Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael)
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Question 675: To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the EU Council of Ministers on which he sits; the number of meetings of that Council that have been held between 2007 and 2011; the number of those meetings that he attended; the number that were attended by the relevant Minister of State; the number that were attended by an Irish official; and if he will provide the names of those who attended in tabular form. [5474/12]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Within my remit, there are three Council formations of relevance: Transport, Telecoms and Energy (TTE) Council; Competitiveness Council (which deals with tourism-related issues from time to time); and Education, Youth, Culture and Sport (EYCS) Council.

Insofar as the TTE Council is concerned, I have attended all 4 Transport Councils since I became Minister in March 2011. Details of attendance of my predecessors at Transport Councils are set out in the table below.

Insofar as the Competitiveness Council is concerned, my colleague the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton, T.D., represents Ireland at the Competitiveness Council and there have been no significant issues relating to tourism at this Council since I took office.

Insofar as the EYCS Council is concerned, Minister of State Michael Ring T.D. has delegated responsibility in relation to EU matters relating to Sport and he has attended one of the two Council meetings scheduled since he took office. He was unable to attend the Council meeting in May 2011 owing to diary commitments associated with the visit of HM Queen Elizabeth II. Sport has only become a formal part of this Council since the Lisbon Treaty came into force and as such there were only two Council meetings of Sports Ministers in 2010, neither of which were attended by an Irish Minister.