Apologies have been received from Deputy Cuffe and Senator Coffey. The minutes of the meeting of 1 September have been circulated. Are they agreed? Agreed.
The next item on our agenda is correspondence received by the joint committee and circulated since the last meeting. The first item is the annual report of the Housing Finance Agency which we will be discussing as the main business of the meeting. We will note this correspondence.
We have received a letter from An Bord Pleanála in response to a letter issued to the board on 14 July in connection with the waste facility in Usk, County Kildare. People will remember that there were a couple of High Court reviews and we asked for details of costs. The board states in its letter that costs have not been fully submitted or completed at this stage and that the information is not available. I suggest we note this correspondence.
I would like the committee to agree that when any correspondence such as this is discussed in public session, it should be placed in the public arena. I will ask the secretariat to make arrangements to ensure copies of such correspondence are made available on the website in case people wish to look up the details of the meetings at which they are discussed. In due course these will be scanned and the correspondence we discuss in public session will be available to all and sundry. If there is a particularly sensitive item, we may decide not to publish it, but where we discuss correspondence in public session, it should be available to the public. The House facilities are very poor at placing copies of correspondence, company minutes and transcripts of meetings on the Oireachtas website. We will ask the secretariat to come back to us with information on the potential timeframe for this. To make things easier, if there are ever queries from members of the public or journalists about items we discuss in public session, we should ensure the secretariat is in a position to issue them without having to obtain specific clearance each time. Is that agreed? Agreed.
The next item is observations on the McCarthy report from the Irish National Community and Voluntary Forum. We will note this correspondence and perhaps send it to the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government because it will come under the budget heading for that Department. We will ask the Minister to consider the work carried out by this forum. Is that agreed? Agreed.
The next item is highlights from Repak's activity report which I suggest we note. Is that agreed? Agreed.
The next item is a communication from Repak about self-compliance with packaging regulations, which consists of recommendations and conclusions from Repak in response to our list of self-compliant companies. The correspondence also seeks a meeting with the committee. Members will recall that previously there was a mechanism whereby people could deal with their obligations under the waste packaging regulations by either registering with Repak or individually registering with a local authority. We received a list from each local authority — although this was not available previously — of the companies which were registering locally, which will provide information for the Department and Repak on companies which may not be following either route with regard to meeting their packaging responsibilities. Repak has thanked us for getting the information which we circulated previously and is seeking a further meeting. We will agree to have a meeting but not set a date at this stage. We will discuss the matter again in due course as part of our work programme. Is that agreed? Agreed.
The next item is a letter from the Minister about the BurrenLIFE project in response to our letter following up on the meeting we held with this organisation. Does any member have a comment on the documentation for the BurrenLIFE project? It is an acknowledgement from the Department which will come back to us again on the issue.
The next item is a letter from Deputy Hogan requesting a follow-up meeting with the chairperson and acting CEO of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority. As we know, there have been many developments in that organisation since we met the chairperson earlier in the year. Perhaps Deputy Hogan would like to comment on this.
