Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Question 250: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the number of Council of Ministers meetings attended by Ministers at his Department for each of the past three years in tabular form; the number of decisions made by the Council at those meetings; the number of occasions on which those decisions were decided upon by a vote; the number of occasions on which Ireland voted against a decision which was adopted; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19044/08]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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The EU operates in a manner which encourages and facilitates the search for agreement between the Member States. While the Treaties provide that the principal method of reaching Council decisions is by Qualified Majority Voting (QMV), recourse to voting is very rare because agreement is normally achieved through negotiation.

The table below gives the dates for meetings of EU Environment Councils attended by Ministers in this Department in the past three years, the number of decisions taken and the number of decisions taken by vote. Ireland did not vote against any decision which was adopted.

I should add that at the Environment Council meeting of 28 June 2007, Ireland and the Czech Republic included a statement in relation to the proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on Waste although neither country voted against the adopted decision and political agreement was reached on the proposal.