Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Whatever the public may think of the merits of this petition, I welcome the fact that it has drawn attention to our work. Some very important issues are contained in the five petitions received today. They concern our health service and education system. That has been the case for the last five years. As we come to the end of this committee's lifetime, it is important to reflect on that. We are submitting a report to the Oireachtas outlining our vision for how this committee will progress in the next term, and how we will align ourselves to the European petitions committee system and the European ombudsman system. We want to ensure that any citizen can raise a matter of public concern, or their vision of how innovative public services could be, and have it discussed at the heart of parliament. We do not want to erect too high a wall; we want to be as flexible as possible. That is why we will facilitate petitions no matter how important, or unimportant, the public may view them as being. Every citizen has a right to bring matters to parliament for discussion and examination. It has been an important opportunity to put all of those issues on the public record. The last petition is inadmissible but the advice is there for the interested parties who are looking in today.

That concludes the public aspect of our meeting today and we will now go back into private session.