I thank the members for my re-election as Cathaoirleach to the committee. I am deeply honoured and look forward to working with them. I welcome them all as members of the new committee, in particular Deputy Mulherin of Fine Gael, who is a new member when compared to the membership of the former committee. I look forward to working with all members in the same spirit of partnership and co-operation that existed in the previous committee. I am confident we will continue to bring our combined skills and enthusiasm to bear and make this a highly productive committee that discharges its functions in an effective and enlightened way. I pay tribute to the members of the previous committee, in particular those members who have moved on, namely, Deputies Timmy Dooley, Dessie Ellis, Clare Daly, Terence Flanagan, Seán Kenny, Patrick O'Donovan and Brian Walsh and thank them for their participation in the committee in their previous capacity.
I would also like to take this opportunity to reflect upon the work of the previous committee. We can justly be proud of our achievements in one year. We covered a wide volume of work, interacted with the public at an extensive level and placed a large volume of valuable experience and evidence on the record of the Houses of the Oireachtas. Our four major reports on fuel laundering, vehicle clamping, funding models for the proposed Foras na Gaeilge and water provision have contributed greatly to the public debate on these issues. We have reflected the commitment of the committee to contribute to public policy.
I hope this committee will be equally effective. We will continue our work and build upon what we have already achieved. We have lost our responsibility for transport, tourism and sport but we will retain a very wide brief which includes six different areas of responsibility, namely, environment, community, local government, arts, heritage and the Gaeltacht. We will need to be very selective and effective in our targeting and our work. However, that is a matter for our work programme which we will discuss later in the meeting.
With regard to the election of the Leas-Chathaoirleach to this committee, I would like to suspend this until later in the meeting or, if necessary, defer it to the next meeting. I propose we go into private session for the remainder of the meeting.
