Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 70: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he will report on the work in 2006 to date of the internal market unit in his Department; the main plans for this unit for the remainder of 2006; the level of staffing and budget assigned to this unit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32068/06]

Michael Ahern (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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The Internal Market Section is part of the Market Access Unit of my Department. Its staff complement is an Assistant Principal Officer, a Higher Executive Officer, an Executive Officer and a Clerical Officer. The cost of the Section is met from within the administrative budget of the Department.

The role of the Section is to co-ordinate and negotiate Ireland's approach to certain aspects of the EU's Internal Market, with particular reference to the importance of the acquis communitaire being applied correctly, transparently and in a timely fashion.

During the first half of the year, the Section was heavily engaged in the ongoing discussions on the draft Services Directive. This involved discussions with other Departments and with stakeholders, including the social partners, as well as discussions at EU level within the framework of the Council. The Competitiveness Council reached political agreement on the draft Directive on 29th May and adopted a Common Position on it on 24th July, largely on the basis of the revised Commission proposal of 4th April. The second reading of the draft Directive is now underway in the European Parliament. There will be further consultations with Departments and stakeholders, as necessary.

The Irish SOLVIT Centre is based in the Internal Market Section. SOLVIT is a network launched by the European Commission in 2002 to solve problems that EU citizens or businesses are experiencing with the public administrations of EU Member States. (There is a SOLVIT Centre in each EU and EEA Member State.) These problems are associated with a denial of their Internal Market rights due to EU measures not being applied correctly.

So far this year, the SOLVIT Centre has dealt with over 80 cases and queries from citizens (including citizens of other Member States and third country nationals with ties to EU nationals) and businesses, involving social welfare issues, insurance issues, pension rights, taxation issues, issues relating to motor vehicles, professionals wishing to register in this or another Member State, the rules applying to products sold on the market of another Member State and the right of third country nationals with ties to EU nationals to live here.

The Centre attended the Spring SOLVIT Workshop in Brussels and the Summer SOLVIT Workshop in Oslo, and will host the Winter SOLVIT 2006 Workshop in Dublin in November.

The Section co-ordinates Ireland's input to the European Commission's Internal Market Information (IMI) System. This is a new Commission initiative designed to create real time links between internal market officials in Member States to enable them to exchange the necessary information to ensure that EU Directives with co-operation/mutual assistance provisions are properly implemented.

The Section prepared Ireland's submission to the European Commission in response to the Commission's public consultation in April on the future of the Single Market. (The submission is available on the Commission's website at http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/strategy/ index_en.htm.) The Commission is undertaking a general review of the Single Market for submission to the June 2007 meeting of the European Council. Internal Market Section will continue to co-ordinate Ireland's position on this issue in consultation with other Departments and stakeholders, as appropriate.

The Section is one of a number of Sections in this Department and others that monitors Ireland's rate of transposition of Internal Market Directives with particular reference to the Internal Market Scoreboard, which is published each summer.

The Section is the National Contact Point for Ireland for the European Commission's Technical Assistance and Information Exchange (TAIEX) Office. TAIEX provides assistance to new Member States and Candidate States on issues relating to the transposition and application of the acquis communitaire.

The Section is the National Contact Point for Ireland for Regulation 2679/98 on the functioning of the internal market in relation to the free movement of goods among the Member States. Under the Regulation, where an obstacle occurs (for example, an industrial dispute affecting the free movement of goods along a major road network or through a port or airport), the relevant Member State must inform the Commission and all other Member States and must respond as soon as possible to a request from the Commission or from another Member State as to what action it proposes to take to deal with the obstacle.