We will come to that. I should like to leave item No. 4 over for the moment. Item No. 5 deals with our first report. Senator Robinson raised this matter and might perhaps like to say something.
Presentation of First Report of Committee.
I regard this as an extremely important item. From the very beginning we are in a position to report. We will be looking at documents from the Commission on Regional Problems. The timescale is very short. There is no point in this committee having views on the regional problems in December. Our views must be available before that date if we are to have an impact from the very beginning. The impact of this committee, its teeth and its relevance, will be gauged by the number of times we can report on substantive draft documents coming from Europe. We will have small reports later on our internal regulations. It would be better if we could leave over regulations or drafts dealing with matters such as whether penalties are or are not fair. The actual mechanics of being able to report quickly and in a relevant way will really determine whether this committee is effective or not.
I agree with that.
If we are going to discuss the substantive content of regional policy and draft proposals for Europe, there must be immediately a sub-committee working on this for the purpose of considering the report, preferably in about two meetings from now, so that we can have a report ready on that timescale. This would be a good way of starting off, geared to reporting frequently.
This is a very important thing. The regional policy document is a serious matter from our country's point of view. We will have to get down to it early, quickly and efficiently. It is a very serious document. Recent trends are not happy from a national point of view.
We can discuss that further when we come to it. The Government are under a statutory obligation to report twice a year to the Oireachtas on Community matters and developments. The first such report was debated in the Dáil on 23rd May. It dealt with developments and events up to that time. The Government are under an obligation before the end of the current year to bring in a further report. Apart from anything else, we should at least have a report coincidental with the second Government report. Whether or not we would feel that the situation in any particular sphere was sufficiently urgent to require our reporting to the Oireachtas between now and then, it should be our time to have a general report as a committee to the Oireachtas in conjunction with the Government's second report.
It could be more urgent than that. There is a community timetable. There could be major "hot potatoes" of a political nature in the immediate months ahead.
You have referred to this report, Sir. It has a rather unhappy title. It says "Developments in the European Communities". It is a report of what has happened. You have indicated indirectly that something might have to be done before that. I would not like to use the word " coincidental ", if you do not mind. If a serious situation arises, we should be in before that. This is only a report of what has happened.
On this point, it would be extremely important to the working of this committee to know in very specific terms what the European plans are and when particular matters are coming up for discussion. If something was to be discussed in early November we should have discussions on it before that. The bi-annual Government report ensures that there is a debate in both Houses of Parliament. This committee could use that fact to bring in general reports in that time, without prejudice to our reporting on specific things.
That is exactly what I had intended to say. We should at the very least have a general type of report which can be discussed at the same time in the House as the Government's report.
Pending the preparation of the report, the fact that our proceedings are reported verbatim would enable both Houses to be aware of what we have done. I take it there will be a summary at least of the verbatim reports and the conclusions reached here.
Deputy Lenihan
The time scale at the moment envisages a report at the end of this month, followed by a definite mandate to the Council of Ministers in relation to action on 1st January. If we are going to do anything effective we should be on to that now.
I agree.
We are overlooking the fact that, having gone to the Commission, it has then to come back from the Commission to the European Parliament.
Deputy Lenihan
That is correct.
Many of us are concerned about this. Small countries, in particular, are concerned that parliament should have a better say. It seems to me the European Parliament is being pushed out of the picture. The situation is developing into a world of technocrats and, because of that, we will want to watch the situation very carefully. It may be irrelevant to what we are discussing but it is something we must watch all the way through and, if we do that, we will be doing a good day's work.
Surely we are moving too far ahead.
I will ask some of our European delegates later to tell us how matters stand in regard to regional policy proposals in the European Parliament.
Pending the preparation of a report there will be a verbatim report available and that report will give a clear indication of our views. We should not have to wait until such time as the actual report is prepared.
We must not forget that we are a Committee of both Houses and we have a duty to report. I think that was Senator Robinson's point. Our effectiveness will be gauged by how quickly and how intelligently we report.
I agree with Deputy O'Kennedy that the verbatim report will provide a background. Our reports should be making specific points and recommendations to strengthen the hand of our Minister in negotiations or to force him to reconsider particular points. This is a rather technical point, but I have a very limited experience of committees; I am a member of the Seanad Committee on Statutory Instruments and it takes a long time to have a report published. Unless we emphasise the necessity for speed I would be afraid that the report would take weeks, or even months. We will have to emphasise that the reports must not be very long, must be very practical and specific, and not come out with the speed of the verbatim report, and a report could then be discussed, if necessary, in the House; it could also influence decisions.
I would support Senator Robinson fully here. There is a great deal of waffle on regional policy at the moment and the Minister for Foreign Affairs is very anxious to have the views of the committee on a series of questions he intends to pose to the committee. We should aim, I think, to have a formal report on regional policy as affecting Ireland by about the middle of October and our normal report then should be about the middle of November. We should keep the two things separate.
At the moment we are dealing with our duty as a committee to report and it is agreed that we should have our first general report at the same time as the Government's second report to the Oireachtas. In the meantime we must be effective in reporting on any matters on which we consider a report is necessary.
Exactly.
I suggest our first report could be in November.
I am not sure that this kind of time scale would be adequate. We might want to bring in amending regulations. A short report of a factual nature could be brought out rapidly with regard to any regulations calling for such a report stipulating that our view is such and such. Regional policy and other matters could take a long time because of their complexity.
I do not think anybody disagrees with that. We will have a general type of report from time to time and, as we take particular notice of any document or situation, we could issue an immediate report on that.
A suggestion was made about the time limit we have to act within vis-�-vis Europe. This is very important. We do not want to lose sight of that. There is a certain time schedule on matters and it should be possible to arrange things so that we know exactly what length of time we have within which to act or to make recommendations. This is vital to our activities.
I am just wondering are we entitled to comment and make recommendations on matters of policy or are we merely entitled to say that a particular regulation or Act should be drafted in such and such a way. How wide can we go? Can we deal with policy or are we merely to deal with mechanism?
The very liberal interpretation of the Minister for Foreign Affairs in the Seanad on 26th July would seem certainly to give us leeway to express a broad view on programmes of work in the Community.
The whole thing would be meaningless if it were merely technical aspects.
We will not just be confined to regulations.
I sincerely hope that that is so but, if you look at the terms of reference, it is quite clear we are entitled merely to comment on regulations.
That is our minimum statutory duty.
My original suggestion was that we should get advance warning of what is coming through. This might bridge the gap without causing any head-on conflict with whoever might be in Government at the time. At least we would have the opportunity of making recommendations. That might be difficult under our terms of reference, but it might be an easy way out of the situation.
We have to establish our own guidelines and precedents, but I do not think anyone would suggest at this stage that we should limit ourselves to a purely mechanical function.
No, I agree with that.
This is something on which we might have a fruitful discussion with the Minister for Foreign Affairs when he comes to us. Another aspect of this is that we are very fortunate in having our parliamentary delegates on the committee because they will be able to draw our attention to various documents.
Anyway we shall wait until we get on to regional policy, the immediate policy where there is danger of serious damage being done to our national situation.