Managing Europe From Home: The Europeanisation of the Irish ...

Managing Europe From Home: 

The Europeanisation of the Irish Core Executive 

Report on the Irish Case Study 

January 2003 

Brigid Laffan 

Jane O’Mahony 

Dublin European Institute 

National University of Ireland

INTRODUCTION 

In this part of the research programme ‘Organising for EU Enlargement’, we focus on 

one dimension of Europeanisation, namely an examination of the impact of European 

Union (EU) 1 membership on the Irish central governmental and administrative 

system – the core executive. This study begins from the premise that the dynamic 

of involvement in and with the EU creates a challenge to national, political and 

administrative systems. Domestic public policy making is no longer confined within 

the structures and processes of national government given the significance of the 

additional arena created by the European Union. The EU gives rise to interdependent 

policy processes across levels of government. This study seeks to map and analyse 

the adaptation and change of the Irish core executive to European Union 

membership. 

This research forms part of the burgeoning interest in what is called Europeanisation, 

a notion that began to gain considerable currency in the 1990s. The literature on 

Europeanisation grapples with the impact of the EU on the national and the national 

on the EU. It is a complex and multidimensional process resulting from membership 

of the European Union or from close co-operation with the Union that touches on the 

policy, politics and polities of every member and candidate state (Ladrech 1994; 

Goetz 2001; Radelli 2000). The focus of study of the European Union has shifted 

from examining how decisions are made at the EU level to how these EU decisions 

impact on the national, sub-national and local arenas. Europeanisation can be 

defined as ‘the process of influence deriving from European Union decisions and 

impacting member states’ policies and political and administrative structures’ 

(Héritier 2001: 3). Europeanisation embraces a number of different elements: the 

decisions made at the European Union level, the implications of these decisions for 

national and subnational policies of each of the member states in the relevant policy 

areas, the effect on national, regional and local systems of administration and 

governance in coping with the management of the EU interface, as well as the 

Europeanisation of electoral politics through European parliament, national elections 

and referendums. 

1 In 1987, the European Economic Community (EEC) became known as the European 

Community (EC). Following the ratification of the Treaty on European Union, the EC 

was renamed the European Union (EU). For the sake of consistency, the term EU 

will be used throughout this study to refer to the EEC, EC and EU.

Among practitioners and academics, there are differing expectations of the likely 

impact of the EU on national government and administration (Schout 1999). Some 

of the previous studies of the impact of EU membership on core executives based 

their analyses on one key premise, namely that similar external pressures in the 

form of EU membership will lead to similar institutional responses within each of the 

member states (See Harmsen 1999 for discussion of this; Genschel 2000). 

However, subsequent empirical work has shown this premise to be erroneous. 

Indeed, this report forms one of a growing number of studies to dispute this view 

(Page and Wouters 1995: 203; Harmsen 1999; Goetz and Hix 2001). The central 

argument of this report is that national core executive adaptation to Europeanisation 

is varying and differentiated instead of uniform. The national meets the European in 

a complex ecology of processes that differ across time and policy area. The extent of 

adjustment to Europeanisation by national core executives is contingent upon the 

existing government and administrative institutions in place, their effectiveness in 

managing EU business, their resistance and/or acquiescence to adaptation and 

reform and national political and administrative cultures. Member state 

administrative structures, modes of procedure and agent responses to involvement 

in EU policy-making will of necessity be different because no one member state has 

exactly the same core executive system. Therefore, important questions to answer 

when looking at how a member states manages the EU interface include: how have 

core executives adapted to deal with the consequences of EU membership and do 

these changes to governmental and administrative institutions represent more 

incremental and piecemeal reform or radical and transformative change 

This report puts forward the case that the management of the EU by national core 

executives can be represented in the form of a reflexive, interactive relationship. 

Core 

Executive 

Reflexive Interaction 

Projection 

Reception 

EU 

policy 

making

The core executive is at one and the same time a receptor of EU policy preferences 

and processes, and a projector of policy preferences and processes onto the EU 

system (see also Bulmer and Burch, 2000). Reception can be both active and 

passive, that is to say member states can or may need to passively adapt to the 

requirements of EU policy-making, i.e. undertake to manage the flow of policy and 

procedure from Brussels in an incremental and less structured manner (passive) or 

can actively adjust central governance and administrative structures to cope with EU 

business in a transformative and innovative fashion (active). The type of reception 

experienced depends primarily on the nature of the national core executive, its 

ability to respond to change (also referred to as institutional stickiness) and the 

desire of its principals to instigate change in response to perceived need. The 

relationship between the national and the EU is reflexive. National core executives 

are not merely translator devices, they can also project their own policy preferences 

and policy models onto the EU (Genschel 2000: 98). That is to say, not only do 

government institutions handling European policy translate EU requirements into 

domestic laws and regulations in order to make domestic policy compatible with EU 

policy, they can also translate domestic policy models into proposals for EU action in 

order to keep the costs of domestic adjustment low. As with reception, projection 

can also be active or passive, in other words active projection can consist of 

concerted and proactive efforts by the national governmental and administrative 

system to influence the EU policy process, i.e. policy formulation, negotiation and 

implementation at the EU level. Passive projection, as a consequence, represents a 

more reactive approach by national core executive systems towards involvement 

within the EU policy making process and is evident when little effort is made to 

actively influence policy-making at the EU level. 

Conceptual Framework 

This report examines the effect of the EU on the Irish national core executive. The 

notion of the core executive was developed in research on central government in the 

UK (Rhodes 2000, vols. 1 and 2). It was designed to capture not just the formal 

structures —cabinet and ministries— but the roles, networks and informal processes 

that form the heart of government. According to Dunleavy and Rhodes, the core 

executive ‘includes all those organizations and structures which primarily serve to 

pull together and integrate central government policies, or act as final arbiters within

the executive of conflicts between different elements of the government machine’ 

(Dunleavy and Rhodes 1990). In research on the core executive, the EU emerged as 

a major factor in changing the environment within which the centre governs (Wright 

and Hayward 2000: 32). The latter draw attention to the Europeanisation of actors, 

structures, arenas and processes of public policy making in Europe. For the 

purposes of this study, the key relationships examined with regard to the Irish core 

executive include those between the political and administrative levels, that is the 

Prime Minister (Taoiseach), ministers and the Cabinet, senior civil servants and the 

operational administration, and the core executive and the wider political system, 

most notably relations with parliament (through parliamentary committees). 

The framework that guides this mapping of EU management by the core executive is 

based on an institutionalist perspective, particularly historical institutionalism. An 

institutionalist approach enables us to map the institutional framework within which 

Irish actors interact with the EU and the other member states on the one hand, and 

to highlight processes of change, on the other. Institutionalists pay particular 

attention to the configuration of political order around formal institutions, 

organisations, norms, rules and practices. Historical institutionalists define 

institutions as the ‘formal or informal procedures, routines, norms and conventions 

embedded in the organizational structure of the polity or political economy’ (Hall and 

Taylor 1996: 938). Formal structures, formal and informal rules and procedures 

frame the conduct of actors (Thelen and Steinmo 1992: 2). In this perspective 

institutions are constitutive of actors shaping their strategies, goals and even their 

identities. March and Olsen in particular draw attention to the ‘logic of 

appropriateness’ governing action when they argue that ‘action is often based more 

on discovering the normatively appropriate behaviour than on calculating the return 

expected from alternative choices. As a result, political behaviour, like other 

behaviour, can be described in terms of ‘duties, obligations, roles and rules’ (March 

and Olsen 1984: 744) The emphasis on roles is particularly important when 

analysing the role of individual office holders and civil servants - the agents - in 

managing EU business. 

The level of analysis in this study is based on the organisational field that constitutes 

the core executive in Ireland (Scott 2001: 84). There are many ways of 

disaggregating an organisational field. Bulmer and Burch began their work on the

British core executive by distinguishing between four institutional gradations—formal 

institutional structure, processes and procedures, codes and guidelines, and the 

cultural dimension (Bulmer and Burch 1998). This was later adapted to focus on four 

institutional dimensions, notably, the systematic, organisational, procedural and 

regulative (Bulmer and Burch 2000: 50). The analytical focus in this study is on the 

structures, processes and agents who manage the relationship between the Irish 

core executive and Brussels. The structural component maps the organizations and 

structures that form the core executive in Ireland and the key relationships in the 

management of EU affairs over time. The process component examines pathways 

for EU related information through the Irish domestic system and the codes, rules, 

guidelines that govern the handling of EU business over time. The agent component 

tracks the cadre of officials who are primarily responsible for mediating between the 

EU and the national levels. 

A central concern of historical institutionalism and of this research is the dynamic of 

change to the structures and processes that govern management of EU matters in 

Ireland. Historical institutionalism is based on the premise that institutions are 

‘sticky’ and that once created may prove difficult and costly to change. Linked to this 

is the notion that institutions may be locked into a particular path of development. 

The concept of path dependency is central to historical institutionalism whereby 

institutions are shaped by ‘critical junctures and developmental pathways’ (Ikenberry 

1988: 16). A critical juncture is defined by Collier and Collier as a ‘period of 

significant change … which is hypothesised to produce distinct legacies’ (Collier and 

Collier 1991: 29). Change may result from factors or processes exogenous to the 

institutional system such as an external crisis or may be more incremental as a 

result of forces internal to the system (Pierson 2000a, 2000b; Scott 2001). 

According to the propositions of historical institutionalism, institutional change in the 

national core executive can occur in response to a critical juncture, in other words 

critical junctures will prompt institutional responses. A critical juncture will lead to 

disequilibrium in the institutional management of EU business, which will prompt the 

need for institutional change. This change will in turn be influenced by the 

embedded nature of existing institutional structures (path dependence). 

The report proceeds as follows. Section I maps the structure of the Irish core 

executive as a whole and assesses its responsiveness to reform and change. It also

analyses the Irish core executive’s institutional adaptation to managing EC/EU 

business in a preliminary manner with the identification of critical junctures in 

Ireland’s relationship with the EU, including key structural and procedural changes. 

Section II analyses in more detail the main structures in place within the core 

executive and how they are organised to handle EU business, i.e. to receive and 

project. Section III examines the evolution of processes and procedures, i.e. how 

the structures have worked in practice. Section IV looks at the composition and 

role of the cadre or agents in the core executive who handle EU business, for 

example, has this reservoir of expertise been cultivated in any explicit way Section 

V and the concluding section return to the main questions asked in this report, 

namely, when and how has the Irish core executive adapted to deal with the 

consequences of EU membership and do the changes to Irish governmental and 

administrative institutions represent more incremental and piecemeal reform or 

radical and transformative change 

SECTION I 

The Core Executive in Ireland 

The Irish core executive and system of government has been categorised as a 

variant of the Westminster model (See Gallagher, Laver, Mair 2001). One important 

difference is the significance of a written constitution on Irish politics and 

government. The 1937 Irish Constitution (Article 28.2) stipulates that the executive 

power of the Irish State shall be exercised by or on the authority of the Government. 

Article 28.4.2 provides that: 

the Government shall meet and act as a collective authority, and shall be 

collectively responsible for the Departments of State administered by the 

members of the Government. 

The key convention of the Westminster model - collective responsibility - lies at the 

heart of Article 28.4.2 with its reference to ‘collective authority’ and the stipulation 

that the Government shall be ‘collectively responsible’ for the departments of state. 

While the Irish and British systems have diverged somewhat since the foundation of 

the state, this core constitutional convention remains unaltered. The constitution 

vests political authority in the Government, which meets in Cabinet.

The Irish core executive consists of the Prime Minister, the Government, ministries 

known as departments (corresponding to all main areas of policy), and the civil or 

administrative service. In accordance with the 1937 Constitution, the Government is 

chosen by the lower house of Parliament, the Dáil 2 , through the election of a Prime 

Minister (Taoiseach) and the approval of his/her choice of ministers who are 

collectively responsible to the Dáil for every aspect of the administration’s activities. 

The 1937 Constitution places the Taoiseach in a powerful position as the head of the 

government. The Taoiseach nominates ministers, decides on the distribution of 

responsibilities among ministers and can sack them. If the Taoiseach resigns, the 

government falls. In addition to the Taoiseach’s structural position in the 

constitution, the Taoiseach controls the Cabinet agenda, is the head of a political 

party and has won an electoral mandate to hold office. Traditionally the debate on 

the role of the Irish prime minister has evolved around the notions of chairman or 

chief, which can be translated into the contemporary debate on cabinet or prime 

ministerial government (Farrell 1971; Smith 2000: 33). Given the convention of 

collective responsibility, which is deeply ingrained in the theory and practice of Irish 

government, the role of Taoiseach is more than that of chairman but is not so 

dominant as to warrant the title of prime ministerial government. 

The Constitution stipulates that the government shall consist of no less than 7 and 

no more than 15 ministers. The current government (June 2002 onwards) has 14 

ministers. 3 Up to seventeen Ministers of State (junior ministers) can also be 

appointed, and at certain times (in particular in the run up to an EU Presidency) a 

Minister of State for European Affairs can be appointed. The new Government of 

2 The Seanad (Senate) is the Upper House of the legislature (Oireachtas). 

3 The Fianna Fail (FF) – Progressive Democrat Government formed in June 2002 - 

Taoiseach: Mr Bertie Ahern;Tánaiste and Enterprise,Trade & Employment: Ms 

Mary Harney (Progressive Democrat); Finance: Mr Charlie McCreevy (FF); Foreign 

Affairs: Mr Brian Cowen (FF); Justice, Equality and Law Reform: Mr Michael 

McDowell (Progressive Democrat); Agriculture & Food: Mr Joe Walsh (FF); 

Defence: Mr Michael Smith (FF); Environment & Local Government: Mr Martin 

Cullen (FF); Health & Children: Mr Micheál Martin (FF); Education & Science: Mr 

Noel Dempsey (FF); Transport: Mr Seamus Brennan (FF); Communications, the 

Marine and Natural Resources: Mr Dermot Ahern (FF); Community, Rural and 

Gaeltacht Affairs: Mr Eamon Ó Cuív (FF); Arts, Sport and Tourism: Mr John 

O'Donoghue (FF); Social & Family Affairs: Ms Mary Coughlan (FF); Attorney 

General: Mr Rory Brady SC; Government Chief Whip (junior ministerial post): 

Ms Mary Hanafin (FF); Minister of State for Europe: Mr Dick Roche (FF).

