Public Petitions Committee, 20 Mar 2007

Meeting date: Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Official Report 256KB pdf

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Annual Report

Item 2 on the agenda is consideration of our draft annual report for 7 May 2006 to 2 April 2007. All committees are required to produce an annual report, as I am sure members are aware from previous experience. To ensure consistency, the style of annual reports is agreed centrally and is used by all committees. Do members have any comments on the draft? Are we happy to sign it off?

Members indicated agreement.

Before I close the meeting, I thank all members of the committee for their service and hard work in addressing all the petitions that have come before us over the four years for which I have been convener. I also thank former members of the committee for their efforts and put on record my gratitude to the committee's clerks David McGill, Richard Hough and Eileen Martin, who have done a terrific job in keeping us abreast of all the information that we have required and who have tolerated all our requests and demands for more information. We also received tremendous support from the committee's former senior clerks Jim Johnston and Steve Farrell and from Joanne Clinton, who put up with me talking about football at all our preparatory meetings with great grace.

As well as the clerks, I thank the staff of the official report, who have had to sit through our bickering over petitions and who have done their best to put our discussions on the record.

I thank everyone for the work that they have put in and the support that they have given me in my role as convener. It has been a great four years in which we have done some good work. Obviously, we have not satisfied everyone who has come before us, but, given the potential for conflict that exists on the committee, in the main we have managed to act highly consensually. The Public Petitions Committee stands out in the committee system, but it has the potential to be one of the most political committees. The fact that we have had divisions and voted along party lines on very few occasions is something for which we can pat ourselves on the back. Everyone came to the committee with a positive agenda and we have worked hard on behalf of the petitioners who have come before us. I thank everyone for their commitment and support.

It would be remiss of members not to congratulate you on your chairing of the committee, convener. The consensual approach that we have adopted has been largely down to your good humour, good nature and good judgment. We all appreciate that, even though we have not necessarily always agreed with you. You have steered us through what could have been, as you said, shark-infested waters with good grace.

Thank you very much.

Meeting closed at 11:45.