Apologies have been received from Deputy Quinn. Any other apologies can be submitted to the secretary. The minutes of the meeting of 18 October have been circulated. Are they agreed? Agreed. Are there any matters arising?
Business of Joint Committee.
The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform replied to a question the day after our last meeting to confirm that the European Community had signed the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of Corruption in September. He said the Commission had noted that the convention fell partially under the exclusive competence of the Community and, therefore, that member states must not ratify it before the European Community had done so or had explicitly authorised them to take such action in accordance with the provisions of Article 300 of the European Community treaties. As I pointed out to the meeting, France and Hungary had gone ahead with ratification. It is now clear, however, that all member states are free to ratify subject to domestic legislative innovations. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, whom we have agreed to invite to the committee, has suggested that, while his officials will begin to prepare the necessary legislation, he does not anticipate being in a position to go to Government with the matter until 2006.
As long as it is January 2006.
To be fair, the Minister said it would be early 2006.
That is fine. We will keep an eye on the matter to ensure the legislation is drafted. It is a very important convention. As there are no other matters, we will suspend the meeting for approximately five minutes to allow the delegation to arrive.
Sitting suspended at 3.10 p.m. and resumed at 3.15 p.m.