I move:
(1) That Dáil Éireann concurs with Seanad Éireann in its Resolution communicated to Dáil Éireann on 5th November, 1981, that it is expedient that a Joint Committee of both Houses of the Oireachtas (which shall be called the Joint Committee on the Secondary Legislation of the European Communities) be established consisting of—
18 members of Dáil Éireann and 8 members of Seanad Éireann (none of whom shall be a representative in the Assembly of the European Communities)
(a) to examine
(i) such programmes and guidelines prepared by the Commission of the European Communities as a basis for possible legislative action and such drafts of regulations, directives, decisions, recommendations and opinions of the Council of Ministers proposed by the Commission,
(ii) such acts of the institutions of those Communities,
(iii) such regulations under the European Communities Act, 1972 (No. 27 of 1972), and
(iv) such other instruments made under statute and necessitated by the obligations of membership of those Communities
as the Committee may select and to report thereon to both Houses of the Oireachtas; and
(b) to examine the question of dual membership of Dáil Éireann or Seanad Éireann and the European Assembly and to consider the relations between the Irish representatives in the European Assembly and Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann and to report thereon to both Houses of the Oireachtas;
(2) That provision be made for the appointment of substitutes to act for members of the Joint Committee who are unable to attend particular meetings and that members of either House, not being members of the Joint Committee, be allowed to attend meetings and to take part in the proceedings without having a right to vote;
(3) That representatives in the Assembly of the European Communities, who are also members of either House, be notified of meetings and be allowed to attend and take part in proceedings without having a right to vote;
(4) That the Joint Committee, previous to the commencement of business, shall elect one of its members to be Chairman who shall have only one vote;
(5) That all questions in the Joint Committee shall be determined by a majority of votes of the members present and voting and in the event of there being an equality of votes the question shall be decided in the negative;
(6) That every report which the Joint committee proposes to make shall, on adoption by the Joint Committee, be laid before both Houses of the Oireachtas forthwith, whereupon the Joint Committee shall be empowered to print and publish such report together with such related documents as it thinks fit; and
(7) That five members of the Joint Committee shall form a quorum of whom at least one shall be a member of Dáil Éireann and at least one shall be a member of Seanad Éireann."
The Joint Committee on Secondary Legislation was first established in 1973. It is dissolved when the Dáil and Seanad are dissolved, and must be re-constituted by orders passed by each House of the Oireachtas after a general election. An expediency motion to this effect has already been passed in the Seanad, and Dáil Éireann is to-day called upon to do likewise, in order that the new committee may be set up and commence work as soon as possible.
It was decided when we joined the European Communities to set up a committee to examine Community legislation, and to supervise its implementation in Ireland. It is vital that such a committee should exist in order to monitor this body of external law which is now a part of our national system.
The terms of reference of the joint committee, as formulated in 1977, give the committee authority to examine Community legislation at three stages in the process of its adoption. It may examine legislation at the draft stage, it may examine Community Acts, and, finally, it may examine ministerial regulations made under the European Communities Act, 1972, and instruments made under other statutes in order to implement our Community obligations.
The new joint committee will consist of 18 Members of Dáil Éireann, and eight Members of the Seanad, thus totalling 26, which is the same number as its predecessor. I should like to pay tribute to the work of previous joint committees, all of which have done vast amounts of work with very little public recognition. Much of the Community legislation is of a highly complex and technical nature, which makes the task even more demanding. The committee select for examination those draft Acts which they consider of particular importance to Ireland and they examine all statutory instruments made to implement Community laws. Reports to the Houses of the Oireachtas are then prepared. During the last session 94 reports were prepared by the joint committee, nine of which were considered by the Seanad. Of these nine, two were also considered by the Dáil.
When constituting the joint committee in 1977 the Government took into account the recommendations which the first committee made in their 55th report, published in March 1977. Among the recommendations taken on board were: provision for the appointment of substitutes to act for members who are unable to attend particular meetings, and provision that Members of either House of the Oireachtas though not members of the committee be allowed to attend their meetings and take part in proceedings without having a right to vote. The proposed terms of reference for the forthcoming joint committee remain largely the same as in 1977, apart from two recommended changes which I will briefly mention.
In a report of March 1980 the committee recommended certain amendments to its orders of reference taking cognizance of the fact that the European Assembly is now a directly elected body. The first of these has been incorporated in the motion before the House, that is, that the phrase which provided that "delegates to the Assembly of the European Communities be notified of meetings and be allowed to attend and take part in the proceedings without having a right to vote", be amended to read that "representatives in the European Assembly, who are also members of either House of the Oireachtas" have the privilege set out above. The effect of this change is merely to formalise an existing state of affairs, namely, that members of European Parliament are no longer appointed by the Dáil, apart from those filling casual vacancies, but are elected by direct universal suffrage.
The second recommendation concerns the question of membership of the joint committee by MEP's. Before the 1979 European elections Members of the Oireachtas nominated as members of the European Parliament were ex-officio members of the Joint Committee on Secondary Legislation. This arrangement was not in practice a success and the terms of reference of the committee appointed in 1977 expressly stated that members of the European Parliament would be precluded from membership of the joint committee. They would, however, be notified of meetings and be allowed to attend and take part in the proceedings without having a right to vote. The committee also recommended that the phrase which precludes members of the European Parliament from membership of the committee be deleted. This suggestion has not been adopted. Rather, the whole question of the relationship between MEPs and the Dáil and Seanad will be examined by the joint committee. Provision has been made for this by an addition to the terms of reference of the committee which gives them a mandate “to examine the question of dual membership of the Dáil or Seanad and the European Assembly, and to consider the relations between the Irish Representatives in the European Assembly and the Dáil and Seanad...”. The Government consider that the joint committee, which has already touched on aspects of this question of the dual mandate and the overall relationships between the Oireachtas and the European Assembly, is the proper forum for the examination of these questions. The House will recall having debated and agreed on this point on 28 October last.