Martin Conway (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, and his officials. As people will know, this committee was established to scrutinise directives from Europe being transposed into Irish law. Over the summer, the relevant Departments have prepared information notes on these statutory instruments.

I remind members and those watching of this committee's role, which is, as I said, to scrutinise draft EU-related statutory instruments. It has been described as in many ways being a filter committee, one that establishes in the first instance whether it is necessary to refer pending EU-related statutory instruments to sectoral committees for further scrutiny. As part of the process, the Minister and-or the Minister of State appear periodically before the committee to present the proposals at a high level. We do not expect the Minister of State to know every single detail of every proposed statutory instrument or information note being presented.

Before we begin, I will read the note on privilege. I remind members of the long-standing parliamentary practice to the effect they should not comment on, criticise or make charges against a person outside of the Houses or an official either by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable. I invite the Minister of State to give us his opening statement.