Apologies have been received from Deputy Joanna Tuffy and Senator Paudie Coffey.
The first item on the agenda is the minutes of the meeting of 16 February 2010 which have been circulated. Are they agreed? Agreed. Next is correspondence. No. 740 from the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government is a further reply to queries raised by Deputy Christy O'Sullivan regarding the appointment of returning officers. Does the Deputy want it noted?
We will leave it.
We will hold it over. That is agreed. No. 741 is a follow-up request to visit Moore Street and allow relatives of the leaders of the 1916 Rising to meet the joint committee regarding the designation of sites in Dublin's Moore Street as a national monument to the 1916 Rising. What are the view of members on the request from the 1916 relatives' committee?
It is important that we meet it. It is would be very appropriate.
It has asked us to visit the area in Moore Street and meet it.
I fully support that.
We will agree to arrange a visit. Those members of the committee who are available will meet it and take its presentation. We will try to set up a suitable time to visit the site concerned in Moore Street.
We could go early on a Tuesday, perhaps at noon.
We will ask as many of the members as possible who are free to attend to meet the committee. We will proceed on that basis. No. 744 is the GLOBE environmental newsletter. We note that. No. 745 is the Europe's World newsletter. We note that. No. 746 is the European Urban Knowledge Network newsletter. We note that. No. 747 is a submission on planning policy from Ms Elizabeth Harris and Ms Sheila Hayes, students in University College Cork, regarding policy papers. We note that and thank them for sending it. We will forward it to the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.
No. 748 is a letter enclosing a curriculum vitae seeking work as a consultant to the committee from Ms Geraldine Cusack. We note that and hold it on file. No. 749 is a report from the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment from Deputy Michael Fitzpatrick on its visit to the Smart Park development at Carton House in Meath and Kildare. Do committee members want to discuss it now or hold it over?
We should defer it to the next meeting. We have a very heavy agenda for the meeting today. It would be unfair to the report to try to rush it through.
We will hold it over.
There are planning issues which we need to discuss. I propose we examine the report at the next meeting.
It is agreed to hold it over until the next meeting.
No. 750 is a press release on the Irish Environmental Researchers colloquium in Limerick from 17 to 19 of February from Frank Convery of Comhar Sustainable Development Council. We note that. No. 751 is a letter from the Domestic Effluent Treatment Association which comments on the proposal to licence domestic septic tanks and sewerage treatment systems. We note that. Members can deal with the correspondence at local authority level as they see fit and we will forward it to the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.
No. 752 is a letter from the Irish Greyhound Board seeking an exemption for the greyhound industry from the Dog Breeding Establishments Bill 2009 which is currently before the Seanad. This committee will discuss the Bill but we will forward the letter to the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy John Gormley, at this stage in order to seek his views on it and ask him to give us a reply before the Bill is on Committee Stage. Is that agreed? Agreed.
No. 753 is a submission to the joint committee on the November flooding of Mardyke residents by Barry Keane and Cork Mardyke residents. We note that and members can take the correspondence into account in the questioning of the ESB today and in the compilation of a report on the flooding, which will be done after we complete our public hearings.
No. 754 is a letter from the private secretary of the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy John Gormley, regarding the cessation of turf cutting. We asked for detailed maps of the 32 bogs which will be affected by it. He said the Department would forward them to the committee in due course, but it would be a voluminous document as the maps involved run to hundreds of pages each. The ten year exemption is due for completion from this year onwards.
Does the Chairman intend to have a discussion on it?
We can. The group has appeared before the committee. The letter states information is on the way. When we receive the information, we will put the issue back on the agenda.
No. 755 is a letter from the Journal Office concerning the referral to the select committee on the Revised Estimates. The Minister proposes that he take the annual Estimates at a meeting on 20 April. Is that provisionally agreed? Agreed. No. 756 is an invitation from Tom Roche, a member of a lobby group whom we met last year, to the official opening of the Wood for Life exhibition in North Strand, Dublin 1, by the former Taoiseach, Deputy Bertie Ahern. We note that.
The committee has received a number of circulars which were issues by the Department since its last meeting. LG 2/2010 concerns limiting expenditure and attendance at local authority conferences and a statutory instrument on the same topic has also been issued. WQ 01/2010 concerns the European Communities Environmental Objectives (Groundwater) Regulations. We note that. FIN 03/2010 concerns the control and monitoring of local authorities' contribution to the general Government balance. We note that. SHIP 04, 05, 06/2010 concerns the Social Housing Investment Programme meetings, the rental accommodation scheme revised recoupment procedures and other arrangements and the capital loan subsidy scheme.
We note the draft travel report which has been circulated regarding the visit by a delegation of the committee to Cork on 4 and 5 February 2010 to meet UCC representatives to discuss electoral reform. A separate report will be compiled on that because the rest of the visit concerned flooding, which will form part of the report on flooding. Is it agreed to approve the draft report on the visit to UCC ? Agreed.
