JOINT COMMITTEE ON EUROPEAN UNION AFFAIRS díospóireacht -
Thursday, 26 Jan 2012

Election of Chairman

Vice Chairman

I thank the Minister of State for her contribution. I wish to focus briefly on a different matter, namely, to inform the committee that an order has been passed in the Dáil to bring Deputy Dominic Hannigan onto the committee. As an act of courtesy, I would like to nominate him as Chairman of the committee to take over from the Minister of State, Deputy Costello. Could I have a seconder please? In deference to the Minister of State's time constraints we will leave statements on that until the end of the meeting. I thank all members for their courtesy to me during my time on the committee.

Deputy Dominic Hannigan took the Chair.

Chairman

I thank Deputy Donohoe for proposing me and the other members of the committee for seconding my nomination. I look forward to working on this committee. I served previously as the Chairman of the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, which was an excellent committee. I wish its members well in their future work and its new Chairman well in that role. I pay tribute to my predecessor, Deputy Joe Costello, and wish him well in his new role as Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade with responsibility for overseas development and trade. I am sure he will do an outstanding job in that role. I pay tribute also to Deputy Paschal Donohoe's chairmanship in recent weeks. He was excellent in that role and I thank him for his support on behalf of the committee. I thank the Minister of State for her presentation. We will now have questions. I call Senator Reilly.