The President, Mrs McAleese has called a meeting of the Council of State next Thursday to discuss the invitation from the Government's Millennium Committee to address a joint sitting of the Houses of the Oireachtas on its last day this century, December 16th, on the theme of the millennium. Former president, Mary Robinson, met the council to discuss not only addresses, but on notable occasions legislation - to decide whether its constitutionality should be tested in the Supreme Court.
Mrs McAleese will seek the council's views on the invitation itself and then on the topics she should address. The council members have been summoned to Aras an Uachtarain for 5 p.m. and it is expected that the meeting will commence with a period of silence to remember the late Jack Lynch.
Ex-officio members are the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern; Tanaiste, Mary Harney; Chief Justice, Liam Hamilton; president of the High Court, Frederick Morris; Ceann Comhairle, Seamus Pattison; Cathaoirleach of the Seanad, Brian Mullooly and AG, Michael McDowell. It also includes former presidents, Mary Robinson and Paddy Hillery; former taoisigh, Liam Cosgrave, Charlie Haughey, Garret FitzGerald, Albert Reynolds and John Bruton; and former chief justices, Tom O'Higgins and Tom Finlay. The President's nominees are Brian Crowley MEP, Northerner, Noel Steward; businessman, Martin Naughton; psychologist, Ruth Curtis; trade unionist, Christina Carney-Flynn; student, Gordan Brett and Sister Stanislaus Kennedy.
Thursday's meeting is the first called by Mrs McAleese since she took office two years ago and, because it is merely about a speaking engagement, is unlikely to be in any way argumentative. She has had no occasion to date to discuss with the council the referral of legislation to the courts, but laws such as the new Equality Bill may give rise to such action in the future. For now, most interest is in whether or not C.J.H. will turn up.