Edward Nealon
Question:103 Mr. Nealon asked the Minister for Labour the total number of meetings of working groups chaired by civil servants in his Department during the most recent Irish Presidency of the EC.
Written Answers. - EC Presidency Working Groups Meetings.
Only one working group meeting was chaired by an officer of my Department during the course of the EC Presidency. This was a meeting of the Economic Questions group which dealt with the 9th Amendment to Directive 76/769. In addition, during the Irish Presidency, officers of my Department chaired a number of meetings which co-ordinated the policies of EC member states specifically at the International Labour Conference in Geneva, in June, 1990.
The Council working group which deals with social policy matters generally is the Social Questions Group. That group was chaired during the Presidency by the Social Affairs Counsellor in Brussels who is an officer of the Department of Labour but who is seconded to the Department of Foreign Affairs during the period of service in Brussels. That group normally meets twice a week. The number of meetings of the group during the six month period of the Presidency will be included in the figures supplied by the Minister for Foreign Affairs in reply to another question.
Edward Nealon
Question:104 Mr. Nealon asked the Minister for Energy the total number of meetings of working groups chaired by civil servants in his Department during the most recent Irish Presidency of the EC.
A total of 33 working group meetings on energy matters took place during the period of the Irish Presidency of the EC from January to June 1990. Nine of these were chaired by officials from my Department. The remaining 24 were chaired by an official from my Department on secondment to the Department of Foreign Affairs and will be included in the reply by the Minister for Foreign Affairs.