Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman for suspending the meeting. That was kind.

I welcome the Minister, Deputy Fitzgerald. She has been in the Seanad already several times since her appointment as Minister but this is her first time before the committee, and I welcome her here and wish her the very best of luck.

I thank the Minister for the comprehensive briefing on the Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting. I had a couple of questions concerning items, that were on the agenda that she referred to in her speech and that we had previously looked at on the committee. Apologies, if somebody has raised them already.

The first was the issue of the impending United Kingdom opt-out, which we in this committee considered in some detail over the past year and on which we expressed concern about its potential disruption. The Minister has given us some comfort by saying that the United Kingdom reached this understanding that it will opt back into 35 measures, including the most important instruments for co-operation between our two jurisdictions. Is there anything the United Kingdom is not opting back into that is of any significance? Certainly, that was something the committee had a concern about previously.