The first item on the agenda is the minutes of the meeting of 2 November. The draft minutes have been circulated. Are the minutes agreed? Agreed.
The next item on the agenda is correspondence. Since the last meeting we have received the In Business magazine and correspondence on corporate and social responsibility from Chambers Ireland. Correspondence on decisions taken by the Joint Committee on European Scrutiny has been forwarded to us for information. We have received correspondence from the National Roads Authority, NRA, on its role with regard to regional and local roads. This is a response from the NRA to a letter from the committee seeking to establish whether the authority’s remit has been expanded to include the maintenance of local roads. Essentially, the NRA maintains it is responsible for national roads but the maintenance and many of the improvements are managed by the local authorities. Overall, the NRA is responsible in that case. However, in the case of regional and local roads, the NRA provides administrative services to the Minister but the Minister is responsible.