In the past two months, since 28 March 1998, there have been three substantive meetings of the General Affairs Council. These meetings took place on 30-31 March, 27 April and 25 May.
I represented Ireland at the General Affairs Council on 27 April and 25 May. As regards the 30-31 March General Affairs Council, Ireland was represented by Minister of State Kitt and Minister of State Fahey.
In addition to these three substantive meetings, the General Affairs Council met once in special session in the margins of the World Trade Organisation Meeting in Geneva on 18 May. On that occasion, Minister of State Kitt, who has responsibility for international trade, represented Ireland.
I am arranging to send the Deputy a list of Council meetings in all formations, totalling 23 in number, over the past two months. Included in the list, in addition to the Council meetings to which I have just referred, is a Special Council meeting on EMU, which was held in Brussels on 2-3 May, exceptionally at the level of Heads of State or Government. Ireland was represented on that occasion by the Taoiseach, who was accompanied by the Minister for Finance, Deputy McCreevy, and Minister of State Fahey.
The Council in formations other than the General Affairs Council also met on a number of other occasions during the period, including ECOFIN, which the Minister for Finance attended on 21 April, 1 May, 3 May and 19 May. The Minister for Agriculture and Food participated in the meetings of the Agriculture Council on 31 March, 20-21 April and 25-26 May. There were four occasions on which Ireland was represented at official level: the Social Affairs Council on 7 April, the Health Council on 30 April, the Internal Market Council on 18 May, and the Culture and Audiovisual Affairs Council today, 28 May.