2002 appointed a Minister of State for European Affairs (based in both the 

Departments of the Taoiseach and Foreign Affairs), 14 other Ministers of State were 

also appointed. 

There is a ranking in the perceived importance of ministerial portfolios in Cabinet 

although ranking departments can be made difficult when departments are 

frequently reconfigured with the formation of a new government. 4 The hierarchy of 

ministerial portfolios, and as a consequence, government departments, has evolved 

over time and during the course of EU membership. In his 1980 work The Irish 

Administrative System, T.J. Barrington distinguished between three co-ordinating 

departments— the Taoiseach’s Department, the Department of Finance and the 

Department of Economic Planning and Development, while all the other departments 

were classified as operating departments. (Barrington 1980: 24). The Department of 

Economic Planning and Development survived for only two years. The Barrington 

classification does not capture the ranking of departments that exists in the 

contemporary system. 

Box 1 - The Irish Core Executive 1979 

The Government 

Coordinating Departments: 

Taoiseach; Finance; Public Service; Economic Planning and Development 

Operating Departments 

Agriculture; Defence; Education; Environment; Fisheries and Forestry; 

Foreign Affairs; Gaeltacht; Health; Industry, Commerce and Energy; 

Justice; Labour; Posts and Telegraphs; Social Welfare; Tourism and 

Transport. 

Source: (Barrington 1980: 24) 

The Department of the Taoiseach is the heart of Government because it houses the 

Cabinet office and the administrative support structures for the prime minister. It 

remains a relatively small department (see Section II). Next in line is the 

Department of Finance, which is generally accepted as the most important line 

department because of its responsibility for economic management and public 

expenditure. The Department of Foreign Affairs, which was once regarded as a 

4 See footnote 1.

Cinderella department, is now considered a senior department, given its key role in 

the co-ordination of European Union business (Keogh 1990). These three 

departments have been referred to as the ‘holy trinity’ of Ireland’s management of 

EU business (Laffan 2001) and can be characterised as the core-core (See Figure 1 – 

The Irish Core Executive). The EU impinges on the business of each of the 

remaining government departments but to differing degrees. By the beginning of 

2002 in particular, a clear division seemed to have emerged between those 

operational departments with considerable involvement in EU policy matters and 

those where the EU impinges less frequently on day-to-day business: the inner core 

and outer circle. Departments managing a considerable amount of EU business 

under the 1997-2002 Fianna Fáil/Progressive Democrat government coalition 

included: Agriculture, Environment and Local Government, Enterprise, Trade and 

Employment, Justice and Office of the Attorney General. Departments in the outer 

circle with less involvement in EU matters included: Arts, Heritage and the 

Gaeltacht 5 , Defence, Education and Science, Health and Children, Marine and Natural 

Resources 6 , Public Enterprise 7 , Social, Community and Family Affairs 8 and Tourism, 

Sport and Recreation. A number of these departments have single sector 

responsibility, such as Agriculture, Environment and Local Government and Justice, 

Equality and Law Reform, whereas others, such as the Department of Enterprise, 

Trade and Employment and Public Enterprise, deal with multisectoral issues and as a 

consequence service more than one EU Council of Ministers’ formation. 

5 The Departments of the Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and Tourism, Sport and 

Recreation were reorganized in June 2002 and became the Department of Arts, Sport 

and Tourism and the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht affairs 

respectively. 

6 Became part of Department of Communications, the Marine and Natural Resources 

in June 2002. 

7 Split into the Department of Transport and the Department of Communications, the 

Marine and Natural Resources in June 2002. 

8 Became Department of Social and Family Affairs in June 2002.

Arts, Sport 

& Tourism 

Health & 

Children 

Education & 

Science 

Agriculture 

Social & 

Family 

Affairs 

Justice 

Foreign 

Affairs 

Finance 

Taoiseach 

E,T& 

E 

Transport 

Defence 

AG’s Office 

Environ. 

Communications, 

Marine & Natural 

Resources 

Community 

Gaeltacht & 

Rural 

Figure 1: The Irish Core Executive 2003 9 

The structures of the Irish core executive 10 that deal with EU business include: the 

ministries, committees and designated units with responsibility for managing EU 

affairs. Given the reach of EU policies on national policy making, every department 

and office in the Irish core executive system is required to deal with the European 

Union in some way. The extent of interaction and need to manage EU business 

depends primarily on the degree of Europeanisation found in the respective policy 

domains of each office and department. It is possible to place the Irish core 

executive system’s management of EU business on three distinct gradations based 

on this criterion: the core-core, the inner core and the outer circle. 

9 E,T & E – Enterprise, Trade and Employment; Environ. – Environment; AG’s Office – Attorney General’s 

Office. 

10 The material that forms the basis of the following analysis was gathered from detailed analysis of 

documentary evidence (including strategy statements from government departments) and two extensive 

series of structured interviews with those involved in managing Ireland’s EU affairs. The first round of 

interviews (47 in total) was conducted by Professor Brigid Laffan as part of the research carried out 

between 1999 and 2000 for Organising for a Changing Europe: Irish Central Government and the 

European Union, published in 2001. The second round of interviews was conducted in the first half of 

2002. 30 structured interviews were conducted and interviewees for this stage of the project included civil 

servants drawn from most departments throughout the Irish system, and included representatives from 

the political and parliamentary arenas.

In Ireland, the cabinet determines the overall policy programme of the government, 

it takes all major policy decisions and approves the budget and all other legislation to 

be submitted to the Oireachtas. It is the decision-making body of an executive 

structure composed of the Department of the Taoiseach, which includes the office of 

the Chief Whip, and the ministerial departments. As discussed above, because of the 

convention of collective responsibility members of the cabinet are bound by, and 

must uphold, all cabinet decisions. The running and efficiency of cabinet meetings is 

significantly influenced by the personal style of the Taoiseach involved. The cabinet 

meets weekly, all ministers are requested to attend, along with the Attorney General 

and the Chief Whip and the Secretary General to the Government (who is currently 

also Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach). The legislative 

programme of the government is drawn up and monitored by the Legislative 

Committee of the Office of the Chief Whip. The cabinet’s monitoring and 

implementation of the government’s legislative programme is facilitated by the 

establishment of cabinet sub-committees. Although Ireland lacks an 

institutionalised system of cabinet committees, it does make some use of more 

informal or ad hoc sub-committees, especially during coalition governments. These 

sub-committees have often been transient in nature rather than developing into 

permanent structures on the cabinet landscape. The usual explanation is that the 

‘multiple calls on ministers’ time makes it difficult for such committees to meet with 

regularity’ (Byrne et al. 1995). In contrast to most other member states in the EU, 

the Irish core executive remains relatively under-institutionalised (O’Leary 1991: 

137) 

Ministers are charged with setting the policy parameters of their departments and 

with making all policy (rather than administrative) decisions. The responsibility of the 

minister for all of the activities of his/her portfolio known as ‘ministerial 

responsibility’ is the second constitutional convention that influences how Irish 

Government operates. The minister takes decisions, but civil servants have always

played a key role in the detailed development and implementation of policy in 

Ireland. 

The Irish Civil Service 

The culture and structure of the Irish civil service bear a number of similarities to 

that of Britain. Gallagher, Laver and Mair have characterised the British civil service 

as ‘generalist’ as opposed to ‘specialist’ (Gallagher, Laver and Mair 2001: 138). This 

type of bureaucracy is characterised by a heavy reliance on civil servants who are 

selected and work on the basis of general administrative and managerial skills, as 

opposed to possessing any particular technical expertise. In the recruitment process, 

there is no emphasis on particular subjects or professional expertise. As in Britain, 

the official Irish civil service culture is non-partisan. Officials are servants of the 

incumbent Government rather than political appointees. Civil servants involved in the 

policy making process are barred from political activity. The character of the Irish 

civil service was summed up by Chubb as 

incorruptible, non-partisan, and usually anonymous corps whose members, 

secure in their employment, considered themselves the servants of the 

legitimate government, whoever they may be (Chubb 1982: 262) 

The grading system of the Irish civil service was also inherited from Britain. The 

general service is divided between the clerical grades, the executive grades and the 

higher civil service. The higher civil service consists of the Secretaries General at the 

apex of the pyramid, in some departments Second Secretaries, Assistant Secretaries, 

Principal Officers and Assistant Principals. The Principal Officers form the operating 

core of the system as they act as head of divisions. Since the mid-1980s, Irish 

ministers have also employed political or policy advisors who work alongside the 

Minister and senior civil servants and have an input into policy formulation and 

management. In the 1993-1997 Governments, the system of policy advisors was 

institutionalised when each minister appointed a programme manager. The 

programme managers were an important filter between the administrative and 

political level and helped in the preparation of Cabinet discussions. The system of 

programme managers has persisted but with fewer policy advisory staff.

The Irish civil service has undergone a number of limited or episodic reforms since 

the inception of the Free State in 1922. The Ministers and Secretaries Act of 1924 

defined the legal and political relationship between ministers and civil servants until 

it was replaced by the Public Service Management Act of 1997. Under the Ministers 

and Secretaries Act, ministers were legally responsible for everything done by their 

officials, from the formulation of policy and the administration of departments to the 

most minor clerical tasks. Little or no effort was made to reform the Irish civil 

service until the 1960s when it was seriously considered by the Fianna Fáil 

Taoiseach, Seán Lemass and Secretary of the Department of Finance, T.K. Whitaker 

(Lee 1989: 546-556). The Public Service Organisation Review Group (PSORG) was 

established in 1966 under the chairmanship of Liam Devlin to consider reforms to the 

public service as a whole. This group’s report, the Devlin Report, published in 1969, 

proposed significant reforms to the system, most notably the recommendation that 

policy formulation be separated from policy implementation. According to the Devlin 

Report, a distinct policy-making group of senior officials in every department should, 

together with the minister, form the policy-making body (called the Aireacht), while 

the execution of policy should be devolved to executive offices (Lee 1989: 548). The 

proposed change was modelled on the separation of policy making and 

implementation in the Swedish administrative system. Insufficient support for the 

radical reform proposed by Devlin meant that its key recommendation was never 

implemented. Procrastination on the issue of administrative reform led to the Irish 

civil service acquiring a ‘reputation of over-cautious conservatism’. 11 Although the 

Devlin Report coincided with Ireland’s final push for EU membership, it paid no 

attention to the administrative and organisational consequences of EU membership. 

The next serious consideration of the role and nature of the civil service was 

undertaken in the mid-1980s and resulted in the publication of a White Paper in 

1985, Managing the Country Better, which again tried to address some of the issues 

originally raised in the Devlin Report. Given the difficult economic situation of the 

country at this time, reforms that were proposed tended to be couched in terms of 

staff numbers and the cost of running the civil service. Beginning in 1984 however, 

there were a number of important innovations that led to cultural change in the 

service. The Top Level Appointments Committee was established with a mandate to 

11 This was the conclusion of a group of businessmen and economists appointed by 

the government in 1984 to review the Irish economic situation. Proposals for a Plan, 

Dublin, 1984. Reproduced from Lee, 1989.

encourage mobility across departments and to ensure that appointments to the 

upper echelons of the service were based on merit rather than seniority. In addition, 

the Secretaries of departments began to hold an annual conference, which in turn led 

to system wide discussion of issues and the emergence of a certain esprit de corps 

among senior civil servants. The cultural changes of the 1980s, in addition to the 

deficiencies highlighted by the budgetary crisis, tribunals of enquiry and reports such 

as the Industrial Policy Review Group (1991) placed reform back on the agenda. 

Questions about the effective performance of the civil service, particularly in terms of 

public sector management became commonplace. 

The most significant reform of the Irish civil service began in 1994 with the 

development of the Strategic Management Initiative (SMI) introduced by the 

government as an attempt to enhance strategic and administrative capabilities in the 

civil service. The SMI process must be seen in the context of the spread of what has 

been termed new public management (NPM) in the industrialised world. Although 

endorsed by the Government, the SMI was in many ways a mandarin led process, a 

quiet revolution in the system. Delivering Better Government published in 1996 

outlined an extensive modernisation process for the Irish civil and public service and 

the Public Service Management Act (1997) introduced a new management structure 

in the civil service. The Irish civil service found itself part of a new climate of 

reflection and evaluation and the modernization programme envisaged by the 

Strategic Management Initiative and Delivering Better Government (SMI/DBG) 

represented the outcome of this reassessment. The 1997 Act’s purpose was to 

enhance the management, effectiveness and transparency of Departments and 

Offices and to put in place a mechanism for increased accountability of civil servants. 

The most visible transformation in how the civil service conducts its business came 

with openness, transparency and accountability. Each Department is obliged to 

produce both strategy statements and business plans. With the Freedom of 

Information Act, members of the public, or ‘customers’, are entitled greater access to 

documents. In June 2001, a consulting firm, PA Consulting, was commissioned by 

the Department of the Taoiseach to review progress achieved under the Public 

Service Modernisation programme. A number of its findings, published in March 

2002, have a bearing on Ireland’s management of EU business. On a general note, 

the review concluded that the Irish civil service in 2002 was better managed and

more effective than it was in 1992. They noted that the civil service had mapped out 

a transition path from a traditional administrative culture to a more overtly 

managerial one. The SMI/DBG process has undoubtedly been significant in this 

transition. However, the report stressed that this process was not complete and 

factors such as industrial relations structures (i.e. the presence of strong trade 

unions and staff associations) and differential economic circumstances also affect the 

pace of change within the Irish civil service (PA Consulting 2002: 83). The Report 

also contains a number of important and more specific findings that are of direct 

relevance to this study. 

