Ms Sorcha Tunney:

We can share the proposed calendar with the committee. That would be great. At European Parliament level, the amendments are a three-stage process. There is a parliament stage. The committees have published many of their opinions and are consulting their members. We have engaged very proactively with MEPs. I will share with the committee that as part of the process Irish MEPs are active on this file, in particular, Barry Andrews, Chris MacManus, Frances Fitzgerald and others. It is good to see that. Once they have tabled their amendments, there is a cut-off point around October-November. At the same time, the Council is moving through the Czech Presidency. It has had four meetings and we are moving to a situation where it will have five or six more quickly over the next few months.

Around December or January, we will be looking at decisions and positions being taken. That is why we feel quite strongly that we would like to know where Ireland stands on this. As regards this committee, there is a little urgency. It would be great to have other stakeholders before it to talk about this in a wider manner. In particular, we would like to facilitate human rights defenders to come in, or representatives from other affected communities or trade unions. The deadline might move but the parliament is sticking to it at present. We will share the full calendar with the committee if that is okay, but we are looking at a deadline of 2023 or 2024 to have this transposed.