Co-Chairman (Deputy Jerry Buttimer):

I apologise to the Minister of State's officials, staff, those in the Gallery and Members of the Seanad for the delay. Parliamentary democracy insists on votes being held. I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Justice and Equality, Deputy Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, to our meeting. This is his first visit to a committee meeting involving the Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality and the Joint Committee on Health and Children. I thank him for his presence and for agreeing to hold a joint meeting of these committees with regard to his new brief and the national drugs strategy.

The committees had an interesting first session this morning and I thank Mr. Packie Kelly and Mr. Tim Murphy from Teach na Daoine and the Cavan-Monaghan drugs awareness project for their presentation. We are keen to consider several proposals with regard to the issues raised this morning.

My Co-Chairman, Deputy Stanton, has made a proposal which we will discuss at the end of our meeting. I call on my Co-Chairman to make a few remarks.