THE chairman of the Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr Alan Dukes, has criticised the prior briefing of the media on the White Paper on foreign policy before committee members.
At a meeting of the committee yesterday, he said the paper "seemed to be available to one section of the media 10 days before it was published". Journalists were also briefed on the document last Friday. "It would seem to me that governments should regard it as at least as important to brief the foreign affairs committees of their own parliaments as to brief the media."
The committee resolved to consider the 16 chapter document at a number of committee and subcommittee meetings, and to produce a definitive reaction to it by May 15th. The Development and UN sub committees will consider chapters relevant to them, while all committee members will meet to consider other parts.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Spring, will he invited to discuss the document with them in the next few weeks.