Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Independent)
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131. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if her Department held meetings separate to the management advisory council meetings that were attended by either her or the Minister of State and the management advisory council; if so, if she will provide in tabular form the number of such meetings that occurred in 2011, 2012, 2013 and to date in 2014; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [47869/14]

Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Independent)
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132. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will provide in tabular form the number of management advisory council meetings that were held for each of the years 2011, 2012, 2013 and to date in 2014; if she will provide in tabular form the number of management advisory council meetings that were attended by her, 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 she will make a statement on the matter. [47885/14]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 131 and 132 together.

The Management Board of my Department currently meets on a fortnightly basis. In addition to these meetings there is a formal weekly meeting scheduled between myself and the Secretary General. Both the Minister of State and I meet regularly with the senior management of the Department in relation to its business and related developments and we both also meet periodically with a number of Programme Boards which are sub-committees of the Management Board that the Department has in place to focus on both policy and operational issues. However, records of the number of all such meetings are not available.

I attend approximately four Management Board meetings every year. There was no Minister of State assigned to the Department over the period January 2011until July 2014 when a Minister of State was assigned. His attendance at Management Board meetings since July 2014 is also given in the table attached.

The Management Board (MB) of the Department comprises the Secretary General, Deputy Secretary, Assistant Secretaries, Chief Appeals Officer and the Chief Medical Adviser, all of whom are civil servants. A secretary to the Board, a civil servant, also attends each meeting. Other officials from the Department and, on occasion, non-Departmental persons also attend MB meetings to assist in the discussion of agenda items. Their attendance is only for the agenda item being considered.

The number of Management Board meetings held in the years in question and the number of the various categories of attendees are listed in a table.

Number of Management Board Meetings January 2011 – 2014 Year to Date and number of attendee