Niall Collins (Limerick, Fianna Fail)
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Question 117: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the preparations he has undertaken for the Irish Presidency of the EU Council in January 2013; the amount of money spent on EU Council Presidency related activities to date in 2012; the estimated expenditure up to December 2012; the budget for the six month Presidency specifically; the additional staff he has undertaken; the number of re-assigned staff he has undertaken; the estimated future staff requirements for the Presidency; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8840/12]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Significant preparatory work has been undertaken by my Department in preparation for the education and skills components of the Irish Presidency of the EU Council in the first half of 2013. A departmental committee, chaired by the responsible member of the Management Advisory Committee, is co-ordinating the Department's approach at official level. To date, the work has focused on developing a set of priorities in the education and skills sectoral area, including the identification of suitable themes for Council meetings, conferences and working group meetings during the Presidency. Engagement on priorities and possible themes has taken place with the European Institutions and a number of meetings have been held with senior representatives of our Trio partners, Lithuania and Greece. The final programme of activities for the Presidency which arises from this process will serve as the basis for determining financial and other resource requirements, having regard to the level of services, such as conference facilities, which will be provided centrally. Until this process is complete, I will not be in a position to give a detailed indication of my Department's resource requirements for the Presidency. The current budget for the Presidency for 2012 across Government as a whole foresees approximately €25 million being spent in areas such as additional staff costs, preparation of venues to host meetings and procurement of a range of goods and services. The final 2012 allocations will be included in the 2012 Revised Estimates Volume. It is foreseen that a further sum of the order of €35m for Government as a whole will be required to support the Presidency during 2013. I addition, a further sum will be required to meet security costs. The final 2013 allocations will be included in the 2013 Revised Estimates Volume.