Labour and Social Affairs is the EU Council of Ministers relevant to my Department. This Council deals mainly with issues which relate to employment and the remit of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and less frequently with issues relevant to the remit of my Department. There have been ten meetings of this Council since I took up office as Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs on 26 June 1997, but at none of these meetings were there discussions of substance on items relevant to my Department that would have required my presence.
Issues did arise relating to my Department that were not of a substantive nature and these were dealt with by the main representative for Ireland at the meeting. The social attaché in the permanent representation to the EU with responsibility for social security matters also attended these meetings, together with an official from my Department when required.
The first meeting of the Council of Ministers for Labour and Social Affairs took place on 27 June 1997, the day after my appointment. Ireland was represented at that meeting by the deputy permanent representative to the EU. The Minister of State with responsibility for labour, trade and consumer affairs or the deputy permanent representative represented Ireland at subsequent meetings and details of such attendances will be supplied by my colleague, the Tánaiste, in her reply.
In January 1998 I had meetings with the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Social Security in the UK and later that month with the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State with responsibility for the Department of Health and Social Services, Northern Ireland.
On 24 June 1998, I availed of the opportunity to have a brief meeting with the Secretary of State for Social Security, United Kingdom, at the meeting of the OECD Employment, Labour and Social Affairs Committee at ministerial level on social policy.
In October 1998 I attended a European symposium in Vienna on A Society for All Ages, and similarly availed of the opportunity to meet the Federal Minister for Labour, Health and Social Affairs, Austria.