Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 9 Mar 1999

Vol. 501 No. 6

Written Answers. - EU Meetings.

Ruairí Quinn

Ceist:

299 Mr. Quinn asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the name of the European Council of Ministers, if any, relevant to his Department; the number of Council meetings he has attended since taking office; the number of meetings attended by an official or permanent representative in his absence; the number of meetings he has had with his equivalent European Ministers outside the Council of Ministers format since taking office; if officials from his Department meet regularly with Commission or other national officials; if so, the regularity with which they meet; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6730/99]

Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs (Mr. D. Ahern)

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.

Officials from my Department meet regularly, generally on an informal basis, with officials from the European Commission usually in the course of their attendance at meetings organised by the European Commission or the EU Council. The most regular of these meetings are the Administrative Commission on Social Security for Migrant Workers, which meets seven times per year approximately and the Group of Directors General for Social Security, which meets on average three times a year.

Such meetings also afford the opportunity for my officials to meet their counterparts from other EU and European economic area, EEA social security administrations. Similar opportunities are availed of in meetings of Council of Europe and OECD committees.

Meetings between officials from the UK Department of Social Security and my Department are held twice yearly to discuss the application of the EU regulations on social security for migrant workers, social security developments of mutual interest at EU level and at the international level generally, and developments at national level in both countries. The latest in this series of meetings took place in Dublin in January of this year.

Officials from my Department also met in February 1998 with their Dutch counterparts concerning workers posted to work temporarily in the Netherlands by their Irish employers and the implementation of the EU social security regulations in this regard.