Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I propose to takes Questions Nos. 4 to 16, inclusive, and 169 together.

The Cabinet committee on economic renewal last met on 27 July 2009. The date of its next meeting is scheduled for tomorrow, 7 October. Membership of the Cabinet committee on economic renewal, which I chair, includes the Tánaiste, Minister for Finance, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and Minister for Health and Children, with other Ministers attending as appropriate. As I indicated to the House in February, the Cabinet committee on housing, infrastructure and public private partnerships, PPPs, and its supporting cross-departmental team, have now been subsumed within these arrangements.

The Cabinet committee on social inclusion, children and integration has met four times since June 2007. The Cabinet committee on health has met on 15 occasions since June 2007. The next meeting of the Cabinet committee on climate change and energy security is scheduled to take place tomorrow, 7 October 2009, with further meetings as required during the remainder of 2009.

To further develop policies in the area of climate change an informal expert advisory panel on climate change and energy security has been established with international and national experts to advise the Cabinet committee on the potential for, and cost of, greenhouse gas reductions in the non-ETS sector. A list of members of the informal expert advisory panel established by the Cabinet committee is being circulated with this reply. I support the idea of close co-operation with the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Climate Change and Energy Security in the run-up to the Copenhagen summit in December and I have written to the Chairman of the committee suggesting that the best means of achieving this be considered by the relevant officials.

In conclusion, I emphasise that Cabinet committees are an integral part of the Cabinet process. Questions as to the business conducted at Cabinet or Cabinet committee meetings have never been allowed in the House on the grounds that they are internal to Government. The reasons for this approach are founded on sound policy principles and the need to avoid infringing the constitutional protection of Cabinet confidentiality. Membership of the Informal Expert Advisory Committee on Climate Change: Professor Stefan Proost, Faculty of Business and Economics (FBE), Department of Economics, K.U. Leuven; Professor Alan Matthews, Professor of European Agricultural Policy in the Department of Economics, School of Social Sciences and Philosophy, Trinity College Dublin; Professor Frank Convery, Professor of Environmental Studies, College of Human Sciences, School of Geography, Planning & Environmental Policy, University College Dublin and Chairman of Comhar; Professor Thomas Sterner, Professor of Environmental Economics, Gothenburg; Jack Short, Secretary General, International Transport Forum; Paul Watkiss, Independent consultant specialising in environmental and economic policy advice; Brendan Walsh, Professor Emeritus of Economics in University College Dublin. Professor Peter Clinch, Special Adviser to the Taoiseach

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