AN ALL-PARTY COMMITTEE of TDs and Senators will today begin three days of hearings on the impact of the forthcoming Fiscal Compact referendum.
The three-day hearings of the EU Affairs sub-committee, including 13 politicians from all of the Oireachtas’s major parties, will hear the thoughts of ambassadors from other EU countries, Irish MEPs and politicians from other EU member states.
It will also hear from academics, economists, and representatives from civil society and interest groups, as well as from other political groups like Libertas and the Green Party.
Chairman Dominic Hannigan (Labour) said the committee’s job was to “connect the new Treaty with the Irish public in the run-up to referendum day”, and that he hoped the hearings would “stimulate an informed and balanced national debate”.
It is intended that the leaders of each political party and grouping in the Oireachtas will address the committee later in the month. It is not expected to make any formal recommendations on the referendum vote.
TheJournal.ie will carry live streams of the hearings from 11am this morning.
Tuesday 3 April11am: Ambassador of the Czech Republic, H.E. Dr Tomas Kafka; Ambassador of Denmark, H.E. Niels Pultz; Ambassador of Greece, H.E. Diana Zagorianou-Prifti; and Ambassador of Poland, H.E. Marcin Nawrot.
2pm: William Cash MP (Chairman of the European Scrutiny Committee of the House of Commons); Nessa Childers, MEP for Ireland East; Marian Harkin, MEP for Ireland North-West; Paul Murphy, MEP for Dublin; and Phil Prendergast, MEP for Ireland South.
Wednesday 4 April
11am: Sharon Bowles, MEP for South East England (Chair of the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee); and Lord Lyndon Harrison (Chair of the House of Lords Sub-Committee on Economic and Financial Affairs and International Trade).
2pm: Dan O’Brien, Economics Editor of the Irish Times; Prof Philip Lane, Professor of International Macroeconomics at Trinity College Dublin; and Jim Power, Chief Economist with Friends First.
4pm: Dr Gavin Barrett, UCD School of Law; Dr John O’Brennan, NUIM Department of Sociology.
Thursday 5 April
11:30am: Mark Fielding, Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association (ISME); Brendan Bruen, Financial Services Ireland (FSI); John Bryan, Irish Farmers Association; Brendan Butler, Irish Business and Employers Confederation (IBEC).
2pm: Deirdre Garvey, The Wheel; Brendan Halligan, Institute of International and European Affairs; Noelle O’Connell, European Movement Ireland.
4pm: Declan Ganley, Libertas Institute; and Roderic O’Gorman, Green Party
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