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Joint Committee on the Secondary Legislation of the European Communities debate -
Wednesday, 5 Sep 1973

Reporting of Committee.

There is nothing much to report about the verbatim reporting of our proceedings except to say that we have proposed to the Ceann Comhairle that we want verbatim reports of our meetings, and we want them issued as quickly as possible and, in fact, issued on the same basis of rapidity as the reports of both Houses of the Oireachtas. There are problems, but we have the goodwill of the Ceann Comhairle and he is anxious to facilitate us. We will have to leave it at that for the moment.

They have done it fairly efficiently so far. They have done very well for us and we are grateful to them.

In the discussions on the steering committee, we felt that we should indicate to the Ceann Comhairle that our Committee will meet when either of the two Houses of the Oireachtas was meeting, that we might well meet every two weeks, and that our meetings might last two or three hours. Have you been in a position to convey that information.

We have conveyed that information to the Ceann Comhairle: he asked us to give some indication of what our demands are likely to be. We indicated that so far as we could foresee at the moment we would be certainly sitting when the Houses of the Oireachtas were sitting and that we could not possibly undertake only to sit when neither House was sitting, and that we would be meeting frequently, as Deputy Desmond has said, possibly weekly or bi-weekly, and that our meetings would be of two or three hours' duration at a minimum. We have given that information as a tentative basis on which the Ceann Comhairle can decide what he can do for us. He assured us that he fully accepts that our proceedings will be reported verbatim and that we want these reports issued as rapidly as possible.

Are we going to be lucky enough with getting away with meeting every two weeks having regard to the stuff coming through from the EC at the moment?

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