James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

As we have more than the four members required for a quorum, I will proceed. Perhaps a few more members will join us. Today, the committee will meet in public session. As this is our inaugural meeting, we will shortly go into private session to discuss procedural matters and our work programme for the term ahead. We have received apologies from Deputy Creed.

I take this opportunity to welcome members to the first meeting of the Joint Committee on Justice. It is certainly a great honour and privilege for me to serve as Chair of this group. I look forward to working with all of the members. I was delighted to see the names and realise who would be joining the committee. We have a strong team. I am sure we will have a productive and interesting term of business ahead.

I remind members to please switch off their mobile phones as they interfere with the recording equipment, particularly when people are speaking.

I hope that everybody has had a chance to review the agenda. The bulk of our business today involves procedural housekeeping and that will be done in private session.

As members will be aware, some committees have begun nominating Vice Chairs and dealing with procedural matters of that sort. However, it is not on our agenda to deal with that matter today. I propose that we do it at our next meeting. It will take us a week for us to find our feet and get up and running. We will proceed to nominate a Vice Chair at next week's meeting. If members are interested in putting themselves forward for that position or if groups or parties wish to nominate individuals, they should do so by contacting the clerk to the committee, Mr. Alan Guidon. The preferred contact address is justice@oireachtas.ie, which can be used for correspondence regarding nominations or, indeed, any other issues that may arise.

We will now get down to the nitty-gritty by proceeding to discuss the business of the committee in private session.