Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the committee for electing me as Chairman and it is an honour to have that position. I know this is a limited life committee until the formation of a new Government and I gather that the main committees will commence then. I ask people to bear with me as I am a new Deputy and new to the process of chairing a committee in this House. Members are requested to ensure that for the duration of the meeting their mobile phones are completely turned off or switched to aeroplane, safe or flight mode, depending on their device. It is not sufficient for members just to put their phones on silent mode as this maintains the level of interference with the broadcasting system. That is the first time I have had to read it out so I will do it with my own phone anyway. It is the first and most important request.

Members are aware that this committee is established pursuant to Standing Order 112 as a contingency measure, pending the establishment of the committee system of the Thirty-Second Dáil. This committee is established to enable the Dáil to exercise its key role under the Lisbon treaty, in particular to assess the subsidiarity aspects of proposed EU legislation. Today the committee has five EU proposals listed for consideration in that context. Members should be aware that in accordance with the procedure, the committee will take its decisions on EU proposals in public session following initial consideration of the proposals in private session. Therefore, I propose that we go into private session for deliberation at this point.