Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

No other members are offering. We have essentially agreed that we will keep the petition open and put a horizon of approximately six months on it, pending the publication of the Government's report. I want to pay due respect to what Deputy Cassells has said about the issues relating to the jurisdiction of County Meath. When petitions come before us, it is important in the first instance that they come before us in the correct and appropriate manner.

We are keeping this petition open because the committee feels that the petitioners have the right to be heard. I agree with Deputy Cassells that from a territorial perspective if the petition seeks to traverse a border for which it has no mandate then one could argue on the basis of common sense and practicality that it would be very easy to close the petition. The committee has given due consideration and this is the reason we are keeping it open and also in deference to the Members of the Oireachtas who are representatives of Louth, who have spoken on this issue.

The committee proposes to forward a copy of the correspondence we have received on this issue from the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government to all Members of the Oireachtas, Senators and Deputies for the Louth and Meath constituencies, so they will all be furnished with a copy. I thank the committee members for agreement on this issue.

The next petition received for consideration is Petition No. P0001/18. It is proposed to forward to a copy of the response from the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment to the petitioner informing him of the Private Members' Bill on waste reduction and to close the petition. Is that agreed? Agreed.

I shall now turn to Petition No. P00040/17 regarding Respreeza. I understand that the petitioner has withdrawn the petition. The committee respects her right to withdraw the petition but we acknowledge that we received the petition and gave it some consideration. This petition will be withdrawn. Is that agreed? Agreed.