I ask everybody to turn off their mobile telephones during the meeting and not just put them on silent because they interfere with the microphones.
The first item on the agenda concerns the minutes of the meeting of 12 January 2010, which have been circulated. Are they agreed? Agreed.
The next item is correspondence. I will go through the items of correspondence which have been received since the last committee meeting. The first item is document No. 2010/711, the GLOBE international newsletter, which we note.
The next item is 2010/712, a list of decisions taken by the Joint Committee on European Scrutiny, which we will note.
The next item is 2010/713 from Senator Denis O'Donovan regarding a request that the committee's forthcoming visit to Cork would include Bandon and Skibbereen. We will come to the Cork visit as part of travel, which is our next item on the agenda. Is that agreed? Agreed.
The next item is 2010/714, a request for the forthcoming visit to Cork to include a presentation on the proposed solution from Paudie Barry, engineering surveyor. We will discuss that.
Item 2010/715 is a list of bodies in the Emergency Response Committee. We will note that list for the moment and will invite a couple of those groups to the committee after our visit to Cork.
The next item, 2010/716, is the European Knowledge Network newsletter, which we note.
The next item is the water industry's water link international, which is a newsletter from that organisation.
The next item is from the Cork city manager regarding the flooding crisis. There is a report from Cork City Council, which we will note. We will discuss it as part of the proposed visit to Cork.
The next item is further documentation from Paudie Barry, engineering surveyor, which we will discuss as part of our proposed visit to Cork.
I refer to the other circulars issued to local authorities since our last meeting. The first is SHIP 2010/1, concerning commencement of Part 3 regarding the Housing Act — incremental purchase scheme. Next is SHIP 2010/2, concerning access to social housing for Bulgarian and Romanian nationals. This may be relevant for some people in their constituency work. Then we have WP 1/2010, waste from the extractive industries, to which a statutory instrument refers; WP 12/2009 regarding food waste; WP 2/2010, concerning waste management infrastructure and landfill remediation scheme; LGO1/2010 concerning the nomination of the Irish delegation for the EU Committee of the Regions; and PSSP 01/2010 concerning a code of practice for waste water for single houses. We should hold that one over because that issue concerns the EPA. A delegation from the EPA already appeared before the committee to discuss waste water treatment for single houses and I am aware the issue already has been raised in the local authorities where it will give rise to some discussion. We called for an overall standard in this regard. The circular is included in this group of circulars issued to local authorities, but I suggest we hold it over for further discussion as correspondence at our next meeting. Some people will be happy with the code of practice, but we will discuss the matter the next day. We will not need to bring anybody in from outside, but members may wish to make observations.
The next matter concerns statutory instruments that have been issued recently: SI 540/2009, Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 is a commencement order; SI 562/2009, Housing (Incremental Purchase) Regulations 2009; SI 556/2009, Waste Management (Management of Waste from the Extractive Industries (Regulations) 2009; SI 508/2009, Waste Management (Food Waste) Regulations 2009; and Statutory Instruments 496 and 550 Order and Regulations, which we are all aware commenced on 1 January. This is the notification for local authorities. We note all these items.
The next matter is the annual report. A draft annual report has been circulated to members and a draft work programme. The report is a routine document and contains a summary of everything we did last year, including all the meetings we held and the reports we issued. The draft work programme is a standard work programme dealing with all the headings under our committee. Some members have added suggestions. I make it clear that we are free to add to the work programme as the year progresses. I suggest we formally approve the annual report and work programme.