First, apart from acknowledging that Ireland’s membership of the EU served as an 

important backdrop in evolving the modernization agenda, with the EU emerging as 

a key determinant shaping critical components of the legislative, policy and 

institutional framework, the challenges and opportunities membership of the EU 

poses to the Irish civil service were not explicitly addressed in the report. This lack 

of emphasis is also reflected in the SMI/DBG programme as a whole. The 

management of EU business as such is not viewed as a special category of work that 

poses particular challenges and demands sustained attention within the Irish system. 

Second, PA Consulting found that the implementation of change through the 

SMI/DBG has been uneven across civil service components and across 

Departments/offices (PA Consulting 2002: 32). This is a crucial point to note in the 

context of this study as it shows that not only can the EU impact differentially on 

each of the national member state administrations, it also can have a differential 

impact within administrations as some departments/offices may be more receptive to 

change and adaptation than others. In other words, the Irish civil service is not a 

monolith in terms of its management of EU business. 

Third, the review found that while the SMI/DBG focused on and has achieved 

tangible results in the area of public management reform, other areas of 

government, i.e. governance 12 and policy making 13 , have not received adequate 

12 Defined as the manner in which parliament exercises its oversight responsibilities 

in relation to the conduct of public business and the provision of public services. 

13 Defined as the manner in which ministers interpret the programme for 

government, identify priority areas of public need, and resolve competing service 

demands in a resource constrained environment.

attention in the Irish service. In some instances the report found that the linkages 

between policy formation and strategy design are weak and the debate around policy 

formulation and strategy design is underdeveloped: 

This area of civil service governance needs to be strengthened. Our 

observations lead us to believe there is greater scope for alignment between 

political intent, strategy development, business planning and service delivery. 

Consequently, Ministers can feel that they have been distanced from the 

(real) day-to-day business of the Department/office, while civil servants can 

believe they are struggling with an ambiguous policy direction (PA Consulting 

2002: 26). 

Finally, the review found that the development of collaborative arrangements to deal 

with cross-cutting issues remains at a relatively immature stage in the Irish civil 

service (PA Consulting 2002: 39,88). The Irish civil service is now increasingly 

required to deal with of a cross-cutting nature, including many cross-cutting EU 

issues. The SMI/DBG programme acknowledged the need for new approaches to 

managing cross-cutting issues and recommended the establishment of crossdepartmental 

teams working to detailed and time-specific objectives. Section 12 of 

the Public Service Management Act 1997 enabled Ministers to collaborate with each 

other on cross-departmental issues (through cabinet sub-committees and other 

interdepartmental groups) and to assign responsibility to civil servants for such 

issues. However, heretofore, efforts to co-operate on cross-cutting issues have 

tended to be loosely-based and ad hoc. In essence, while the core executive has 

identified issues of a cross-cutting nature that need to be dealt with, the mechanisms 

for systematic and routine management of cross-cutting issues have yet to appear 

(PA Consulting 2002: 43). This brief analysis of attempts to reform the Irish civil 

service points to its institutional stickiness but also highlights the importance of 

cumulative incremental change. 

Origins, Development and Change in the Management of EU Issues 

Four periods of development and change have had an impact on how Ireland’s 

management of EU business evolved. These were the formative period from the end 

of the 1950s to accession in 1972, the first three years of membership 1973-1975, 

and the period 1988 to 1990 when the resurgence of formal integration became

evident. The ‘no’ to Nice referendum in 2001 triggered a further period of review and 

evaluation that is continuing. This section traces these critical junctures and their 

impact on managing EU business. In addition, it will trace the system of 

parliamentary scrutiny that evolved in Ireland. 

Box 2: 

Dates of developments relevant to Ireland’s preparation for membership of the EEC 

1956 October 11 Committee of Secretaries established to initially consider Ireland’s 

position in the context of relations between the EEC and the OEEC 

1959 December Ireland established diplomatic relations with the European Economic 

Community 

1961 July The Irish government published a White Paper on the EEC 

1961 July 31 Ireland’s application to join the EEC was sent to the Council 

1961 September 

5-13 

The Secretary of the Department of Finance, Dr. Whitaker and the 

Secretary of the Department of External Affairs, Mr. Cremin visited 

the capitals of the Six Member States 

1962 June 28 The Irish Government published a White Paper on the EEC 

1962 October The Prime Minister, Mr. Lemass, undertook a European tour to meet 

the leaders of the six Member States and the President of the 

European Commission 

1962 October 22 Council of the EEC decided to open negotiations on Ireland’s 

application for membership 

1963 January Breakdown of negotiations with Britain, Denmark and Norway on 

membership of the European Economic Community 

1963 October Aide Mémoire sent by the Irish Government to the European 

Commission concerning arrangements for periodic contacts 

1966 July The Irish Government decided to accredit a separate diplomatic 

mission to the Eureopean Communities 

1967 April The Irish Government published a White Paper on the European 

Economic Community 

1967 May 11 The Irish Government submitted an application for membership of 

the European Economic Community 

1967 June - 

November 

The Prime Minister, Mr. Lynch and the Minister for Finance, Mr. 

Haughey accompanied by Dr. Whitaker, Secretary, Department of 

Finance and Mr. McCann, Secretary, Department of External Affairs 

undertook as series of bilateral discussions with the Governments of 

the six Member States 

1970 April The Government published the White Paper 

‘Membership of the European Communities-Implications for Ireland’ 

1970 May 27 The Prime Minister, Mr. J. Lynch, announced the delegation which 

negotiated membership of the European Communities 

1970 June 30 ‘Conference between the European Communities and the States 

applying for membership of these Communities’ 

Formal opening of negotiations in Luxembourg with Ireland, United 

Kingdom, Denmark and Norway 

1972 January 22 The Taoiseach, Mr. J. Lynch, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dr. 

P. J. Hillery signed the instruments of accession in the Palais 

d’Egmont, Brussels 

1972 January The Government published the White Paper ‘The Accession of 

Ireland to the European Communities’ 

1972 May 10 Referendum held on Ireland’s membership of the European 

Communities with 83% voting in favour and 17% against

Ireland’s approach to the management of its engagement with the European Union 

was established in the latter half of the 1950s as its policy makers sought to chart its 

external policy in the light of significant changes and institution building in Western 

Europe. During the Maudling talks in 1956, the Committee of Secretaries began to 

meet to map Ireland’s response to the calls for increased economic co-operation in 

Europe. A Government decision (9 October 1956) decided that a committee, chaired 

by the Secretary of the Department of the Taoiseach, which included the Secretaries 

of the Departments of Finance, Industry and Commerce, Agriculture and External 

Affairs would begin to examine the consequences of these developments for Ireland 

(Maher 1986: 57). The Committee of Secretaries, consisting as it did of the 

Secretaries of the most important domestic ministries, formed the nucleus of what 

would become Ireland’s core executive on EU affairs. The driving force behind the 

Committee was the Secretary of the Department of Finance, Mr. Ken Whitaker, 

secretary of the pre-eminent ministry in central government. The key conflict that 

emerged in this committee was between Ken Whitaker, who had concluded that 

Ireland needed to embrace liberalisation and move with the changing economy, and 

Mr. J.C.B. McCarthy, Secretary of the Department of Industry and Commerce, who 

was determined to protect Irish industry and exports. The resolution of the conflict 

was central to mapping Ireland’s external economic policy as its key officials and the 

Government sought to manage the dynamic changes in Europe’s political economy 

and the institutionalisation of those changes in trade blocs (Maher 1986). 

From the outset, the mapping of Ireland’s European policy and the management of 

EU business was cross-cutting in nature, given the involvement of key senior officials 

from the main government departments. Moreover, the EU was not a matter of 

foreign policy although the external dimension of the Union was clearly 

acknowledged. Ireland opened formal diplomatic relations with the EU in 1959 when 

its Ambassador to Belgium was also accredited to the EU. A Government decision in 

July 1966 led to a separate accreditation in 1967. This decision signalled the Irish 

government’s expectation that enlargement negotiations would commence within a 

number of years and its wish to be ready to pursue those negotiations with vigour. 

Following the resolution of the ‘empty chair’ crisis in the Union, the tempo of 

Ireland’s relations with the Union accelerated after 1967 when the Prime Minister,

Seán Lemass conducted a series of bilateral meetings with the Commission and the 

member states, accompanied by the Minister for Finance. A striking feature of this 

period was the limited role played by the Irish Foreign Minister, Mr. Frank Aiken, who 

had little to do with the development of Ireland’s approach for managing EU issues. 

He opposed the opening of a separate accreditation to the EU in 1967 but was overruled 

by his colleagues. The Prime Minister, senior domestic ministers and a small 

group of senior civil servants played the key role in charting Ireland’s relationship 

with the system. The Committee of Secretaries provided the forum for interministerial 

discussion on the key issues and the Cabinet agreed the political 

framework within which the relationship would evolve. The development of Ireland’s 

European policy received sustained political and administrative attention throughout 

the late 1950s and 1960s. 

The second period July 1970 to January 1972 was dominated by the accession 

negotiations. By then, a new Foreign Minister Dr. Patrick Hillary, who later became 

Ireland’s first Commissioner, asserted his role and led the negotiations on 

membership. As the prospect of Ireland’s entry became manifest, a battle was 

fought between Foreign Affairs and Finance as to who would lead the negotiations. 

Foreign Affairs’ victory in this set the tone for the post-membership role of Foreign 

Affairs. The minister’s team for the negotiations consisted of the secretaries of the 

key Government departments, again highlighting the importance of negotiations to 

the main home departments. Because of the focus on the membership negotiations, 

little attention was paid in the period leading up to membership of the challenge of 

living with the system after accession. Unlike the UK and Denmark, there was a 

paucity of deliberation of how best to manage EU business. 

The main circular (CH/177/35) that established how EU business should be handled 

was issued by the Department of Foreign Affairs in September 1973, nine months 

after accession. The period between January 1973 and the end of Ireland’s first 

Presidency in December 1975 were Ireland’s apprenticeship in the EU system. During 

this period the Irish Governmental system put in place structures and processes for 

managing the relationship with Brussels. The key features of the system were: 

• Responsibility for day-to-day co-ordination on EU matters was assigned to 

the Department of Foreign Affairs. This constituted a break with the past,

as the Department of Finance was the lead department in the period 

leading up to membership. It required a Government decision to finally 

resolve the conflict between Foreign Affairs and Finance. The department 

of Foreign Affairs given its position in the Permanent representation was 

responsible for ‘A’ points on Council agendas. 

• Although responsibility for day-to-day co-ordination was given to Foreign 

Affairs, the Department of Finance continued to play an important role as 

any EU proposals that might lead to a cost to the Irish Exchequer required 

the prior approval of the Department of Finance. 

• The principle of the responsibility of the lead department was firmly 

established. The Circular has numerous references to ‘ the responsibility 

of the Department primarily responsible for the subject matter concerned’ 

concerning briefings, representation at meetings, reporting and 

implementation. Individual departments were responsible from the outset 

for co-ordinating preparations for Council meetings falling within their 

policy domain. 

• The dominance of the lead department is framed however within the 

parameters of a political and administrative culture governed by collective 

responsibility and an ethos of consultation of ‘all interested’ departments. 

• Processes and guidelines were established for the writing of reports and 

the circulation of EU documents throughout the administration and to the 

Oireachtas Joint Committee on Secondary Legislation. 

• The key structure with responsibility for overall policy in relation to the 

Union was the newly established Interdepartmental European 

Communities Committee, which replaced the Committee of Secretaries 

that charted Ireland’s original engagement with the system. This 

committee was chaired by the Department of Foreign Affairs. Its 

membership - Foreign Affairs, Taoiseach, Finance, Agriculture and 

Fisheries and Industry and Commerce - highlighted the key ministries on 

EU matters in the original phase of membership. It met in two formats, at 

the level of Secretary and at Assistant Secretary level. The latter format 

was intended to prepare the work of the Secretaries’ Committee. In 

practice, the Committee began to meet at Assistant Secretary level after 

the initial phase of membership. Eleven interdepartmental policy groups 

were established in this initial phase.

• The Cabinet was responsible for the broad political direction of Ireland’s 

engagement with the Union. A minute from the department of the 

Taoiseach in 1974 instructed that the Departments of Foreign Affairs, 

Industry and Commerce and Agriculture and Fisheries and Finance would 

be consulted on all memoranda to the Government that had a bearing on 

Ireland’s membership of the EU. A Cabinet Sub-Committee on the 

European Communities was also established at this time. It was envisaged 

that it would make recommendations to the government on EU matters 

and decide on matters referred to it by the full Cabinet. 

The initial phase of adaptation was characterised by the formalisation of the 

approach in a circular from the Foreign Ministry that set out the structures and 

processes for managing EU matters. There was very little institution building in the 

form of new structures, rather there was a reliance on the adaptation of existing 

structures within the broad parameters of collective responsibility and ministerial 

responsibility, the established conventions of Irish Government. The Irish 

administration faced the challenge of adapting to the Brussels system with limited 

human resources. At the end of 1973, one year into membership the Minister for 

Foreign Affairs, Dr. Garret FitzGerald concluded that: 

The first ten months of Community membership have placed an enormous 

strain on this country’s human resources in the public service and in many 

vocational bodies whose interests are affected by membership. We were 

simply not prepared for all that membership entails. In my own department 

the number of staff hitherto available for EEC work has fallen short by onethird 

of the absolute minimum to undertake this task in a manner that will 

safeguard Irish vital interests (FitzGerald 1973). 

New posts were created in the Irish civil service to accommodate the demands of EU 

membership. However there was a relatively small increase in full time non-industrial 

civil servants as a result of EU membership. In 1980, it was estimated that a total of 

1391 new posts had been created to manage the work arising from EU membership. 

The total Civil Service complement in that year was 53, 822.

