Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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164. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if he will report on work within his Department relating to Ireland’s coming presidency of the European Council; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15963/25]

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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Ireland will hold the Presidency of the Council of the European Union for the period July to December 2026.

As part of preparations for the Presidency, officials in my Department have been engaging extensively with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade across a number of fora:

• Officials from my Department attend regular meetings of the Inter-Departmental Group on Presidency Policy Planning and the Inter-Departmental Group on Operational Presidency Planning. Both groups are chaired by DFAT and are comprised of senior officials from all government departments.
• Officials from my Department have held a number of bilateral meetings with DFAT to discuss planning for the Education, Youth, Culture and Sport (EYCS) Council meetings and working group meetings in respect of media, culture and sport policy.
• Bilateral meetings with DFAT at official level have also been held in respect of COMPET Council meetings and working group meetings in respect of Tourism, which will be the responsibility of the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment following the formal transfer of tourism functions to that Department.
• Officials from my Department have also participated in a number of Presidency training and information sessions hosted by DFAT, including the Presidency Training Conference held in Dublin Castle in February 2025.
• Furthermore, as part of preparations for the Presidency of the Council of the EU, members of my Department’s Management Board visited Brussels in October 2024 to meet with officials in the EU Commission, EU Parliament and the Permanent Representation of Ireland to the EU. They also met with officials who worked on the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU during H1 2024.

In addition, the programme includes the curation of various spaces with the EU institutions. The Culture Ireland team has visited Brussels recently to meet the protocol teams from the Commission and Parliament to view the various spaces and is currently drawing up open calls for artists/curators to respond to the relevant spaces and these will be issued during May.