Finance Committee, 03 Dec 2002

Meeting date: Tuesday, December 3, 2002

Official Report 89KB pdf

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Convener

Agenda item 2 is the choosing of a new convener. The Parliament has determined that the committee's convener should be a member of the Labour party, so I invite nominations of members of that party.

I nominate Tom McCabe. In doing so, I would like to make it clear that there was a fault on the Parliament's website yesterday, which suggested that I had been rapidly reincarnated in the form of convener. That was an administrative error, which has now been corrected.

We do not need a seconder for the nomination. Are there any further nominations?

Members indicated disagreement.

Mr Tom McCabe was chosen as convener.

I invite Tom McCabe to take the chair.

Thank you, colleagues. This is a new experience for me, but I shall do my best to ensure that we get through our business timeously and as fairly as possible.

I think that it was me who put your name on the web yesterday, Richard, just to see whether I could get out of the job—obviously it did not work.

As Elaine Thomson did, I want to thank Des McNulty for his time as convener and I congratulate him on his recent ministerial appointment. He will be making a speedy reappearance in front of some members of the committee this afternoon when he appears at the children and poverty cross-cutting review. [Interruption.] I am sorry. I understand that that meeting has now been postponed. That is what happens; nobody told me about that.

Disappearing ministers already.

The prospect of facing Brian Adam again must have been too much for Des McNulty.

I am not even a member of that cross-cutting group.