The preparations for the 1975 Presidency were critical to Ireland’s adjustment to EU 

membership. The demands of running a Presidency ensured that departmental 

responsibility for different policy areas was clearly delineated and management of 

Council business meant that Government ministers and officials became au fait with 

the nuts and bolts of the Union’s policy process. The Government prepared 

extremely well for the Presidency and was determined that a small and relatively 

new member state would be seen to manage the Union’s business. The experience of 

the Presidency also had a very beneficial effect on the psychological environment of 

national policy makers. Thereafter, the Union became an accepted albeit 

complicating factor in national decision making. 

The end of the apprenticeship period did not mean that Ireland had such a well-oiled 

machine for managing EU business, that all problems and difficulties had been 

solved. In 1978 the department of the Public Service carried out a review of the 

management of EU business and although it did not produce a final report some of 

its deliberations later appear in a 1981 OECD report on Adapting Public 

Administration For Participating in Supranational Bodies (OECD 1981). The key 

problems identified in the report were: 

Organisation: There were disputes about who should play the lead role with 

some departments reluctant to take on issues in which they might have an 

interest but did not want the lead responsibility. 

Policy: There was scarcely any attempt to review systematically the effects of 

EU policies and the need to develop and document clear policy guidelines so 

that delegates could effectively participate in EC meetings. The report 

highlighted that an ad hoc approach to policy guidelines, which was evident in 

certain areas, had serious limitations. 

Co-ordination: A failure was identified to engage in effective consultation with 

other departments in some instances. The limited role of departmental coordination 

units and the diffusion of co-ordination responsibility within certain 

departments was highlighted. 

Procedures: There was some evidence of an excessive circulation of 

documents, a certain failure to observe procedures concerning the circulation 

of reports of meetings, and a lack of co-ordination concerning attendance at

meetings and an inconsistency in the grading levels decided on by different 

Departments. (OECD, 1981, 15-18). 

The OECD report, which contained material from the deliberations of the Department 

of Public Service review in 1978, highlighted the fact that although the broad 

parameters of how Ireland managed EU business was institutionalised between 1973 

and 1975, some of the structures and procedures established by the 1973 Circular 

did not really become operational. The Cabinet Sub-Committee met rarely and 

gradually fell into abeyance, as did the interdepartmental policy groups. An ad hoc, 

agenda driven approach to managing EU business took root, which allowed for 

considerable departmental autonomy and an informal manner of dealing with 

Brussels. Although formal interdepartmental structures were set up, they did not 

become institutionalised parts of the system. 

The third important period in the development of Ireland’s approach to EU matters 

was between 1987 and 1990 – marked by the signature of the Single European Act 

(SEA), the negotiation of the Delors I package and the 1990 Presidency. The 

referendum on the SEA, the work arising from the single market programme and the 

negotiations and implementation of the first national development plan placed new 

demands on the Irish Government and central administration. These events 

coincided with a new Government and a Taoiseach, Mr. Charles Haughey, who 

adopted a strong leadership role in Cabinet when he took over in February 1987. His 

administration made three important changes. First, the European Communities 

Committee which used be chaired by an Assistant Secretary from Foreign Affairs was 

transferred to the Department of the Taoiseach and the role of chair was given to a 

new political office holder, the Minister for State for European Affairs. Second, he set 

up a high level Committee of Ministers and Secretaries that met once a week in the 

period leading up to Ireland’s submission of the National Development Plan to the 

Commission in March 1989. The committee met frequently in the Prime Minister’s 

home and was attended mostly by departmental secretaries with the intermittent 

participation of ministers. A more restricted version of the Committee planned the 

1990 Presidency. When the Presidency was over in July 1990, the interdepartmental 

co-ordination machinery fell into abeyance. A new Taoiseach, Mr. Albert Reynolds 

reactivated the European Communities Committee in February 1992 with a political 

chair. The third change initiated in the Haughey era was the establishment of seven

egions in 1988 in response to Commission demands for consultation and partnership 

in the planning and implementation of the National Development Plan. The impact of 

the changes under Haughey was to signal the growing involvement of the Taoiseach 

and his department in the overall management of EU business. 

The fourth period of significant review and evaluation of how EU business is handled 

occurred as a result of the deep shock to the Irish system following the ‘no’ to Nice in 

June 2001. Prior to this event, Ireland managed to portray itself as a constructive 

player in the Union with a relatively communautaire approach in general. Successive 

Governments could pursue their European policies in a benign domestic 

environment. The ‘no’ to Nice and the low turnout in the referendum (34 per cent) of 

the electorate highlighted the fact that the Government could no longer take its 

voters for granted. Ireland’s European policy was loose of its moorings, which in turn 

led to considerable soul searching at official and political level of how EU business 

was managed and how Europe was communicated at national level. The 

consequences of this review for how European issues are dealt with are outlined in 

the substantive sections of this report. 

Scrutiny of EU Legislation in Ireland 

As discussed in Section I, Ireland’s law-making procedure is closely based, in the 

letter and in the spirit, on that of Westminster. Because the idea of a strong 

committee system was not part of the Westminster system in 1922, it did not form 

part of the original procedures of Oireachtas Eireann either. Following membership 

of the EEC in 1973, the Oireachtas lost the ‘sole and exclusive power of making laws’ 

bestowed on it by Article 15.2.1 of the constitution (Coakley and Gallagher, 1999). 

Considerable parliamentary pressure for the establishment of a ‘watchdog’ 

committee on draft Community proposals grew as a consequence. This led to the 

creation of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Secondary Legislation of the 

European Communities in July 1973. 

The Joint Committee had twenty-five members (eighteen deputies and seven 

senators) and members operated through four sub-committees which, meeting in 

private, examined proposals and instruments in the first instance, studied 

memoranda received from Government departments and outside bodies and 

interviewed civil servants and representatives of interested organisations. In order

to ensure adequate servicing of its four sub-committees the Joint Committee 

originally sought an allocation of fourteen officials together with secretarial 

assistance. In the end, the actual allocation made to the Joint Committee was much 

more modest, consisting of a Clerk, an Assistant Clerk and two Higher Executive 

Officers, together with secretarial assistance (Robinson, 1979, 17-8). This constraint 

on financial and technical resources was to continue throughout its existence. 

At first glance, the committee’s output of reports on legislation appears impressive. 

In the first four years of its existence, the committee published 59 reports. 

However, most of these reports were of a technical nature and drafted by the 

committee’s secretariat. Thus the subject matter, though often of great importance 

to persons directly concerned, did not lend itself to formal debate. Both Houses of 

the Oireachtas were not obliged to debate any of the reports and, while a significant 

number were discussed in the Seanad, in the period from 1978 to 1989 only three 

reports were debated in the Dáil. 14 In addition, the Committee did not have a 

mandate to examine major changes in the European landscape. 

In its review of functions in 1991, the sixth Joint Committee recommended that its 

terms of reference be expanded to include the power to examine all proposals 

affecting the Community’s development. It noted that if the committee was to be 

more effective in carrying out its tasks, it would require greater secretarial resources 

and greater scope for employing consultants and outside experts. It also called for a 

formal mechanism to be put in place for debating the reports of the Joint Committee 

in both Houses of the Oireachtas. 15 Instead of reforming the Joint Committee on 

Secondary Legislation in the aftermath of the Maastricht referendum and the 

formation of the Fianna Fáil/Labour Party coalition government, a new Joint 

Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs was set up in 1993. The Joint Committee 

on Secondary Legislation was reconstituted as the Joint Committee on European 

Affairs. 

From 1997 to 2002, staff of the Committee included a clerk, two 

administrators and one half-time policy advisor. A consultancy firm was also 

employed by the Committee. At the end of the 28 th Oireachtas (1997-2002, total 

14 41 reports were debated in the Seanad from May 1978 to February 1989. The 

three reports debated in the Dáil were: Action in the Cultural Sector (1978), 

Financing of the Community Budget (1979) and the European Parliament Draft 

Treaty Establishing the European Union (1985). 

15 Sixth Joint Committee on the Secondary Legislation of the European Communities 

Report No.7, Review of the Functions of the Joint Committee, 13 February 1991.

membership of the European Affairs committee stood at 19 (14 Deputies, 5 

Senators). Between 1999 and 2001, the Committee issued no reports and published 

one report on the enlargement of the EU in 2002. MEPs who did not hold a dual 

mandate were allowed to attend and participate in committee meetings (but not 

vote), thus trying to establish some link between the national and European 

Parliament. However, because of their commitments in Europe, MEPs have found 

that they are unable to attend meetings of the Joint Committee on European Affairs 

on a regular basis. 16 

The Joint Committee on European Affairs’ mandate was to concern itself both with 

policy and legislation to ensure that EU affairs are examined by the Irish Parliament 

as a whole. 17 The new Committee on European Affairs has played a significant role 

in informing deputies and senators of general EU policy developments but scrutiny of 

EU legislation suffered as a result. The new committee benefited from a large 

number of oral presentations from academic experts, ambassadors and EU and NATO 

officials, as well as briefing documents from the Department of Foreign Affairs. 

Ministers have also been willing to appear before the committee. However, 

attendance at the committees was patchy, given the constituency duties of Irish 

parliamentarians and there was some overlap between the European and Foreign 

Affairs committees on areas such as the Common Defence and Security Policy. 

In addition to the Joint Committee on European Affairs’ examination of EU 

developments, the Taoiseach makes a statement to the Dáil after each European 

Council. The Government also produces a twice-yearly report entitled Developments 

in the European Communities which is laid before the Oireachtas. The reports are 

usually late and debated infrequently by the Houses of the Oireachtas, thus limiting 

their effectiveness as a means of control over the Executive’s EU policy. 18 

Parliamentary questions, although used infrequently, are another scrutiny device 

available to parliamentarians. Relations between the Oireachtas and the EU have 

been characterised as a combination of neglect and ignorance (O’Halpin, 1996, 124). 

The new Joint Committee on European Affairs of 1993 helped increase parliamentary 

16 Houses of the Oireachtas, Second Report of the Joint Committee on European 

Affairs 1995 Annual Report, July 1996. 

17 The Joint Committee on European Affairs has 19 members: 14 TDs and 5 

Senators. 

18 In general, these reports have been debated more frequently in the Seanad and in 

a more systematic fashion.

awareness of developments in the EU but it concentrated, on the whole, on 

discussing topical issues instead of monitoring the flow of EU legislation. At a time 

when the EU expanded its remit to cover most areas of member states’ governance, 

parliamentary scrutiny of EU legislation in Ireland and of Ireland’s European policy 

was weak. 

SECTION II - STRUCTURES 

The Irish Administrative System and the EU 19 

Given the reach of EU policies on national policy making, every department and 

office in the Irish core executive system is required to deal with the European Union 

in some way. The extent of interaction and need to manage EU business depends 

primarily on the degree of Europeanisation found in the respective policy domains of 

each office and department. It is possible to place the Irish core executive system’s 

management of EU business on three distinct levels based on this criterion: 

19 The material that forms the basis of the following analysis was gathered from 

detailed analysis of documentary evidence (including strategy statements from 

government departments) and two extensive series of structured interviews with 

those involved in managing Ireland’s EU affairs. The first round of interviews (47 in 

total) was conducted by Professor Brigid Laffan as part of the research carried out 

between 1999 and 2000 for Organising for a Changing Europe: Irish Central 

Government and the European Union, published in 2001. The second round of 

interviews was conducted in the first half of 2002. 30 structured interviews were 

conducted and interviewees for this stage of the project included civil servants drawn 

from most departments throughout the Irish system, and included representatives 

from the political and parliamentary arenas.

Figure 2: Levels of management of EU business: 

Cabinet 

Taoiseach 

DFA 

Finance 

ET&E 

Agriculture 

Justice Environment 

Office of Attorney General 

Tourism 

Arts, Heritage & Gaeltacht Defence 

Education & Science 

Health & Children 

Marine & Natural Resources Public Enterprise 

Social, Community & Family Affairs 

The salience of the EU in the particular policy area determines the response of the 

individual departments in setting up structures to deal with the flow of EU business. 

Looking at the diagram above, we see that three over-arching ministries – 

Taoiseach, Foreign Affairs and Finance - deal with the overall coordination of Irish EU 

policy and are the central structural nodes through which Ireland’s overall EU 

strategy must pass through at varying stages. At the second level, EU policies are 

central or increasingly central to the work undertaken by the Departments of 

Agriculture, Justice, Enterprise, Trade & Employment and the Environment. While 

the volume of EU legislation to be transmuted into domestic law has not increased 

significantly in recent years, the Office of the Attorney General is included in this 

level. For example, as EU competence has grown in the area of Justice and Home 

Affairs (referred to by one interviewee for this study as a growth industry), this has 

necessitated more hands-on involvement by this office in the formulation, 

coordination and monitoring of legislation dealing with this area. For the 

departments at the third level of core-executive management (until the 

reconfiguration of departments in June 2002), i.e. Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, 

Defence, Health and Children, Education and Science, Marine and Natural Resources,

Public Enterprise, Social, Community and Family Affairs and Tourism, coordinating 

and managing national policy remains the over-arching concern. However, each of 

these departments to varying degrees found itself dealing with a certain amount of 

EU business, in particular as the new mode of governance, the Open Method of 

Coordination, is becoming more prevalent in the EU. Two useful indicators of the 

European demands on domestic ministries is the number of Council meetings each 

department must service and the number of working parties each department must 

service (See Tables 1 and 2). These indicators highlight the fact that Europeanisation 

is unevenly spread in the Irish system. The Departments of Foreign Affairs, Finance, 

Agriculture, Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Justice and Environment are most 

heavily involved in the EU system. 

The following section will explore the multiple structures put in place within and 

between government departments in order to manage relations with Brussels. Each 

Department is structured on a functional basis with specific or numerous units within 

Departments that deal with the flow of EU business alongside national business. 

Departments have also put in place specific EU coordination structures to coordinate 

EU business on an intra and inter-departmental basis. Interdepartmental structures 

are also to be found in order to manage cross-cutting or horizontal issues of a wideranging 

nature. The first component of the core-core of the Irish-EU interface 

whose structures we will examine is the Prime Minister’s office, also known as the 

Department of the Taoiseach.

