The minutes of the committee's meeting of 9 June last have been circulated. Are they agreed? Agreed.
The first item of correspondence is a newsletter, Europe’s World. We can note that.
The next item of correspondence is an invitation to a day of celebration to mark the 20th anniversary of the opening of the bird sanctuary and conservation centre at Castle Espie wetland centre in County Down. If members are interested in attending that event, they should advise the clerk. The matter is noted.
The next item of correspondence is a Globe International newsletter. We note that.
The next item of correspondence is a communication from the European Commission, seeking Ireland's views on the management of biowaste. Perhaps we should invite departmental officials to address the committee on the matter before we frame our response. The correspondence in question, which was sent to the committee by the Joint Committee on European Affairs, relates to the proposed EU document on sufficient environmental oversight of biowaste. Perhaps we should ask the Department to send us a briefing note before we decide whether we need to discuss it further. Is that agreed? Agreed.
The next item of correspondence is the weekly newsletter from the Oireachtas permanent representative at the EU.
The next item of correspondence is a letter from the Wild Deer Association of Ireland, acknowledging its recent meeting with the committee and suggesting that we should meet representatives of Coillte and the National Parks and Wildlife Service. As the Wildlife (Amendment) Bill 2010 has now been finalised, we can note the letter and move on.
The next item of correspondence is a letter from Irish Business Against Litter acknowledging its recent meeting with the joint committee. A further group, Food and Drink Industry Ireland, which is a business sector of IBEC, has sent us a letter commenting on the transcript of the meeting. I suggest we note all of that and come back to it when we discuss the issue of litter at a later date.
The next item of correspondence is the newsletter of the Irish Property Owners Association. We note that.
The next item of correspondence is a collection of replies from Kilkenny County Council, Galway County Council, Wicklow County Council, Clare County Council, Limerick County Council, Waterford County Council, South Tipperary County Council, Cork City Council and Mayo County Council to the committee's queries regarding the financial ability of local authorities to implement the water services investment programme. Some of the programme, which was announced by the Department a month or two ago, has to be financed by local authorities through development levies. At Deputy Hogan's request, we wrote to each local authority to ask if it has sufficient resources to provide matching funding under the water services investment programme. We will wait until we have received all of the replies before we draw any conclusions on the matter. We have received some replies and expect to receive more replies as the weeks progress. We will note the replies we have received.
The next item of correspondence is an information note we were sent following our meeting with the National Council for the Blind of Ireland on environmental issues of concern. We will note that.
The next item of correspondence is a request from the Irish Tyre Industry Association for a meeting with the joint committee to discuss a producer responsibility initiative for the disposal of tyres. The association is concerned about the arrangements for tyre recycling activity compliance schemes. It registers 90% of all tyres that are imported into the country. It feels that the lack of enforcement in this area is causing difficulties for those who comply with the law. We will put it on our list of matters to be considered. The association is seeking an opportunity to attend a meeting of the committee to discuss waste disposal issues in the tyre industry. I suggest we should hold it over for the moment. There might be something in it and there might not.