawal of funding from councillors, at a time when most of them are going for election, is very unfortunate for them.

Chairman

Matters like the roads programme, which had been agreed, are now in doubt once more as a result of the recent circulars.

Deputy Michael Fitzpatrick

They are in serious doubt.

Chairman

That is the next item on the agenda and the Deputy may raise it when the departmental officials arrive. We will defer consideration of the additional circulars until the next meeting. Members will recall that we had to change our visit to the docklands from next week on account of the budget. The new date for the visit is Tuesday, 21 April when the chief executive of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority, Mr. Paul Moloney, will be available for the afternoon. The proposed visit will take place the day before the Dáil returns from its Easter recess.

Deputy Michael Fitzpatrick

That is fine.

Chairman

The visit should take a couple of hours and I am sure lunch will be provided. Is 1 p.m. suitable?

Deputy Phil Hogan

We will go for lunch.

Chairman

We will ask to be collected at 1 p.m. I ask members to indicate to the clerk whether they will attend.

A draft report has been circulated on the visit of a delegation of the joint committee to the eighth International American Environmental Conference and Trade Show which was held in Montreal from 17 to 19 March. I thank Deputy Bannon for representing the joint committee at the conference. Is the report approved? Approved.