Table 1: Ministerial involvement in the Council of Ministers 

Council 

General Affairs 

Council 

Economic and 

Finance 

Agriculture 

Environment 

Justice, Home 

Affairs and Civil 

Protection 

Internal 

Market/Consumer 

Affairs/Tourism 

Transport/Telecom 

munications 

Employment and 

Social Policy 

Culture 

Fisheries 

Education/Youth 

Research 

Industry/Energy 

Irish 

Minister/Depart 

ment 

Council Meetings 

in 2001 

Percentage 

Foreign Affairs 15 17 

Finance 11 13 

Agriculture, Food 

and Forestry 

Environment and 

Local Government 

Justice, Equality 

and Law Reform 

Enterprise, Trade 

and Employment 

10 11 

8 9 

8 9 

5 6 

Public Enterprise 5 6 


and Employment; 

Social, Community 

and Family Affairs 

Arts, Culture and 

the Gaeltacht 

Marine and Natural 

Resources 

Education and 

Science 




4 5 

4 5 

4 5 

3 4 

2 2 

2 2 


Health Health 2 2 

Development Foreign Affairs 2 2 

Budget Finance 2 2

Table 2: Council Working Parties to be serviced, June 2002 

Council 

Irish 

Minister/Department 

No. of 

Working 

Parties 

General Affairs (horizontal Foreign Affairs 56 32 

issues and external 

relations) 

Economic and Finance Finance 8 5 

Agriculture 

Agriculture, Food and 37 21 

Forestry 

Environment 

Environment and Local 2 1 

Government 

Justice, Home Affairs and Justice, Equality and 26 15 

Civil Protection 

Law Reform 

Internal Market 

Enterprise, Trade and 13 7 

Employment 

Transport/Telecommunicati Public Enterprise 6 3.5 

ons 

Employment and Social 

Policy 

Education, Culture and 

Youth 

Fisheries 

Research 

Industry/Energy 

Health and Consumer 

Affairs 

Enterprise, Trade and 

Employment; Social, 

Community and Family 

Affairs 

Education and Science, 

Arts, Culture and the 

Gaeltacht 

Marine and Natural 

Resources 


Employment 


Employment, Public 

Enterprise 

2 1 

4 2 

3 2 

3 2 

6 3.5 

Health and ET&E 2 1 

Development Foreign Affairs 3 2 

Budget Finance 3 2 

Total: 174 100 

Percentage 

% 

Source: Europa website. It is important to note that these figures are approximate 

since it is impossible to accurately determine the exact number of working parties in 

existence in the EU at any one time.

VERTICAL STRUCTURES – THE CORE-CORE 

Taoiseach’s Department 

The Taoiseach’s Department, while small in size compared to other government 

departments, is central to the conduct of EU business as it serves as the secretariat 

to the Prime Minister or Taoiseach, who, as Section I shows, holds a position of 

considerable power in the Irish core executive system. The role of the Taoiseach’s 

Department in the conduct of EU business has been considerably enhanced in recent 

years to the extent that it is considered as one of the two ‘EU coordinating 

departments’ (Interview 62, 26.03.02). The direct involvement of the Taoiseach in 

EU business, as with every other head of Government in the European Union, was 

enhanced by the establishment of the European Council in 1975 and in particular 

after the negotiation and signature of the Single European Act in 1986 when it was 

recognised as an independent European Community institution. Indeed, this 

concomitantly strengthened the position of the Taoiseach within the Irish core 

executive system as the Taoiseach became equally involved than the Minister for 

Foreign Affairs in the overall determination of Ireland’s strategy towards the EC/EU. 

The frequency of treaty reform since the SEA in 1986 and the more recent instigation 

and development of the Lisbon Agenda since 2000 (with an overall coordinating role 

required of prime ministers within this new mode of governance) has further 

increased the involvement of prime ministers in EU policy making and the need for 

individual prime ministers to be fully briefed on a very broad range of EU policy 

issues. The Prime Minister plays a leading role during EU Presidencies in particular 

as chair of European Council summits. Prime ministers engage in continuous 

bilateral meetings with other heads of government and ministers of EU member 

states and candidate countries on a continuous basis. 

While primary responsibility for the development of Ireland’s European policy on 

specific issues rests with individual Departments, the core role of the Department of 

the Taoiseach is to provide a strategic direction and focus for this European policy in 

overall terms. The aim of those in the Department is to work in tandem with the 

relevant line departments rather than duplicate the work that is already being done. 

The relatively small size of the Department of the Taoiseach necessitates this 

approach. The size of the Taoiseach’s office has increased from having a staff of 

approximately 20 in the early 1960s to over 200 civil servants and political advisors

in 2002 (Interview 48, 12.02.02). In spite of this significant increase in staffing as a 

whole, the infrastructure established to deal directly with EU matters within the 

Department of the Taoiseach was and continues to be small in scale (Interview 48, 

l2.02.02). 

In 1982, the then Taoiseach Charles Haughey established an International Affairs 

Division to deal with Northern Ireland and the EU. This division was expanded to 

include all international and EU matters. In 1999 its staff numbered five, including 

the head of unit. Following a reorganisation of the Department in July 2001 (see 

figure 3), a position of Second Secretary was established with overall responsibility 

for Northern Ireland and EU and International Affairs. This is a significant 

development as it marked recognition of the need for steering in these specific policy 

areas at the highest level in the Department. The EU and International Affairs 

Division’s staff now includes one head of unit (Assistant Secretary) along with two 

principal officers, two assistant principals and two administrative officers (total of 

seven, however three of these staff deal mainly with international affairs as opposed 

to European matters). 20 The department does not have any staff in the Permanent 

Representation in Brussels. The European and International Affairs Division supports 

the Taoiseach in his role as the Head of Government of a European Union member 

state and in the wider field of international relations. The division co-ordinates and 

contributes to the development of Ireland’s policies on issues of European and 

international concern. In conjunction with other government departments, the 

division monitors emerging European policy positions and the policy approaches from 

the various government departments and other state bodies. One of the division’s 

primary functions is to ensure that the Taoiseach is fully briefed on key 

developments at European and International level and that Ireland’s interests are 

actively pursued. These briefings are received from all departments, in particular the 

Department of Foreign Affairs, and collated by the division. The division also 

services a number of interdepartmental committees such as the Interdepartmental 

Coordinating Committee on European Union Affairs (informally known as the Roche 

Committee as it is chaired by Minister of State for European Affairs, Dick Roche). Its 

immediate precursor was the Senior Officials Group (which was chaired by the 

Assistant Secretary of the EU and International Division). Other interdepartmental 

20 In 2002 a Lisbon Agenda Unit was also established with three staff: a Principal 

Officer, Assistant Principal and Administrative Officer.

committees serviced by the Unit include the Lisbon Group and the Convention 

Overview Group. The Unit also services the Cabinet Sub-Committee on European 

Affairs. The division coordinates the logistical arrangements for the Taoiseach’s diary 

of European and international engagements, including engagements held in Ireland 

with visiting Heads of Government. 21 

The rhythm of European Council meetings serves as an organizing pole for work 

carried out in the Taoiseach’s Department and the European and International Affairs 

Division’s engagement with successive Taoisigh is dictated by events. Engagements 

with the Taoiseach relating to EU matters, therefore, may or may not occur on a 

daily basis. As a rule, the Taoiseach is accompanied to European Council Summits 

by senior ministers and civil servants, including the Permanent Representative in the 

Brussels Representation centre (though not necessarily Secretaries General of 

national departments). Along with officials and relevant ministers (including a 

Minister for European Affairs if appointed in the life of the Parliament), a Senior 

Political Advisor would generally accompany the Taoiseach to summits to be on hand 

in case political firefighting must be countered. 

In summary, the role of the Department of the Toaiseach has expanded in relation to 

the management of EU business since the 1980s for a number of reasons. First, the 

intensification of the European Council has internationalised the role of all European 

Prime Ministers. Formal Council meetings and bilaterals with counterparts is intrinsic 

to contemporary governance. Second, as EU’s policy remit expanded from the Single 

Act onwards, the Taoiseach’s Department became more involved in managing the 

determination of Irish interests and the projection of interests into the EU system. In 

the post-Nice period, the Taoiseach faces an important domestic challenge of 

communicating Europe. The core role of the department in relation to EU business 

was described by one of its officials in the following terms: 

The core role of the Department of An Taoiseach is to provide a strategic 

direction on Europe, to create a strategic focus (Interview 48, 12.02.02). 

In addition, the department can be brought into any set of negotiations if they 

become problematic or in the event of deep-rooted interdepartmental conflict. The 

way in which the Taoiseach’s Department exercises its role is determined by its 

21 Department of the Taoiseach, Strategy Statement to 31 December 2003.

staffing levels which remain relatively thin and by its desire to ‘work in tandem 

rather than reinvent’ the work of other departments (Interview 51, 12.02.02) The 

tendency is ‘to delegate and to co-ordinate as required and not to micro-manage’ 

(Interview 49, 12 February 2002).

Political 

Advisors 

Taoiseach 

Minister of State for European 

Affairs 

European Council 

Secretary General 

Second Secretary 

Assistant Secretary Assistant Secretary Assistant Secretary Assistant Secretary 

Assistant Secretary 

Protocol 

Government 

Secretariat 

Information 

Society Policy 

Division 

Economic Policy 

Division 

Social Policy 

Division 

Public Service 

Modernisation 

Programme 

Social 

Partnership 

Northern 

Ireland Division 

National 

Forum on 

Europe 

European and 

International 

Affairs Division 

Private Office 

Government 

Press Office 

Figure 3: 

Structure of Department of the Taoiseach 2002

Foreign Affairs 

The EU poses a particular challenge to national foreign ministries because it is an 

arena that involves a complex blend of the diplomatic and domestic/sectoral, or the 

political and technical. Adequate representation in the EU requires that national 

officials and ministers manage the interface between the diplomatic and the sectoral 

so that policy is not driven by the technical preferences of line ministries on the one 

hand, or the demands of inter-state diplomacy on the other. As outlined above, the 

Department of Foreign Affairs assumed the role of lead department on EU matters 

from the Department of Finance in 1973. Its place at the heart of the core-core of 

the Irish core executive is still taken as given, however it now shares its coordinating 

responsibilities to a greater degree with the Department of the Taoiseach. 

According to the DFA Strategy Statement for 2001-2003, ‘the DFA, working with 

other Departments, has a particular responsibility to ensure a co-ordinated response 

across a wide range of EU issues’ (Department of Foreign Affairs, 2001, 15). The 

importance of the EU to the work of the DFA is also reflected in its 2001-2003 

mission statement which, for the first time, refers to the European Union as an area 

of strategic importance for Ireland’s interests: 

The mission of the Department of Foreign Affairs is to promote the interests 

of Ireland in the European Union and in the wider world, to protect its citizens 

abroad, and to pursue peace, partnership and reconciliation on the island of 

Ireland’ (Department of Foreign Affairs, 2001, 9). 

Membership of the EU in 1973 had a major impact on the structure of the 

Department of Foreign Affairs and was instrumental in promoting the modernization 

of the Irish Foreign Service (Keatinge 1995: 2). It involved a broadening of 

interests, and placed Ireland within a demanding multinational diplomatic 

environment which demanded new institutional mechanisms, processes and 

resources. The department became involved in the Union’s governance structures 

and, given its co-ordinating role on EU matters, and as a consequence became more 

integrated with the domestic system of public administration. The department’s 

modernization was characterized by an increase in the number of staff in head office 

and in Irish missions abroad (See table 4). Increased resources were accompanied 

by internal organisational changes with the creation of new divisions, the 

reorganisation of existing ones and increased functional specialization at head office.

Those changes were a response to membership, the demands of managing a 

presidency and the widening scope and reach of Irish foreign policy. 

Table 4: Department of Foreign Affairs Staffing 

Year Total Number in DFA Total Number in 

Economic/EU 

Division 

1967 40 6 

1971 51 11 

1974 87 31 

1979 114 27 

1982 130 30 

1986 136 29 

1988 125 24 

1992 123 15 

1995 126 19 

2000 175 19 

Source: State Directories, 1967-2000. 

In the late 1980s, Foreign Affairs, like all government departments, suffered a 

reduction in staff during the public sector recruitment embargo. This reduction took 

place at a time when Ireland was confronted with many challenging developments on 

the European and international stage, for example the collapse of communism in 

Central and Eastern Europe and the end of the Cold War. The ongoing negotiation of 

the peace process in Northern Ireland has placed a heavy burden on the Anglo Irish 

division within the Department of Foreign Affairs and membership of the UN Security 

Council from 2001-2003 imposed further demands on the Department. Yet 

notwithstanding these multiple demands, until the late 1990s the Irish Foreign 

Service remained small relative to the EU’s other small member states. In 1999, 

countries such as Belgium, Denmark, Greece and Portugal had twice as many 

embassies and twice as many diplomatic staff as Ireland. However, in tandem with 

an internal review of the Department’s functioning, concerted efforts have also been 

made to increase both the size of the Irish diplomatic service abroad and 

headquarters in Dublin. 

Concern about the capacity of headquarters to direct the growing diplomatic network 

and to respond to the demands of strategic policy making led to a major internal

eview of its resources and organisational structure in 1999-2000. 22 An original idea, 

held to be impracticable was the instigation of a Geographic desk arrangement where 

each region of the world would have its own ‘desk’ or responsible division. The chef 

de file or lead unit arrangement was put in place in February 2002 where each unit 

within the Department has overall responsibility for particular regions or countries of 

the world. Staff numbers have also been gradually increased since the period of the 

review (Interview 60, 26.03.02). 

The DFA plays a specific and more hands-on role in the management of relations 

with Brussels that differs from the Department of the Taoiseach. Within the Irish 

system, the DFA is the department with an overview of developments in the EU from 

an institutional and political perspective. In addition, its embassies in the member 

states can provide information and briefing on the policy positions of the member 

states, the Irish ‘eyes and ears’. The Irish Representation in Brussels is a pivotal 

source of intelligence on developments in the EU and has a key function in 

identifying how and what national preferences can be promoted within the EU and in 

identifying the trade-offs that might be necessary as negotiations develop. The 

office of the Permanent Representation is examined later in this section. 

