Senator Mary Seery Kearney:  I move:

That, notwithstanding anything in Standing Orders—

(1) a Special Committee consisting of five members of Seanad Éireann be appointed, to be joined with a Special Committee to be appointed by Dáil Éireann, to form the Joint Committee on Drugs Use (‘the Joint Committee’);

(2) the Joint Committee shall consider the Report of the Citizens' Assembly on Drugs Use (‘the Report’) and shall provide a response to the subject matter of the Report, including a reasoned response to each of the 36 recommendations contained in the Report;

(3) the Joint Committee shall report to both Houses of the Oireachtas on the matter before it within seven months of the first public meeting of the Joint Committee;

(4) the quorum of the Joint Committee shall be four, at least one of whom shall be a member of Seanad Éireann, and one a member of Dáil Éireann;

(5) Members of either House, not being members of the Joint Committee, may attend and take part in proceedings of the Joint Committee, or any sub-Committee thereof, but without having a right to vote or to move motions or amendments, save where they attend, pursuant to Standing Orders, as a substitute for an absent member (or for a substitute not in attendance);

(6) the member of Dáil Éireann nominated by the Independent Group in Dáil Éireann to serve on the Joint Committee shall be Chairperson; and

(7) the Joint Committee shall have the powers defined in paragraphs (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (9) and (10) of Standing Order 72.

Question put and agreed to.