JOINT COMMITTEE ON ENTERPRISE AND SMALL BUSINESS díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 23 Feb 2005

Business of Joint Committee.

Chairman

I would like to deal with some housekeeping matters on correspondence. On the proposed meeting to discuss fair trade with the Joint Committee on Social and Family Affairs, a letter dated 18 February 2005 from the committee Chairman, Deputy Penrose, suggests Tuesday, 22 March as the date for the meeting. Is it agreed that we meet at 3 p.m.? Agreed. For the information of members, menu cards in the Members' restaurant state that fair trade coffee and tea are available. Mr. Rice is to examine how this can be highlighted on the coffee machines in the self-service restaurant.

At the 15th Eureka interparliamentary conference which takes place in The Hague in May, a limit of five persons may attend, including an official. Correspondence has been circulated. Are any members interested in going?

Deputy T. Dempsey

I might be interested, I do not know until I see what is on.

Chairman

We will leave it to the convenors to organise. How many will we send?

Deputy N. O’Keeffe

Five.

Chairman

I suggest we send two and an official. We will leave it to the convenors to make a recommendation at the next meeting.

A WTO public symposium will be held in Geneva from 20 to 22 April 2005. A half day conference will be held on the parliamentary panel. I think we will pass on that. It is too far away and we have more meaningful work to do with the small budget at our disposal.

Deputy N. O’Keeffe

The Chairman is a very good ambassador for the committee.

Chairman

A letter from the Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen, on the progress of the national development plan in the BMW region has been circulated. It was prepared in response to issues raised by the Council for the West.

We have received and circulated a letter from Mr. Leo Crawford, chief executive of BMW Group Limited. The letter outlines the group's views on comments by Mr. John Fingleton, Chairman of the Competition Authority. Does anyone wish to comment? If not, the correspondence will be noted. We will ask Mr. O'Reilly to include it in his report and we will ask Mr. Crawford for his permission to do so. Mr. O'Reilly will examine it and make his views known to us in a draft of the first interim report on the Groceries Order.

The clerk has circulated a request he received from the piracy steering group seeking a meeting with the committee to discuss support for tackling the crime of piracy in Ireland, particularly as it relates to DVDs and CDs. I have a vested interest in this. This has come from Deputy Brady who is not here, but I take it there is no objection. We will consider the matter at the earliest possible time. Before we conclude, Mr. O'Reilly might indicate when he thinks he will have a draft of the inquiry.

Mr. Myles O’Reilly

We could have it within a few days. It is almost ready. It is a question of when the committee wants it.

Chairman

Much hard work and long hours have gone into this and I want it taken very seriously. I do not want to see this taken out of context and I mean that in terms of the imminence of two by-elections and St. Patrick's Day. I suggest that we have a meeting of the committee the week after St. Patrick's Day, and in Holy Week——

Deputy N. O’Keeffe

Why can we not meet during the week when St. Patrick's Day falls?

Chairman

Some committee members may want to be in their constituencies.

Deputy N. O’Keeffe

The by-elections will be over. There will be winners and losers. The 15th March would be ideal.

Chairman

St. Patrick's Day falls on a Thursday. Perhaps we will discuss this at our meeting next Wednesday morning. I should have discussed it earlier this morning, but when the Minister was present I wanted to avail of as much time as we possibly could before the principal spokespersons left to attend the Order of Business.

Deputy N. O’Keeffe

We are sitting three days during Holy Week — Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Mr. O’Reilly

The committee should spend some time looking at the report. There will be quite a lot in the report and I do not think it can be nodded through. Some of the issues are very important. The committee would need the report for at least several days before considering it. In some ways it is not quite as straightforward as the insurance issue.

Deputy Callanan

If we got the report just before St. Patrick's Day, we could consider it over a week or two.

Chairman

I do not want the report to carry over a weekend. If we were to receive the draft report on a Monday by e-mail or fax to our homes, we could have a meeting on the Tuesday afternoon and officially launch the report on Thursday or Friday morning. Would that be possible?

Deputy N. O’Keeffe

What date would that be?

Chairman

We have not decided a date. We are talking generally.

Mr. O’Reilly

It depends on how many amendments will be required.

Chairman

There will not be many amendments.

Mr. O’Reilly

If the meeting were on a Tuesday, we could do it for Friday.

Deputy N. O’Keeffe

The Chairman and the secretariat can come up with some proposals for dates and times for us.

Chairman

If Mr. O'Reilly would write it up and write a short summary on where he sees the problems for the committee, we will then discuss the matter with our colleagues next Wednesday morning. We do not want to coincide with the by-election. The good work of the committee would be lost in that circumstance. We have discussed these issues on a non-political basis quite well during the lifetime of this committee. Perhaps Mr. O'Reilly might call me on Tuesday and we can liaise with the committee clerk on the matter. If Mr. O'Reilly wants to address the committee on Wednesday morning, before we deal with EU scrutiny, he is free to arrange that with the clerk. If he thinks there are some matters of concern on which he wants further clarification, we certainly would have no difficulty in doing that.

Mr. O’Reilly

That is unlikely.

Chairman

Good. Will the report be as lengthy as the insurance report?

Mr. O’Reilly

It will be about the same size.

Chairman

I am glad to hear it. I understand a lot of work has been done already.

Mr. O’Reilly

I expect it will be finished by tomorrow.

Chairman

There was not too much today to be included.

Mr. O’Reilly

We can incorporate that.

Chairman

Dunnes has changed its mind about coming in to address the committee in public but will make a written submission. Mr. O'Reilly can deal with all of those matters. The meeting is adjourned.

The joint committee adjourned at 11 a.m. until 9.30 a.m. on Wednesday, 2 March 2005.