Rural Development Committee, 30 Apr 2002

Meeting date: Tuesday, April 30, 2002

Official Report 260KB pdf

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Scottish Parliament Rural Development Committee Tuesday 30 April 2002 (Afternoon)

[The Convener opened the meeting at 14:01]

Good afternoon. I welcome committee members, witnesses and members of the public to this meeting of the Rural Development Committee. I also extend a welcome to Linda Smith, who is shadowing Richard Lochhead as part of the Scottish Parliament's business exchange programme. She might be pleased to hear that I cannot invite her to speak to the agenda, but it is nice to have her here with us. I hope that she gets something out of the afternoon.

We have a full agenda this afternoon. If we can get through it all, the committee will not have to meet next week. If we do not have time to consider all the items, we will have to carry over a couple to next week. I hope that members will not be averse to doing a little bit of overtime if it means getting through the agenda.