Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 5 to 9, inclusive, together.

On 8 May, I travelled to Belfast to attend the Northern Ireland investment conference. I also had meetings with the British Prime Minister, Mr. Brown, the First Minister, Dr. Paisley, and the Deputy First Minister, Mr. McGuinness. On 24 May, I travelled to Cardiff to meet the First Minister of Wales, Mr. Rhodri Morgan, and I also attended the European rugby cup final between Munster and Toulouse on the same day.

With regard to my travel plans for the remainder of 2008, while the programme has not yet been finalised, I intend to travel to the European Councils in June, October and December in my role as Head of Government. I have received a letter of invitation to the Europe-Mediterranean summit in Paris on 13 July. I have not yet had an opportunity to consider the matter but hope it will be possible for me to attend. I also expect to travel to the seventh Asia-Europe summit — the ASEM summit — which takes place in Beijing at the end of October.

The fifth summit of Heads of State and Government of Latin America and the Caribbean and the European Union took place in Lima, Peru on 16 and 17 May. The Irish Government was represented by the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs with responsibility for overseas development, Deputy Peter Power.

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