Liam Twomey (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I suggest that we deal with correspondence in private session and start immediately with public business as our guests must leave at 3 p.m.

The agenda for this meeting is a review of the annual growth survey for 2013 with the European Commission Representation in Ireland. The committee has prioritised this item in its EU scrutiny work programme for this year.

The committee appreciates the importance of the European semester and the role the European Commission's annual growth survey plays in the revised budgetary framework. It also appreciates the important role parliaments and, in particular, the Oireachtas can play in the European semester process. Both the annual growth survey discussion with the Commission and the draft stability programme update with the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, on 24 April are, to a degree, immaterial because Ireland is limited by the memorandum of understanding which applies to it as a programme country. We must, however, seek to make the European semester process part of the DNA of this committee because once the process becomes fully operational, the committee will have an opportunity to offer its views on the revised budgetary framework. The role of the Oireachtas and the committee will be strengthened as a result. By meeting the representatives of the Commission today to discuss the annual growth survey and the Minister on 24 April to discuss the draft stability programme update we will learn how to better structure our engagement in order that when Ireland exits the current economic adjustment programme, the committee will be ready for full engagement and there will be far more meat on the bone as the full value of the European semester becomes apparent.

I welcome Mr. Nigel Nagarajan, resident adviser on economic and financial affairs; Mr. Jonathan Claridge, head of the political section and, Mr. Graham Stull, economic analyst, from the European Commission Representation in Ireland. Am I correct in stating Mr. Stull used to work in the Oireachtas?