Following the review of the Department, its structure was streamlined to take into 

account the ever-changing exigencies of the international system and of Ireland’s 

place within this system. The Department is currently organised into ten separate 

divisions (See figures 4 and 5). Each division is then organised into discrete 

numbers of units. The divisions are as follows: Anglo-Irish deals with Anglo-Irish 

relations and Northern Ireland. The EU Division coordinates Ireland's approach 

within the EU. The head of the European Union Division is now referred to as 

Director General. The Political Division is responsible for international political issues 

and manages Ireland's participation in the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy. 

The head of Political Division is referred to as the Political Director. The 

Development Co-operation Division is responsible for the administration of the Irish 

overseas aid programme and for the conduct of Irish development policy. The 

Corporate Services Division is responsible for the day-to-day management of the 

22 The review in Foreign Affairs was very extensive, and involved an analysis of the 

internal organization in headquarters and the department’s external links to other 

government departments and to the growing network of embassies. The review 

focused on increased resources and structural change.

Department. The Consular Division is responsible for the administration of Consular 

services offered to Irish citizens. The Protocol and Cultural Division is responsible for 

the organisation and management of visits of VIPs to Ireland and of visits abroad by 

the President, as well as the administration of Ireland's obligations under the Vienna 

Convention. This Division also administers the Cultural relations programme of the 

Department of Foreign Affairs. The Bilateral Economic Relations Division deals with 

Ireland's Bilateral Economic Relations with countries throughout the world. Finally, 

the Legal Division provides the Department with legal advice and which has 

responsibilities in the negotiation of international agreements. 

Within the Irish system, the DFA has lead responsibility for a number of important 

policy issues such as the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), the European 

Security and Defence Policy (ESDP), development co-operation, institutional 

development of the Union, the management of the presidency and enlargement. The 

divisions within the DFA most involved in EU business are the European Union 

Division and the Political Division and each division has responsibility for different EU 

policy areas. The European Union Division and the Irish Representation in Brussels 

form two central nodes in the management of EU business, particularly in relation to 

pillar I as they interact with a) EU institutions, particularly the Council but also the 

Commission and the Parliament, b) government departments both individually and 

collectively. The EU Division (formerly known as the Economic Division and for a 

time the European Communities Division) coordinates Ireland’s approach within the 

EU to issues such as institutional issues and enlargement. The EU Division has the 

overall coordination function in relation to first pillar business in general including the 

preparation of briefs for the General Affairs Council (GAC), the European Council and 

the Presidency. The GAC is the main coordinator of Council business and is the main 

channel of material to the European Council, apart from issues relating to the Euro 

and competitiveness. The direct link between the GAC and the European Council 

demands a close working relationship between Foreign Affairs and the Taoiseach’s 

department. The Council phase of the Union’s policy process imposes heavy 

demands on the Department of Foreign Affairs as a whole and its role in monitoring 

and assessing developments in the European Parliament is less developed. The core 

of its involvement is in the negotiating phase of the policy process, rather than 

implementation, which is mainly the responsibility of the domestic departments.

Within the European Union Division, the EU Coordination Unit is responsible for 

coordinating the preparation of ministerial briefs for the General Affairs Council, for 

supplying briefing material for the Taoiseach for European Council meetings and is 

the formal pathway for the circulation of much EU material to the domestic 

departments and to units within the DFA itself. With the new parliamentary scrutiny 

measures established in mid-2002, the role of this Unit in ensuring adequate flows of 

information and documents throughout the core executive system will increase even 

further. It is self-evident that all sections or units within the European Union 

Division deal primarily with EU matters, i.e. the internal EU policies section, external 

economic relations section (working closely with Enterprise, Trade and Employment), 

institutional EU development section and enlargement section. 

The Political Division is responsible for Ireland’s approach to the CFSP, and has 

coordinating function with regard to the ESDP (and works closely on this with the 

Department of Defence). The head of division is Ireland’s political director, who, in 

the past was responsible for attending meetings of the Political Committee, the highranking 

committee for dealing with the international role of the Union. Upon the 

creation of the Political and Security Committee (institutionalised in the Treaty of 

Nice), the Political Division posted a senior representative at ambassadorial level to 

sit on this committee. This brings to three the number of diplomats in Ireland’s 

Permanent Representation with ambassadorial rank. 

The Political Division services all committees that meet under the auspices of pillar 

two. The Political Division works closely with the Department’s European Union 

division (although they are housed in separate buildings at present), particularly in 

relation to issues such as enlargement. Given the nature of its responsibilities it has 

weaker links to the domestic departments than the European Union Division. The 

most important interaction it has is with the Department of Defence, on the 

development of Ireland’s position in Europe’s changing security environment. 

Officials from the International Security Policy Unit of the Division work in close cooperation 

with officials from the International Security and Defence Policy Branch of 

the Department of Foreign Affairs. Within the DFA’s Political Division, the 

International Security Policy section has moved from primarily servicing meetings in 

Brussels to helping man the Brussels delegation, which has also been increased in 

size (apart from the Irish representative on the Political and Security Division, two

other officials work in the ESDP unit in close cooperation with officials from the 

Department of Defence and Army representatives (who service the Military 

Committee of the ESDP)). Officials from the International Security Policy Unit also 

service domestic interdepartmental and institutional working groups such as the Ad 

Hoc group of the DFA, Defence and the Army that deals with PfP and ESDP issues, 

CIVCOM and the Rule of Law Working Group. There is also an interdepartmental 

committee on Peacekeeping, which meets three to four times a year. This 

committee is chaired by the Political Director and its aim is to bring together 

interested parties from within the Irish system, such as army directors, Department 

of Justice and the Gardai. The International Security Policy section also works 

closely with Defence by means of the dedicated encryption line which links the two 

departments and the PSC delegation. The Development division of the Department 

of Foreign Affairs deals with work for the EU Development Council.

Figure 4: 

Structure of the Department of 

Foreign Affairs 2002 

Minister for Foreign 

Affairs 

EU General 

Affairs Council 

Minister of State 


Deputy 

Secretary 

EU Permanent 

Representation 

- Coreper 

EU Political 

and 

Security 

Committe 

Second 

Secretary 

Inspection 

Assistant 

Secretary 

Assistant 

Secretary 

Assistant 

Secretary 

Assistant 

Secretar 

Director 

General 

Legal 

Advisor 

Political 

Director 

Assistant 

Secretary 

Bilateral 

Economic 

Relations 

Consular 

Services 

Corporat 

e 

Services 

Development 

Cooperation 

European 

Union 

Legal 

Political 

Protocol 

and 

Cultural 

Anglo 

Irish

Figure 5: 

Department of Foreign Affairs Structure Detail 

European Union Division 

Political Division 

Director General 

Political 

Director 

European Union 

Division 

Political 

Division 

EU Co-ordination 

Common Foreign 

and Security Policy 

Internal EU 

Policies 

Bilateral Political 

Relations 

External 

Economic 

United Nations 

Institutional EU 

Development 

OSCE 

Enlargement 

Council of Europe 

International 

Security Policy 

Human Rights

Finance 

The Department of Finance played a crucial role in the development of Ireland’s 

European policy and in the negotiation of Irish accession to the European Economic 

Community in 1973. Its role remained important after accession although Foreign 

Affairs was given the co-ordinating brief for EU business. In 1972 the department 

had one section that dealt with all EU matters. However, EU policies began to 

permeate too many areas of domestic policy for that position to persist. The 

department’s role in EU business increased significantly from the mid-1980s with the 

single market programme, EU structural and cohesion funds, taxation and Economic 

and Monetary Union (EMU) to the extent that the Department of Finance could now 

be said to have an interest in everything European for its role as the controller of the 

public finances gives it a central role in EU affairs. It is the standard practice that EU 

proposals with financial implications for the Exchequer must be cleared with the 

Department of Finance before being approved. From the perspective of the 

Department of Finance, in the 1980s and 1990s, the EU was a welcome source of 

funds. It also helped establish a policy environment in relation to budgetary 

expenditure, state aids, and taxation that contributed to Ireland’s improved 

economic performance. Participation in the Community Support Framework in 

particular helped instil an evaluation culture within the Department. The policy 

formulation methodology of the National Plans continues to be used in domestic 

policy formulation and co-ordination. 

Participation in the EU is cited in the Department’s Strategy Statement as its third 

strategic priority (one of five) with specific objectives in relation to six areas of EU 

business: 

♦ Contribution to the formulation of Ireland’s EU policy 

♦ Effective representation of the Irish position at the ECOFIN and Budget 

Councils 

♦ Effective administration of EU Structural and Cohesion Fund receipts 

♦ Optimum benefits from EU/EMU membership 

♦ A successful changeover to the Euro 

♦ A competitive financial services sector (Department of Finance, 2001, 5). 

The department interacts with the EU arena via the ECOFIN Council, its preparatory 

bodies, the Economic and Finance Committee (formerly the Monetary Committee), 

the Economic Policy Committee, the Eurogroup (12 member states), the European

Central Bank, the Budget Council, other Council working parties dealing in particular 

with financial regulation, COREPER and bilateral dealings with the Commission. 

There is an ECOFIN Council every month and a Budget Council at least twice a year. 

These meetings include evaluations of national economic policy and performance 

within the Broad Economic Policy Guidelines and Stability Pact policy mechanisms. 

The Department also has extensive bilateral contact with the Commission through its 

central role in the management of the Community Support Framework in Ireland. 

The Department plays a major role in negotiations on taxation, where the 

Department of Foreign Affairs’ involvement was minimal. 

The two Divisions centrally involved in EU business are the Budget and Economic 

Division (BED) and the Banking, Finance and International Services Division (BFID) 

(see figure 6). The BED deals with overall budgetary policy, economic policy and 

forecasting, the International Financial Services Centre and servicing EU committees 

on tax policy and budgetary and economic co-operation under EMU. BFID deals with 

banking policy and financial regulation at domestic and EU level, the Euro 

changeover and EU exchange rate policy. This division also handles monitoring and 

evaluation of the National Development Plan and Community Support Framework, 

the European Regional Development and Cohesion Funds, regional policy, debt 

management policy, the EU budget and other international financial institutions. 

Within the Department, sections have autonomy and responsibility for policy in 

respect of issues under their aegis and pull together when going to ECOFIN.

Figure 6: 

Structure of the Department 

of Finance 2002 

Ecofin 

Minister of Finance 

Economic and 

Finance Committee 

(and Alternates) 


Economic Policy 

Committee 


Budget and 

Economic 

Division 

Banking, 

Finance & 

International 

Services 

Public 

Expenditure 

Personnel and 

Remuneration 

Organisation, 

Management & 

Training Division 

Corporate 

Services 

Division

The two preparatory committees for ECOFIN are the Economic and Finance 

Committee and the Economic Policy Committee. The Economic and Finance 

Committee (EFC) is a key part of the institutional framework for managing the Euro 

and the EFC and not COREPER is responsible for the co-ordination of ECOFIN. The 

EFC mainly deals with the Stability Pact and Broad Economic Policy Guidelines, along 

with issues relating to the international representation of the Euro Area. The 

Economic Policy Committee (EPC) also works to ECOFIN but has developed a more 

specialised role; it now examines more structural and long-term economic issues 

such as the Lisbon Process. Until the second quarter of 2000, the EFC was serviced 

by the Banking, Finance and International Services Division of the Department 

(formerly known as the Finance Division). However, with the development of the 

Stability Pact, it was decided that the Budget and Economic Division would provide 

the main representation on the EFC. The Head of the BED represents Ireland on this 

Committee and his alternate comes from BFID. Officials from the BED also attend 

the EPC. Internally within the system, officials from the Banking, Finance and 

International Services Division attend the Senior Officials Group and the Cabinet 

Sub-Committee. 

A Department of Finance inter-divisional committee on EU affairs has also been 

established, to facilitate internal co-ordination of EU business and to consider 

strategic issues within a broader context. The committee’s terms of reference are ‘to 

serve as a forum for discussion and overview of key EU issues pertaining to the 

Department of Finance’ (Department of the Taoiseach Internal Memorandum). 

However, meetings of this committee have been infrequent (Interview 63, 

10.04.02). The internal departmental position on general EU policy issues is coordinated 

internally by the EU Policy Section within the BFID. Four officials from the 

Department serve in the Permanent Representation in Brussels dealing with the 

following areas: Finance, Financial Services, EU Budget and Fiscal Affairs. While the 

Department of Finance has generally been extremely effective in protecting Irish 

interests (e.g. corporation tax negotiations), it is recognised that the resources 

available within the Department to monitor economic areas such as the performance 

of other member states according to the Broad Economic Policy Guidelines are 

limited.

The remaining divisions within the Department of Finance are less centrally involved 

in EU business. The Public Expenditure Division has a very minor direct EU role but 

is a key link to the wider governmental system in relation to the flow of funds from 

Brussels through the domestic system. It also has a key role in ensuring that 

departments and state agencies observe EU public procurement rules that are 

monitored by the Government Contracts Committee in this division. In the past, the 

Organisation, Training and Management Division has provided training on EU 

business, particularly in preparation for the presidency. It has also overseen the 

placing of Irish nationals in international organisations, particularly the Commission, 

although this role is not always systematic (Interview 53, 12.02.02). Once during 

each presidency, directors of national public services divisions also meet under the 

aegis of this division to discuss issues such as training, mobility and personnel 

management. 

In summary, the role of the three departments in the core-core of the system are 

complementary rather than competitive. The Department of the Taoiseach brings the 

authority of the prime minister to bear on interdepartmental issues and meetings 

called by this department will always be taken seriously. Foreign Affairs brings its 

knowledge of the EU, its negotiating expertise and its knowledge of the attitudes of 

other member states to the table. These two departments are major players in all of 

the macro-negotiations and have very close relations on the management of EU 

business. The Department of Finance is less involved in macro-issues to do with the 

development of the EU but is central to all aspects of economic governance. In 

addition to its system wide responsibilities, it has substantive EU dossiers of its own 

and pays most attention to those.

