Joint Committee on the Secondary Legislation of the European Communities debate -
Thursday, 11 Oct 1973

Report of Oireachtas Sub-Committee.

Chairman

Perhaps while we are waiting we could dispose of Item No. 2, the Report of the Oireachtas Sub-Committee. I have copies of the report here which I will circulate. It is of a very simple nature. As you will see, the report is as follows:

The Oireachtas Sub-Committee held its first meeting on 3rd October. It had before it for examination four regulations made under the European Communities Act, 1973 and five regulations and four orders made under other statutes. In a review of these 13 instruments two points emerged viz.—

(1) the possible implication of one regulation by reason of the fact that the word " organ " is not defined either in the regulation itself or in the directive which it implements, and

(2) the apparent inconsistency in the drafting of those regulations which implement EC directives.

The sub-committee proposes to give further examination to these points and to make its report thereon in the near future.

Can I take it that the report is accepted by the committee? It is of a very preliminary nature. The sub-committee made a preliminary examination of the 13 instruments and in that preliminary examination became aware of a number of matters which they wish to pursue further and they are actually pursuing those matters with the Departments concerned and with others. They will be making a much fuller report to you in due course. Can I take it that that report is in order?

Agreed.

Deputy B. Desmond

Do you want to disclose what the two regulations are?

Chairman

The principal regulation with which we were concerned was the regulation dealing with companies.

Deputy B. Desmond

And the second was in relation to—?

Chairman

As regards point No. 2, some of the instruments from the point of view of the sub-committee were impeccable in the way in which they were drafted but others, we felt, were not as clear-cut or as explicit as we would like. We are pursuing this aspect with the Departments concerned.

I see that we now have the gentlemen of the Fourth Estate with us and I think we can now proceed. I want to apologise to the Press for the change in our arrangements. The press gallery were informed that we would have a private session first and a public session later. However, we have decided to proceed straight away with our public session. I apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused and I welcome them now to our meeting.

I am sure I speak for every single member of the committee when I welcome the Minister for Foreign Affairs to our meeting this afternoon. It was our intention, as you know, from the moment we were established, to have the Minister to come along to one of our meetings as soon as possible, as a matter of courtesy. We greatly appreciate the fact that the Minister was equally anxious to come and meet the committee and talk to us about our work. Apart from that, however, as Members know, the need for us to discuss with the Minister the development of a regional policy by the community has become urgent.