Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Question 106: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs 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. [19046/08]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The information requested by the Deputy is set out in the following table in respect of attendance by Ministers at the Department of Foreign Affairs at the General Affairs and External Relations Council of the European Union, and of the number of decisions taken at these Councils. It is comparatively rare that decisions at the GAERC are subject to a vote. In the period under review, this happened on 24 occasions. Ireland did not vote against any of these decisions.

Council decisions are prepared by a structure of some 250 working parties and committees comprising delegates from all the Member States and the Commission. The draft decisions are then forwarded to the Permanent Representatives Committee (Coreper), made up of the Member States' Ambassadors to the European Union. Once agreed at this level, the draft decisions go to the Council for approval.