Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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Question 299: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism the date for each year since 2000 of pre-budget meetings held with the Department of Finance and the Department of An Taoiseach; the attendees at such meetings; if an agenda was circulated in advance; if minutes of such a meeting were kept; if not the reason for same; if officials were directed not to keep minutes of such meetings; if so, by whom and the date of same; and if he will make a statement on the matter [17557/08]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The number of meetings attended by my predecessors to negotiate the contents of the Budget since my Department was founded in June 2002 was one. This was held on 31 October 2007 to negotiate the policy changes and service level improvements, which would be included in Budget 2008 for delivery by my vote group. My immediate predecessor Mr. Seamus Brennan, T.D. and the then Tánaiste and Minister for Finance Mr Brian Cowen, T.D, attended the meeting. Officials from each Department, who, from ongoing interdepartmental contacts, were highly familiar with the relevant details and issues involved, also attended. In the ordinary course of events meetings such as this would not be minuted by my Department.

In years prior to 2007, negotiations on expenditure by my Department were completed in the Estimates process, which culminated in the publication of the Abridged Estimates Volume in November each year. The addition of negotiations on policy changes and service level improvements to Budget negotiations commenced with the move to the Single Budget and the attendant Amended Estimates Process introduced in 2007.