Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

As regards the commissionership issue, I refer to the June European Council's conclusions. In fact, direction has to be given by the Council for that process to begin, and that will probably be considered at the next meeting of the Council, at the end of this month. Obviously I am au fait with any developments taking place there.

On the road traffic legislation, the Minister has been seeking North-South co-ordination at ministerial council level. As we have seen with the mutual recognition of disqualifications and speeding, the need for co-ordination is very beneficial and important from a road safety point of view. The statistical data in Border areas show an improvement where co-ordination takes place in these areas of policy. Clearly, the legislation continues to be progressed in terms of its preparation and the Minister will obviously look to the co-ordinating mechanism that could be considered there also.

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