The Inner Core 

Although EU business now permeates the work of all line or sectoral departments in 

some form, four in particular have key EU responsibilities and form part of the inner 

core of the core executive in managing EU business from home: - Enterprise, Trade 

and Employment (ET&E), Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, Justice, Equality 

and Law Reform, and Environment and Local Government. Together, these 

departments account for a sizeable proportion of Ireland’s EU business. Given the 

size of these departments and the salience of their responsibilities, they have a high 

degree of departmental autonomy in the exercise of their policy responsibilities and 

have a role in the development of Ireland’s overall strategic response to integration. 

They also tend to be involved in macro-negotiations in addition to sectoral policy 

areas. ET&E and Agriculture have been key plays from the outset, whereas Justice 

and Environment have become increasingly involved in EU business from the 1990s 

onwards. The EU task facing each of these departments differs greatly one from the 

other. Agriculture is a clearly defined sector with a well-organised and politically 

significant client group. ET&E is multisectoral with responsibility for a wide range of 

policy areas such as regulation, trade, social and employment policy, consumer 

policy, research and certain EU funds. Justice is managing a relatively new but 

rapidly changing policy domain, which is characterized by complex decision rules, 

and the UK and Irish opt out from Schengen and aspects of Justice and Home Affairs. 

Environment policy in Ireland is increasingly formulated within the European frame 

and environmental issues are touching other policy areas of government and other 

departments business, such as sustainable development, which is relevant not only 

for Environment but also Agriculture and Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and Marine 

and Natural Resources. Ireland’s implementation record with regard to EU 

environmental legislation is closely monitored by a myriad of environmental lobby 

groups and NGOs at national and European level. 

Enterprise, Trade and Employment 

The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (ET&E) was established in 

1992 and represents a merger between the departments of Industry and Commerce 

and Labour. The trade portfolio reverted to this department following the 1997 

general election. The amalgamation of Labour and Industry and Commerce was an 

important organizational change in Irish central government as it combined industrial

development, on the one hand, and employment rights, on the other. In one sense, 

it brought the two sides of industry under one roof and created a very large ministry 

with multiple and possibly conflicting responsibilities. 

Of all the sectoral ministeries, ET&E faces the most complex challenge in managing 

EU business because of the multifaceted nature of its involvement. Every division of 

the Department is significantly affected by EU activities. Traditionally, until the late 

1990s, the Department serviced six different ministerial Councils – the Internal 

Market, Consumer Affairs, Industry, Employment and Social Affairs, the trade brief in 

the GAC, and Research. This was the largest number of Councils serviced by any 

one department. The reduction in the number of Council formations reduced the 

number of Councils serviced by the department and it now services four Councils: 

Industry and Energy, Internal Market, Consumer Affairs and Tourism, Employment 

and Social Policy and Research. The Department still deals with trade items (e.g. the 

World Trade Organisation negotiations) within the GAC. The management of Council 

business is rendered even more difficult as two Council formations – Internal Market, 

Consumer Affairs and Tourism and Industry and Energy – have agenda items 

involving other home departments. It is the practice for the Minister to attend the 

Industry Council and for Ministers of State to attend the other Councils. 

In 1997 the Department opted for a policy of complete ‘internalisation’ when it 

abolished its EU unit that existed since 1969 and assigned responsibility for EU 

business to those divisions with sectoral responsibility. This EU unit had come from 

the Department of Labour when Labour and Industry and Commerce were 

amalgamated. The consensus was that the Unit had a postbox function and no 

horizontal co-ordination function. The decision to abolish the co-ordination unit was 

premised on the fact that with six ministerial Councils and such a fragmented and 

diverse EU involvement, no macro-co-ordination was needed. It was concluded that 

complete ‘internalisation’ was the most effective strategy. This meant that a lead 

co-ordinator was designated for each of the six councils and it also meant that 

information had to be sent through five different channels, rather than having one 

contact point. Following the implementation of the decision, a Committee on 

European Affairs (CEA) chaired by an assistant secretary was given responsibility for 

managing the transition and for dealing with horizontal issues. This Committee met 

relatively frequently in the initial stages of its existence but gradually became non-

operational as the sectoral coordinators began to focus exclusively on their policy 

domains. However, when the Department abolished the Unit, it was soon recognised 

that it was still needed. This emerged in an inter-divisional study and report 

undertaken in the EAC and in the Department’s Management Advisory Committee. 

Gaps in the Department’s management of EU matters were exposed, notably the 

lack of exploitation of the benefits of responsibility for five councils and shifts in EU 

governance regimes. In September 1999, the management board took the decision 

to reconstitute and expand the EU Affairs Section and to re-establish the Committee 

for European Affairs. 

The newly reconstituted EU Affairs Section is small in size, given the size of the 

Department and consists of one Assistant Principal, one administrative officer and 

one part-time clerical officer. It operates under the direction of the Assistant 

Secretary of the Enterprise Competitiveness Division (See figure 7). In spite of its 

small size, the Section offers valuable assistance and support to line divisions within 

the Department and to staff at the Permanent Representation in Brussels. It is also 

the executive secretariat for the Department’s Committee on European Affairs and as 

external interface represents the Department on interdepartmental committees such 

as the SOG. The section is point of contact with other Departments and EU 

institutions. As well as being a think-tank, the EU affairs section has a monitoring 

and tracking role with regard to legislation and horizontal issues. It looks after 

bigger issues such as the Lisbon agenda, the Future of Europe and preparation for 

the Presidency. 

As in its previous incarnation, the CEA is chaired by the Assistant Secretary in charge 

of the Enterprise Competitiveness Division. It comprises of representatives (at 

Principal Officer level) of sections of the Department, which service the four EU 

Councils. Officials on secondment to the Permanent Representation Centre are also 

part of the CEA. As before, it meets infrequently, mostly two or three times a year. 

The Department has five officials on secondment to the Permanent Representation 

Centre, a number that has remained static since the Department was created in 

1992.

Figure 7: 

Structure of Department of 


Minister for ET&E 

Minister of State for 

Trade and 

Minister of State for 

Labour Affairs 


Labour Force 

Development 

Enterprise 

Competitiveness 

Division 

Employment 

Rights and 

Industrial 

Relations 

Enterprise, 

Science and 

Technology 

Corporate 

Services 

Trade, 

Competition and 

Market Rights 

Insurance 

and 

Company 

L

Agriculture 

The Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development (D/AFRD) 23 has the 

clearest and most focused competence in relation to EU issues – protection of the 

Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and implementation of CAP regimes in Ireland. 

The sectoral nature of its policy responsibilities, in addition to the way in which CAP 

policy is made in Europe, facilitated a highly targeted approach to the management 

of EU business from the outset. Of all of the domestic departments, Agriculture, 

since 1973, actively continued to reorganise its structures in order to manage EU 

business and the Brussels interface. The significance of the CAP to Ireland and its 

centrality to the EU budget ensured that the D/AFRD would undergo major structural 

change as a result of EU membership. 

As a policy area, Agriculture has always held significant importance in Ireland. In 

2001, the agri-food sector accounted for 10.5 per cent of Irish GDP, 10.5 per cent of 

employment and approximately one quarter of net foreign earnings from trade 

(D/AFRD, 2001, 8). Managing the boundary with Brussels is a key task of the 

Department. According to the 2001-2003 Departmental strategy statement, 

Many of the schemes operated by D/AFRD are wholly or partly funded by the 

EU and consequently it is essential to maintain strong effective relationships 

with the EU institutions and other member states. Our goals and strategies 

reflect the importance of the EU in all our activities (D/AFRD, 2001, 23). 

D/AFRD makes annual payments of some €2.41 billion through over 250 schemes 

(wholly or partially funded by the EU) to a wide variety of customers. The changes 

in the CAP, in 1992 and in Agenda 2000, had major effects on Irish agriculture and 

on the work of the D/AFRD. CAP reform shifted the emphasis in EU policy from 

market support measures to direct payments to farmers and this, together with 

structural fund payment reform, led to the establishment by the Department of new 

payment schemes and new accountability procedures. Further CAP reform, driven by 

the world trade negotiations, EU enlargement and reviews of the agriculture budget 

and key commodity sectors (e.g. cereals, milk quotas, sugar) also add to the burden 

of work for the Department. The nature of agricultural support is also increasingly 

23 In June 2002, Rural Development was removed and moved to a new Ministry, the 

Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs.

affected by the growing emphasis on environmental issues and the increasingly 

interlinked debate about food safety, environmental issues and farming methods. 

This poses an additional challenge to the Department in terms of both internal coordination 

and structures and managing such issues across the core executive 

system. According to the 2001-2003 Departmental Strategy Statement, the 

challenge for D/AFRD is to ensure that the particular needs of Ireland are 

successfully addressed in these negotiations. 

The Department interacts intensively with the EU, both Council and Commission 

(both DG Agriculture and for food safety DG Health and Consumer Affairs), through 

the monthly meetings of the Agriculture Council, the weekly meetings of the Special 

Committee on Agriculture (SCA), management committees for all of the agricultural 

products, and all committees and bilateral mechanisms dealing with the payments 

and auditing dimension of the CAP. The CAP impacts on all levels of administration 

and policy formulation throughout the Department, from secretary general down to 

the technical staff who implement the programmes on the ground. 

In 1999 it was envisaged that the Department would undergo a process of 

reorganisation that would involve a streamlining of its then fifty-five divisions (units 

headed by a Principal Officer) into three organizational poles – policy development, 

FEOGA payments, and food safety and production. In 2001 the Department put in 

place a new organizational structure, which was intended to establish logical and 

clear lines of management consistent with the changing mandate of the Department 

(see figure 8). In the new structure, the eleven functional areas (63 individual 

units/sections), each headed by a member of the Management Committee, have 

been redefined, and are now grouped under four broad organizational headings – 

policy (200 staff), food safety and production (2000 staff), agriculture payments 

(1500 staff) and corporate development (600 staff). Within the Department, the 

EU/Trade Division is found within the EU and Planning Division of the Policy heading 

and coordinates policy on all EU issues, including WTO issues and bilateral trade 

matters. The EU/Trade Division undertakes policy analysis, negotiates at EU level for 

regulatory and trading frameworks for the Irish agri-food sector, maintains relations 

with the EU institutions and other member states through bilateral contacts. The 

Division also coordinates briefings for Council and SCA meetings and Coreper, as well 

as bilateral meetings. In addition, the division coordinates briefings for the Article

133 Committee on EU foreign trade issues affecting agriculture and food sectors and 

officials from the division also attend weekly co-ordination meetings in the 

Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. The Division also arranges 

briefings on EU issues for Oireachtas Committees, MEPs and member state 

ambassadors in Ireland. It receives up-to-date information on issues relevant to the 

Department at EU level and disseminates this information throughout the 

Department. 

The EU Coordinating Group within the EU/Trade Division was set up in February 2002 

to intensify the coordination of D/AFRD’s responses to EU developments. The group 

meets on alternate weeks to identify issues arising at EU management committee, 

working group and other levels that will impinge on discussions at Coreper, SCA and 

Council meetings. The Group is chaired by the Assistant Secretary with responsibility 

for EU and Planning. Principal Officers from relevant divisions, i.e. Agricultural 

Commodity Division, Finance Division, Economics and Planning Division, Food 

Division and the EU/Trade Division attend. A Food Safety Unit was also established 

in 2001 to coordinate developments on EU food safety policy and attends fortnightly 

EU Co-ordinating Group meetings. Finally, the head of EU/Planning attends the 

Senior Officials Group and other interdepartmental co-ordinating committees on 

behalf of the Department. 

From accession to the EU in 1973, the Department adopted a very proactive 

approach to managing the interaction between the CAP and Irish agriculture. The 

political importance of farmers throughout many electoral constituencies, the 

lobbying practices of their representatives, and the economic importance of the 

sector more generally, has meant that the CAP has always been accorded the status 

of ‘high politics’ in Ireland. The Department built up considerable expertise in the 

complexities of the policy, established contacts throughout DG Agriculture in the 

Commission and placed national experts in key units in that Directorate. The 

Department seeks to influence the Commission at the drafting stage of legislation 

and will try to voice its preferences long before a set of proposals gets to the full 

Commission. It is like no other Department in the Irish core executive system in 

terms of its deep contacts with European Union institutions. Officials in the 

Department and Ministers have been scrupulous in attendance at management 

committee, working group and Council meetings. The contentious nature of the

proposed reforms to the CAP in advance of and in order to cope with the 

enlargement of the EU to include central and Eastern European candidate countries, 

along with Cyprus and Malta, together with the vociferous farming lobby in Ireland 

mean that the Department will have a very difficult task ahead in its navigation of 

CAP reform and the agriculture tranche of the forthcoming EU budgetary 

negotiations. 

Finally, although the Department’s projection of the chosen Irish preferences at EU 

level has been highly effective, the management of the policy at national level has 

been much more problematic. These problems came more fully into view in the 

aftermath of the BSE and Food and Mouth crises in 2000-1. Efforts have been made 

within the Department to address this gap in governance.

Organisational structure 

below ministerial level 

Agriculture 

Payments 

Assistant Secretary 

level 

Direct Payments 

Market Supports 

Figure 8: 

Structure of the 

Department of 

Agriculture, Food and 

Rural Development 2002 

Policy 

EU & Planning 

Livestock Policy 

EU/Trade 

Economics & 

Planning 

Food Industry 

Development 

Rural 

Development and 

Financial Systems 

Corporate 

Development 

Human Resources 

Information 

Systems 

Chief Inspector 

Food 

Safety & 

Production 

Chief Veterinary 

Officer 

Animal Health & 

Welfare

Justice, Equality and Law Reform 

The Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, together with the Department 

of Defence, are the most recent arrivals to EU policy making in the Irish system. 

