Public Affairs Ireland
ii). Joint Committee on European Union Affairs The work of the Joint Committee on European Affairs is primarily informed by the policies and legislative proposals which emanate from the European Union including the Committee’s priorities in relation to EU matters which are of special importance for Ireland. At the beginning of each year the Committee draws up a work programme which sets out the main topics the Committee will address during the coming year. An interim review of the work programme is undertaken after 6 months to ensure that all items listed are still relevant and are being progressed as planned and also to determine whether any further items need to be added to the work programme. Inter-parliamentary co-operation plays an important part in the work of the Committee. The Committee maintains close links and exchanges strategic information with its counterpart committees in the other 26 EU national parliaments and with the European Parliament. These committees meet every six months in the member state holding the rotating EU Presidency under the umbrella of COSAC and can remain in close contact and exchange information, ideas and experiences through the IPEX inter-parliamentary EU information exchange website.
The Committee holds discussions and exchanges views with invited speakers on a wide range of subjects, including for example EU institutional reform, agriculture and trade policy, enlargement and the EU’s relations with its immediate neighbours. It holds a monthly meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs or the Minister of State for European Affairs prior to each meeting of the General Affairs and External Relations Council in Brussels
Clerk to the Committee Siobhán Malone Email: siobhan.malone@oireachtas.ie Telephone: 01 6183945
Chairperson Joe Costello TD (Labour) Tel: 01 6183896 Email: joe.costello@ orieachtas.ie Deputy Costello is the current TD for Dublin Central and has been a member of the Oireachtas since his appointment to Seanad Éireann in 1989. He is a former member of several committees including the Dáil Committee on justice, equality, women’s rights and defence, the Sub-Committee of the Barron Report on the Dublin and Monaghan Bombings of 1974, the Joint Committee on European affairs (between 2006 and 2010), the Joint Committee on EU scrutiny, the Sub-Committee on Irelands future in the European Union (from 2008 to 2009) and the Sub-Committee on the Review of the Role of the Oireachtas in European Affairs in 2010.
Members Deputies:
Mick Wallace
Independent
Joe Costello
Labour
Senators:
Paschal Donohoe
Fine Gael
Colm Burke
Fine Gael
Timmy Dooley
Fianna Fáil
Fidelma Healy Eames
Fine Gael
Bernard J. Durkan
Fine Gael
James Heffernan
Labour
Colm Keaveney
Labour
Terry Leyden
Fianna Fáil
Séan Kyne
Fine Gael
Kathryn Reilly
Sinn Fein
Pádraig Mac Lochlainn
Sinn Fein
Rónán Mullen
Independent
Joe O’Reilly
Fine Gael
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Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
the Privileges and Procedures, the House Services Committee and the Committee on Enterprise and Small Business. Prior to Pat’s election to Dáil Éireann, he was a member of Clare County Council and the Vocational Educational Committee from June 1999 to 2002.