22 Apr 2015, 11:43
The Joint Committee on European Union Affairs will be briefed by Minister of State for European Affairs, Dara Murphy TD, on Ireland’s National Reform Programme, before it is transmitted to the European Commission.
22nd April 2015
The meeting will take place at 2pm in CR2, Leinster House, tomorrow, Thursday 23rd April 2015.
The European Semester is the EU's annual cycle of economic policy guidance and surveillance; the National Reform Programme presents Ireland’s policies and measures to sustain growth and jobs and to reach the Europe 2020 targets.
Following the briefing from the Minister, there will be a separate session at which representatives from the Committee of the Regions will discuss engagement on the National Reform Programme. The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) is the European Union's assembly of 350 regional and local representatives from the 28 EU countries.
Committee Chair, Dominic Hannigan, TD, said: “Ireland’s National Reform Programme is hugely important and feeds into the pan-European budgetary process. Tomorrow, our Committee will engage with the Minister on the progress made on implementing the 2014 Country Specific Recommendations and the plans to achieve our targets under the Europe 2020 Strategy.”
“In the second session of our meeting, we will discuss the draft programme with members of the Committee of the Regions (CoR). CoR ensures that the concerns of local and regional assemblies are fed into EU policy. As such it has a very significant role to play in making sure that citizens’ concerns are at the heart of EU policy.”
Tomorrow’s meeting will commence at 2pm in Committee Room 2, Leinster House, tomorrow, Thursday, 23rd April 2015.
Committee proceedings can be viewed live here.
Committee proceedings can also be viewed on the move, through the Houses of the Oireachtas Smartphone App, available for Apple and Android devices.
Ends
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Committee Membership
Chairman: Dominic Hannigan, TD (Labour)
Deputies:
Eric Byrne (Labour); Seán Crowe (Sinn Féin); Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail); Bernard J. Durkan (Fine Gael); John Halligan (Independent); Seán Kyne (Fine Gael); Derek Keating (Fine Gael); Joe O’Reilly (Fine Gael)
Senators:
Colm Burke (Fine Gael); Aideen Hayden (Labour); Terry Leyden (Fianna Fáil); Catherine Noone (Fine Gael); Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Féin)