As I have said before in the House, we have modelled our approach to sponsorship on that applied by the very successful Danish Presidency and my officials have had discussions with their Danish counterparts on all aspects of sponsorship including possible conflicts of interest. In line with the Danish model, it was decided that, rather than approaching individual companies, we would seek expressions of interest from companies through the various umbrella groups for business in Ireland, such as the Irish Business and Employers Confederation, the Chambers of Commerce of Ireland, the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation, the Irish Hotel Federation and the Society of the Irish Motor Industry to outline the sponsorship possibilities. In this way, the offer of sponsorship for the Presidency was available to all. We have also been clear that all sponsorship will be in the form of goods and services – no cash sponsorship will be considered.
All expressions of interest in sponsoring the Presidency are vetted by an interdepartmental committee with responsibility for planning for the Presidency. If there was any likely risk of a conflict of interest, the interdepartmental group would not enter into any commitments with that company. There is no question of the sponsorship arrangements in any way compromising the conduct of the Government in the course of the Presidency or in the future in any fashion. This was made clear during discussions with the companies involved.
Question No. 77 answered with Question No. 74.
