Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

641. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if his Department held meetings separate to the Management Advisory Council meetings which were attended by either him or a Minister of State and the Management Advisory Council; if so, if he will provide in tabular form the number of such meetings that occurred in 2011, 2012, 2013 and to date in 2014; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47871/14]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Neither I or my Ministerial colleagues within the Department held any separate meetings with the Management Board, as a whole, outside of the monthly Ministerial Management Board meetings.

We would of course on a day-to-day basis have various formal and informal meetings involving one or more members of the Management Board on issues across the range of their responsibilities and it would be impossible to produce a statistical summary of these.

Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

642. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will provide in tabular form the number of Management Advisory Council meetings which were held for each of the years 2011, 2012, 2013 and to date in 2014; if he will provide in tabular form the number of Management Advisory Council meetings that were attended by him, the Minister of State, the political adviser, the Secretary General and all other titles of attendees in the years 2011, 2012, 2013 and to date in 2014; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47887/14]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I refer the Deputy to Dáil Question No:167 of the 26th November 2014.  The position remains the same.  

The information requested by the Deputy would require an inordinate time to compile as the number of meetings involved is quite substantial.

The Management Board (MB) of the Department would normally meet every Tuesday morning except for the month of August and over the Christmas/New Year period.  It is comprised of the Secretary General and the Assistant Secretaries of the Department, currently 5. Meetings are also attended by the secretary to the MB. The Special Adviser to the Minister and a representative from the Ministers of State Offices would also attend for a standard agenda Item on "Ministerial, Government, and Oireachtas Business".   Other departmental civil servants may be asked to attend for agenda items which are of direct relevance to them.

Additionally, the Ministerial Management Board (MMB) would normally convene once a month, again with the exception of August.  It comprises the Minister, Ministers of State and the MB. The advisors to Ministers also attend, as does the Secretary to the MB and the Private Secretaries to the Minister and Secretary General. The Financial Report is a standard Agenda Item for every meeting and the Principal Officer of the Department's Finance Division and a number of his staff attend for this Agenda Item.  Other civil servants may be asked to attend depending on agenda items.