Mary O'Rourke (Fianna Fail)

The Order of Business today is No. 1, a referral motion whereby the subject matter of Nos. 18, 19 and 20 on today's Order Paper are being referred to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights for consideration, to be taken without debate; No. 2, a referral motion whereby the subject matter of No. 17 on today's Order Paper is being referred to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Communications, the Marine and Natural Resources for consideration, to be taken without debate; No. 3, Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (Amendment) Bill 2004 — Committee and Remaining Stages, to be taken on the conclusion of the Order of Business until 1.30 p.m.; and No. 4, Civil Service Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2004 — Committee and Remaining Stages, to be taken at 2.30 p.m. and to conclude not later than 5 p.m. There will be a sos from 1.30 p.m. until 2.30 p.m.

I wish to explain the motions being referred to joint committees. No. 18 relates to support for the efforts made by member states to improve the management of the return of illegal migrants, including the enhancement of co-operation between EU states in this area; No. 19 relates to the establishment of the third phase of the European refugee fund in order to continue to support the development of a common EU asylum policy through the provision of support for projects in the areas of reception of asylum seekers, integration of refugees and voluntary return of refugees; and No. 20 relates to the establishment of the European fund for the integration of third country nationals for the period 2007 to 2013 and is to support the efforts of member states to enable legally resident third country nationals to integrate and take an active part in European society. I understand the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights will sit next Wednesday to discuss these motions, which will return to the House the following Friday. We will endeavour to allow at least one hour to debate the issues. I would expect Members of this House who are members of the committee to attend the meeting and be here if and when we get to debate those issues on Friday, 1 July.

Following the Prestige disaster off the coast of Spain in November 2002, a number of initiatives on maritime safety and the protection of the marine environment were proposed and-or undertaken at EU and international level. Among these was a proposal on ship source pollution and on the introduction of sanctions, including criminal sanctions for pollution offences.