Joint Committee on the Secondary Legislation of the European Communities debate -
Friday, 12 Oct 1973

Regional Policy Fund: Draft Regulations.

Chairman

I want to thank you for your attendance this morning. This meeting was called at very short notice—in fact we did not have an opportunity of sending out a notice of the meeting. However, I thought it well that we should meet this morning and finish our agenda particularly in view of the fact that the Dáil is meeting next week and everybody will be very busy.

We had a very useful and informative meeting yesterday which the Minister for Foreign Affairs attended and we had a very far-reaching discussion on the whole question of EC regional policy. I think Members are much better informed now on the present situation than they were before, but we still have these three draft regulations dealing with regional policy before us and I hoped that this morning we might consider them in more detail and that we could come to whatever conclusions we deem appropriate about them. With your permission I propose to take them in order. There are three of them, one dealing with the establishment of the fund, the second dealing with the establishment of the Committee on Regional Policy and the third is in the nature of a technical financial regulation governing the establishment and operation of the fund as such. Perhaps we could begin by taking what I suppose is the main one dealing with the establishment of the fund.

Senator Lenihan

This is the proposal for a council regulation establishing the Regional Development Fund?

Chairman

Yes. The Brussels No. is (COM) 73-1218.

Senator Robinson

May I ask if we are going to bring in a report on regional policy or is the record going to be——

Chairman

I am glad you raised that because it is one of the points I thought we might discuss this morning. Having heard the Minister I am inclined toward giving a report to the Houses of the Oireachtas at this stage on these regulations and on regional policy generally.

Senator Robinson

I am in favour of that. It would give both Houses an opportunity to discuss the matter and I think it should be discussed before the meetings in early November and towards the end of the year. The best way in which the Houses of the Oireachtas could debate this would be on the basis of the report we present.

Senator Lenihan

I agree that now is the time to discuss it.

Deputy Esmonde

Is it going to the Council of Ministers in the coming week?

Senator Robinson

Only for preliminary discussion, and in late December there will be the start of decision making.

Chairman

I think we should consider the possibility of reporting to the Houses of the Oireachtas immediately. Should we now proceed to discuss them or refer them to the appropriate sub-committee for detailed discussion with a view to preparing a draft report which would be adopted by the committee—would that possibly be more convenient?

Senator Robinson

I think that would be a better procedure because, if we are going to report, the sub-committee working on this could analyse the nature of the report. Much of it might crystallise the criticisms made about regional policy and a very good point was made about this committee that should be brought to the attention of the Houses: the departure from the original guidelines. I think that is easier to do in a working group reporting presumably first back to this committee for the purpose of submitting the report with the approval of this committee to the Houses of the Oireachtas.

Chairman

If that is so we should try to arrange as soon as possible for a meeting of the sub-committee to consider these regulations in detail and prepare a draft for submission to this committee with a view to presenting it then to the Houses of the Oireachtas.

Deputy B. Desmond

I support that view.

Deputy Thornley

I fully agree with the expediency of making a report to the Oireachtas. My absence yesterday from this committee shows there is a physical difficulty here. Those of us who are most intimately concerned tend not to be here when the issues arise. I have not the remotest idea how this difficulty can be resolved but in some way I think we should try to streamline our procedure in such a way that those of us who actually go abroad should be as accessible as possible when crucial questions come up.

Senator Robinson

It should be very useful to have a memorandum from members of the European Parliament who might not be able to be here where they have special knowledge which the working party could incorporate in the report.

Chairman

This is a very real difficulty which I fear is not going to disappear. It seems that both in the full committee and in the sub-committee our parliamentary delegates can give us tremendous assistance in our work not just on the technical side but in conveying to us the feeling and the mood of Parliament about these matters. We must try to arrange our meetings in such a way as to get the maximum attendance of our European Parliamentary delegates. If that is agreed, we shall proceed in that way and I shall endeavour to arrange a meeting of the sub-committee at a convenient time for all concerned.

Senator Robinson

Perhaps we could make this more specific by having a deadline by which that committee must report to the full committee.

Chairman

Yes, that would be useful.

Senator Lenihan

I suggest we set a deadline of the 1st November.

Senator Robinson

If we are to be realistic about deadlines we will have to set a date. The date suggested by Senator Lenihan is a little too far away because this committee have to report to the Houses of the Oireachtas.

Senator Lenihan

I suggest Thursday, October 25th.

Chairman

We will try to adhere to that.

Senator Robinson

Thursday would be a better working day. If we make a very tight deadline I believe that it will indicate to the sub-committee that we do not want a very elaborate report.

Deputy Thornley

I shall be in Brussels on that day.

Senator Robinson

Could the Deputy join the sub-committee? The fact that we set a tight deadline would indicate that the report from the sub-committee should be a short one and raise the important questions for discussion on the floor of the Houses.