Managing Europe From Home: The Europeanisation of the Irish ...

to ensure adequate servicing of its four sub-committees the Joint Committee
originally sought an allocation of fourteen officials together with secretarial
assistance. In the end, the actual allocation made to the Joint Committee was much
more modest, consisting of a Clerk, an Assistant Clerk and two Higher Executive
Officers, together with secretarial assistance (Robinson, 1979, 17-8). This constraint
on financial and technical resources was to continue throughout its existence.
At first glance, the committee’s output of reports on legislation appears impressive.
In the first four years of its existence, the committee published 59 reports.
However, most of these reports were of a technical nature and drafted by the
committee’s secretariat. Thus the subject matter, though often of great importance
to persons directly concerned, did not lend itself to formal debate. Both Houses of
the Oireachtas were not obliged to debate any of the reports and, while a significant
number were discussed in the Seanad, in the period from 1978 to 1989 only three
reports were debated in the Dáil. 14 In addition, the Committee did not have a
mandate to examine major changes in the European landscape.
In its review of functions in 1991, the sixth Joint Committee recommended that its
terms of reference be expanded to include the power to examine all proposals
affecting the Community’s development. It noted that if the committee was to be
more effective in carrying out its tasks, it would require greater secretarial resources
and greater scope for employing consultants and outside experts. It also called for a
formal mechanism to be put in place for debating the reports of the Joint Committee
in both Houses of the Oireachtas. 15 Instead of reforming the Joint Committee on
Secondary Legislation in the aftermath of the Maastricht referendum and the
formation of the Fianna Fáil/Labour Party coalition government, a new Joint
Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs was set up in 1993. The Joint Committee
on Secondary Legislation was reconstituted as the Joint Committee on European
Affairs.
From 1997 to 2002, staff of the Committee included a clerk, two
administrators and one half-time policy advisor. A consultancy firm was also
employed by the Committee. At the end of the 28 th Oireachtas (1997-2002, total
14 41 reports were debated in the Seanad from May 1978 to February 1989. The
three reports debated in the Dáil were: Action in the Cultural Sector (1978),
Financing of the Community Budget (1979) and the European Parliament Draft
Treaty Establishing the European Union (1985).
15 Sixth Joint Committee on the Secondary Legislation of the European Communities
Report No.7, Review of the Functions of the Joint Committee, 13 February 1991.