Health and Children Committee invites submissions on the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill

As part of its pre-legislative scrutiny process, the Joint Committee on Health and Children has decided to invite written submissions from interested groups or individuals in relation to its review of the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill.

Written submissions should be sent electronically by email (MS Word or equivalent) and should be received not later than 3pm on March 5th 2015 at the following email address only: publichealthbill@oireachtas.ie

The text of the General Scheme for the legislation can be accessed on the Department of Health's website.

It is essential that submissions are concise and to the point.  They should not contain any unnecessary material that does not relate directly to the General Scheme, and should be confined to the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill 2015.  If reference is made to other publications, a link to this publication is sufficient – please do not send these references as separate attachments.

Submissions and communications should only be sent to the email address above and not to individual members of the Committee. Please note that the Clerk will ensure that all members of the Committee receive, in due course, copies of all submissions and communications received.  To avoid confusion and duplication, please do not forward hard copies of submissions made electronically.

In a separate document from your electronic submission, please include a covering letter outlining in brief why you are making a submission.

The covering letter should include your name, your postal address, email address and contact telephone number. You should also indicate in your letter if you would be prepared to appear in public session at any Committee meeting.

The Committee will consider all suitable written submissions received and may decide to invite a number of contributors to public hearings should it be considered necessary.

Important

• Submissions sent to any other e-mail address may not be accepted.
• Anonymous submissions cannot be accepted and will be rejected.
• Petitions and Form letters may not be accepted or published.
• Submissions made to a Committee may be published as received either as part of a Committee report, or separately, if the Committee decides to do so

Format of Submissions

As a general guideline, submissions should always consist of a separate document accompanied by a covering letter. The covering letter should contain your name and contact details (phone number and postal address and, if available, an email address). If the submission is on behalf of an organisation, you should indicate your position in the organisation.

The main document should contain the following information:
(i)    A brief introduction, for example, explaining your area of expertise;
(ii)    Any factual information that you have to offer from which the Committee might be able to draw conclusions, or which could be put to other parties for their reactions;
(iii)    Any recommendations to the Committee which should be as specific as possible and should be summarised at the end of the document; and
(iv)    An executive summary of the main points made in the submission, if your document is more than 10 pages long.

As already indicated, submissions should, where possible, be made by electronic means and it is not necessary to also forward a hard copy of your submission.

Making a submission is a public process.

The Committee is not obliged to accept your document once it has been submitted, nor is it obliged to publish any or all of the submissions if it has been accepted. However, the operations of a parliament are a public process, and you should be aware that any submissions made to a Committee may be published either as part of a Committee report, or separately, if the Committee decides to do so.

Access a more detailed document outlining the guidelines for making a written submission.

View Joint Committee on Health and Children Membership.

Closing Date
The closing date for receipt of submissions is 5 March 2015 at 3pm.

Should you have any queries in relation to this matter, please contact:

Ronan Murphy
Clerk to the Committee
01 618 3000a

Source: oireachtas.ie