Joint Committee on the Secondary Legislation of the European Communities debate -
Wednesday, 26 Apr 1978

Decision-making Process of Community and Funds for Joint Committee.

Chairman

I was going to do that. There are a few items that arise out of the minutes. The first item is that Members should be supplied with a memorandum outlining the decision-making process of the Community and the second item was that the provision of official funds for visits to Brussels as the need arose would be investigated. We have available a couple of documents that should give Members a rough idea of how the Community functions. We have both a thumbnail sketch of the decision-making machinery and a booklet, which are now being circulated.

If Members feel that they have not enough in this material they can of course raise it again. The material is easy enough to understand for anybody who is familiar with the Brussels set-up but it would not be so easily understood by Members who have not had that experience—the reason for the special committees and for the working parties and so on. The special committees function all the time but working parties are very often set up in an ad hoc fashion as things proceed at a Council meeting.

Views are held that the thing has not been sufficiently researched and that detailed information required by the Council of Ministers is not available. There and then they decide to set up a working party from the various member states and they go to work right away. It might be later that evening or the following day that they come up with the information that was required.

I will now circulate to Members a draft letter which I propose to send to the Ceann Comhairle and to the Cathaoirleach in relation to funds for our Committee. Some Members may think that we are not looking for enough but, I feel, it would be unwise to ask too much or we might get nothing. Our reasons for seeking funds are set out in the draft letter. The funds being sought should meet our requirements for the time being. It would at least be a fund that we could use to send small deputations to Brussels from time to time.

Deputy Quinn raised this matter. I do not know how he feels about it or whether he has had time to think about it.

Deputy Quinn

I agree with the Chinese proverb that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. If the first step is to be £5,000, I do not mind so long as we keep on walking. I support this draft letter. The reference to the speech of 7 December 1977 by the Minister for Foreign Affairs in the Dáil is a very fortunate one, because if anybody on a committee cares to read what the Minister committed himself and the Government to in explicit terms, we should get a favourable response to our letter. All the Committee can reasonably do is to await a response from the Ceann Comhairle and the Minister for Finance. Any further comment at this stage would be premature.

Chairman

Thank you, Deputy. Is there anything else arising from the minutes that anybody wants to raise?

Deputy Noonan

Is it not a fact that apart from our request for £5,000, even if we did have the opportunity or the necessity arose to send a small delegation to Brussels, the costs and expenses would still be covered by the Commission? Is that not true?

Chairman

Apparently they have spent all the funds that they had set aside this year for such purposes.

Deputy Noonan

I understand that the Commission had agreed to receive smaller delegations.

Chairman

Yes, but I think when we went into this, money was still very hard to find.

Deputy Quinn

The feeling is that the Commission are prepared to welcome us when we arrive but getting there is our own affair, if my understanding of the situation is correct.

Chairman

Yes. They are also prepared, I think, to get the people to come here at their own expense, on request. I hope it will work a little bit both ways.

Deputy Quinn

I would like to compliment the Secretariat for providing documents which are a bit daunting. Could I suggest that when we have gone through them, as I think we should, to make sense of our business here we should be able to raise the matter again. Perhaps it might then be opportune to indicate to the Commission officials in Dublin that they might have a role in clarifying any points we may raise. Obviously, with the exception of yourself and one or two other experienced Members of the Committee, there is more direct experience in Merrion Square of Community processes than there is here. They may have an illuminating role to play in this so that when Members, including myself, have had a chance to have a look at the material there may be a possibility that they could invite us down to clarify it, if necessary.

Chairman

Of course, or they could come here.

Deputy Quinn

Whichever proves more effective.