Minutes of Proceedings

Session: 1999/2000

Date: 16 December 1999

1. Chairperson's business

The Chairperson welcomed Mr McElduff and Mr Wilson to their first meeting of the Committee.

2. Apologies

There were no apologies.

3. Minutes of last meeting

The minutes of the last meeting were agreed.

4. Matters arising

i. Declaration of interests - In relation to a query raised by Mr Hilditch the Chairperson read out some guidance he had recently received. It was agreed that this guidance covered Mr Hilditch's point and should be circulated to the Committee members.

ii. Language promotion - the Committee agreed the brief for a presentation in January by a linguistic expert from UUJ.

5. Statutory Rule

The Committee discussed two Statutory Rules for fishery licence duties submitted by the Department (the Rules were made by the Department on 10 December and are subject to negative resolution). The Department explained that the Rules were due to come into effect from 1 January 2000. A number of questions were put to the Department and the Fisheries Conservancy Board (FCB) by the Committee. The FCB agreed to provide some further information for the Committee. The Committee will consider the matter again at its next meeting in January.

6. Presentations

Dr A McGinley (DCAL), Mr N Carson (DCAL), Dr G Slater (PRONI), Mr M Cory (OSNI), Mr J Walker (NI Millenium/Events Co.) and Dr E Rooney (DCAL) each gave a presentation to the Committee on their respective organisations. The presentations included issues such as staffing, budgets, objectives and their various areas of responsibility.

The Chairperson thanked those mentioned above for their interesting and informative presentations. The presentations were followed by a brief question and answer session covering such issues as language promotion, sports, public records, and ordnance survey issues. The Department agreed to provide written answers to some questions due to insufficient time for verbal responses. The Department also agreed to provide the Committee with a map showing the geographical impact of the Department.

7. Any other business

i. Programme of work - it was agreed that a linguistic expert should be invited to address the Committee on 13 January and the Minister should be invited to address the Committee on 20 January.

ii. The Committee also wanted to know why there was a difference in the budget figure for the Department mentioned in the briefing pack and the actual budget figure announced by the Minister for Finance and Personnel.