Vol. 396 No. 9
67 Mr. Gilmore asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the reason the Secretariat General of the Council of Ministers does not maintain a record of voting and specifically the qualified majority system of voting at meetings of the Council of Ministers; the reason he does not keep such a record; and if he is taking steps to ensure that such voting records are kept.
Since the adoption of the Single European Act the Council of Ministers has approved many hundreds of legislative instruments, Regulations, Directives and Decisions, on the basis of the voting procedure provided in the Treaties. Each instrument indicates the legal basis, and therefore the voting requirement—majority, qualified majority or unanimity.
Comprehensive statistics of the legal basis for Community instruments are not maintained by either the Council Secretariat or the Government. If the Deputy is interested in the voting on a particular decision of the Council, I, or the responsible Minister, would be pleased to answer a question on the legal basis used. I would add that the practice followed by the Secretariat General of the Council is a matter for the Secretariat General itself which is responsible for providing support services for Council meetings.