Prior to the inclusion of Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) in the 1992 Treaty on 

European Union (TEU), the Council of Europe had been the main international body 

promoting judicial cooperation in Europe. Although the EU’s involvement in this field 

dates from the mid-1970s with what was known as the Trevi Group, the 

intensification of EU involvement is a feature of the 1990s and in particular with the 

signature of the Treaty of Amsterdam. In fact, JHA is the most rapidly growing 

policy-making area in the EU. Following the Treaty of Amsterdam and the Tampere 

Justice Council of October 1999, JHA has become a central focus of the EU with its 

target of achieving an area of ‘freedom, security and justice’ and has involved an 

exponential growth in legislation dealing with the areas of police and judicial 

cooperation in criminal matters in particular. Furthermore, in the aftermath of the 

terrorist attacks on the US on 11 September 2001, the EU member states committed 

themselves to an extensive and wide-ranging programme of measures to combat 

terrorism, including the negotiation of the European Arrest Warrant. 

Amsterdam in particular altered the policy process in a number of ways by giving the 

Commission more powers in the process, by creating more powerful instruments 

such as framework decisions which are not unlike directives and by altering the time 

frame within which decisions will be taken. As a result of the Treaty, the institutional 

mechanisms for this field changed with the break up of the old K4 Committee, which 

was the main pre-ministerial committee in this policy field, into three committees 

responsible for different facets of cooperation: 

- Strategic Committee on Immigration, Frontiers and Asylum 

- Committee on Civil Law Matters 

- Article 36 Committee. 

The intensity of this growth and its impact on the overall work programme and 

resources of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform has already been 

felt and will continue to be felt in coming years. According to the Department’s 

strategy statement for 2001-2004, the Department’s future involvement in EU 

matters up to and including the Irish EU Presidency in 2004 will be driven largely by 

the progressive implementation of the changes introduced under the Treaty of

Amsterdam and by the implementation of the Tampere conclusions (Department of 

Justice, 2001). Progress in many respects of the Amsterdam and Tampere work 

programme will require hard political choices, for example, the Schengen opt outs 

are an additional complication for Irish officials. Distinctions between the common 

law tradition in Britain and Ireland and the continental system of codification can 

create difficulties in agreeing definitions and procedures, e.g. potentially problematic 

issues could include Eurojust, the European Judicial Training network and a proposal 

for a Common EU Prosecutor. At the domestic level, an added challenge to the 

Department’s work is the convention that all departmental agreement to proposals 

relating to JHA receive the rubber stamp of cabinet approval. In addition, in 

particular in the aftermath of September 11 th 2001 and the negotiations on the 

European Arrest Warrant (in line with legal advice received), full approval of certain 

legislation by the Dáil and Seanad is also required, i.e. a full scrutiny reserve. This 

places an added burden on departmental officials in terms of workload. 

The Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform is a large Department with 

eight divisions, all of whom have EU involvement of some nature (see figure 9). The 

EU and International Division was formerly known as the EU, Northern Ireland and 

Security Division and serviced the old K4 Committee. It now acts as the coordinating 

unit for meetings of the JHA Council. The International Policy Division is responsible 

for ensuring a strategic and coherent policy in regard to the Department’s 

international (including EU) activity. It is the main coordinator of EU business and 

any department official who attends a meeting in Brussels must send a report to this 

Division. The Division is headed by an assistant secretary and currently has nine 

staff. In the aftermath of September 11 th 2001, additional staff were appointed on a 

temporary basis. The Assistant Secretary of the Division attends the SOG and other 

interdepartmental committees. The Division also chairs the interdepartmental 

committee on JHA (set up in the aftermath of September 11 th ). This committee 

meets before every JHA Council and is serviced by the EU and International Unit of 

the Department of the Taoiseach. The Department has four staff members serving 

in the Permanent Representation. The Department’s obligations in terms of servicing 

JHA working groups are onerous. The Department’s line divisions service most of 

the Council working parties under Title IV and Title VI and other meetings, with the 

assistance of the International Policy Division and personnel of the Permanent 

Representation Centre in Brussels. In 2001, Justice serviced 313 formal meetings,

essentially from Dublin. In 1999 this number was 100. According to one official 

interviewed, Justice is now responsible for approximately seventy per cent of 

COREPER II business (Interview 72, 08.05.02). 24 

To reiterate, the challenge posed by the EU’s JHA policy for the Department of 

Justice is significant. As the remit of the Union expands and the decision rules are 

modified, the Department has had to and will continue to have to adopt new 

strategies for JHA business. The fragmentation of the field into pillar one, traditional 

JHA and Schengen makes it even more difficult to monitor across the range and to 

assess when Ireland should get involved in negotiations on those areas for which it 

has a potential opt out. 

24 Coreper II, attended by Permanent Representatives, deals with the following policy 

areas: General affairs, Economics and Finance, Justice, home affairs and civil 

protection, development and budget.

Figure 9: 

Structure of 

Department of 

Justice, Equality 

and Law Reform 

2002 

Minister of Justice 



Departmental 

Divisions 

Crime 

Garda 

Prisons and Probation 

and Welfare Policy 

EU/International 

Criminal Law Reform 

and Human Rights 

Civil Law Reform 

Courts Policy 

Equality, Childcare and 

Disability 

Asylum, Immigration 

and Citizenship 

Business Support 

Divisions

Environment 

For the purposes of this study, the Department of the Environment and Local 

Government (DoELG) is included in the inner core of Irish governmental 

departments. It is included because the Department is increasingly involved in 

the policy coordination of horizontal issues across the Irish system. The DoELG 

was created in 1977 and is another example of a Department within the Irish core 

executive system that is required to deal with a broad range of different types of 

policies, such as the environment, roads, housing, planning and local 

government. However, environment as a policy issue in the ecological sense was 

at the fringes of the activities of the DoELG until the 1980s. In response to the 

increased interest in environmental policy at EU level following the negotiation of 

the SEA, an environmental policy section was created within the Department. 

With regard to the current state of Irish environmental policy, the central 

objective of the Department is to promote and protect a high quality natural 

environment and the integration of environmental considerations into economic 

and sectoral policies (DoELG, 2001, 16). This has proved a considerable task in 

the face of two challenges – the expansion of the reach of EU environmental 

protection legislation and the increasing pressures encountered in Ireland 

associated with economic growth, related consumption patterns and an 

underdeveloped environmental infrastructure. According to the Department’s 

Strategy Statement: 

Addressing these challenges successfully requires ongoing policy 

development, more effective implementation of environmental controls, 

greater integration of environmental considerations into economic/fiscal 

and sectoral policies, providing information and raising awareness towards 

behaviour change and continuing to encourage a partnership approach and 

the concept of shared responsibility in relation to environmental issues 

(DoELG, 2001, 17). 

Irish environmental policy is fundamentally influenced by policy and legislation at 

the EU level. For example, the two legislative acts relating to waste management 

adopted in Ireland since 1996 use EU waste management legislation as their 

primary conceptual frameworks. Implementation at domestic level of EU 

environmental legislation has also proved problematic, the most notable 

examples of delayed implementation of EU directives include the Waste Landfill 

Directive, and the Directive on Drinking Water.

The recognition that a high quality environment will not be achieved without the 

integration of environmental considerations into economic/fiscal and sectoral 

policies necessitates a comprehensive and cross-cutting or horizontal approach to 

environmental policy across the Irish system. The DoELG is more frequently 

required to work in tandem with other government departments on issues of a 

cross cutting nature, for example, on water quality and services with the 

Departments of Agriculture, Marine, Health and Children and Finance, on waste 

management with ET&E and Agriculture and on natural heritage issues with the 

Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands. 

The DoELG services four formal and two informal meetings of the Environment 

Council each year. Within the Department, EU co-ordination is carried out in the 

Environment International Section of the Environment Division. The Environment 

Division itself comprises of nine separate units/sections: Waste Infrastructure and 

Regulation, Waste Prevention and Recovery, Environment Policy, Air/Climate, 

Water Quality, Environment International, Environment Awareness, North/South 

and ENFO. The Environment Division is headed by an Assistant Secretary and the 

Environment International Division has three full-time and three half-time staff. 

The Department has also placed an official in the Permanent Representation in 

Brussels. It is envisaged that another departmental official will be seconded to 

the Permanent Representation by the end of 2002. Unlike the other Departments 

of the inner core, no formal structures (e.g. an EU co-ordinating committee) for 

internal departmental co-ordination or co-ordination with other Government 

departments exist in the DoELG. In terms of formal structures, the Department 

of the Environment deals with issues on a case-by-case basis. The action taken 

depends on the subject, the issues and the implications of directives for the wider 

realm. Any inter- or intra-departmental coordination that does take place is of an 

ad hoc nature and often depends on personal contacts. However, a network of 

government departments with interest in the environmental area does meet 

informally to discuss cross-cutting issues. 

The Environment International Division is responsible for the preparation of 

ministerial briefing documents and for the production of briefing documents for 

the Department of the Taoiseach. Because competencies at EU level do not 

always correspond to competencies at departmental level, i.e. working parties 

often deal with dossiers within the remit of other departments, briefs for the 

Environmental Council must sometimes be prepared by other departments. 

Finally, the head of the Environment Division attends the SOG and other relevant

interdepartmental committees, such as the Interdepartmental Committee on the 

Future of Europe and the Interdepartmental Co-ordinating Committee on the 

2004 Presidency. 

Office of the Attorney General 

The Office of the Attorney General is included in the inner core of governmental 

departments who manage the interface with Brussels for one primary reason - 

the Office of the Attorney General offers legal advices and legislative drafting 

required as a result of the State’s membership of the EU. Any departmental 

queries on EU legislation come to this office and every statutory instrument or 

statute produced in order to transpose EU legislation into the domestic is drafted 

by this Office. The Attorney General is legal advisor to the Government and the 

Chief State Solicitor (the Attorney General’s legal partner within the Irish system) 

acts as Agent of the Government before the European Court of Justice. From 

January 2002 an EU Group was established within the Office with a designated EU 

Coordinator for Office of the Attorney General – Group E. Group E is one of five 

specialist groups in the advisory stream of the Attorney General’s Office. A Legal 

Counsellor from the Office is also posted to the Permanent Representation in 

Brussels. The growth in legislation in the JHA area in particular has led to further 

strengthening of the already close relationship the Office shares with the 

Department of Justice in particular. 

The Outer Circle 

Departments in the inner core and outer circle differ in two ways with regard to 

structures. First, the primary responsibilities of the Departments of the outer 

circle of the Irish executive continue to lie in the national arena. Even so, such is 

the reach of the EU, particularly with the development of the open method of coordination 

as a mode of governance, each of the departments in the outer circle 

finds itself increasingly obliged to manage EU business to varying degrees. Each 

of the departments in the outer circle have placed staff in the permanent 

representation in Brussels. It must also be borne in mind that the EU’s 

competences in policy areas within the remit of these departments is also 

relatively weak in comparison with policy areas covered by departments in the 

inner core. Second, departments in the outer circle may or may not have specific 

divisions or units dedicated to dealing with EU business. To reiterate, 

departments placed in the outer circle include the Department of Public 

Enterprise, Department of Defence, Department of Arts, Heritage, the Gaeltacht 

and the Islands, the Department Education and Science, Department of Health

and Children, Department of the Marine and Natural Resources, Department of 

Social, Community and Family Affairs and the Department of Tourism, Sport and 

Recreation. 

From 1992-1997 the Department of Public Enterprise, comprising of transport, 

energy and communications’ policy areas, serviced three separate EU Councils: 

Transport, Energy and Telecommunications. Despite the fact that a large 

proportion of the legislative programme of the Department is dictated by the 

negotiation, drafting and implementation of EU directives and regulations, the 

Department did not have a dedicated EU unit. Within the Department of Public 

Enterprise policy on specific matters with EU import was formulated at divisional 

level in response to issues as they arose. In relation to briefing for EU Councils, 

one person in each of the sectors Transport, Energy and Telecommunications had 

responsibility for co-ordinating the compilation of the Minister’s brief. From 1998- 

2002 the head of the Telecommunications Division attended the SOG and the 

various interdepartmental co-ordinating committees. With the reorganisation of 

the Department following the 2002 General Election, the transport brief has now 

moved to its own department, telecommunications and energy remain with the 

Department of Communications, the Marine and Natural Resources. 

Since the development of the CFSP and the ESDP in particular, the Department of 

Defence’s involvement in EU business has grown. The Department of Defence 

works closely with the Department of Foreign Affairs in particular and also with 

the former Department of the Marine and Natural Resources in co-ordinating 

Ireland’s position on security and defence issues. An International Security and 

Defence Policy Branch was set up within the Department and has primary 

responsibility for dealing with Defence inputs into the formulation of policy issues 

which arise in the context of the developing ESDP. Within the Department, the 

International Security and Defence Policy Branch (ISDP) has primary 

responsibility for dealing with Defence inputs to the formulation of policy issues 

which arise in the context of the developing European Security and Defence 

Policy. It is important to reiterate that the Minister for Foreign Affairs has overall 

responsibility for international security policy and the role of the Minister for 

Defence and the Defence organisation is essentially a supportive one. The ISDP 

Branch is small in size with a staff of three officials with a small number of clerical 

officers. A member of the staff is also seconded to the Permanent Representation 

in Brussels. The Department of Defence is the DFA’s link with the Defence Forces 

and its primary role is policy making, the Defence forces deal with the

implementation of policy. Representatives from the Defence Forces also serve on 

the Military Committee of the ESDP. The ISDP Branch has not had the task of 

servicing an EU Council of Ministers Meeting until May 2002 when the first formal 

Defence Council was held within the framework of the GAC. 

The Department of Education and Science is responsible for the Education and 

Youth Council (which now meets three times a year) and is represented on a 

range of programme committees for EU education, training and youth 

programmes. The main EU business the Department has to deal with revolves 

around the implementation of structural funds (both from the European Social 

Fund and the European Regional Development Fund; implementation is carried 

out in cooperation with ET&E and Finance) and the implementation of the 

Socrates, Leonardo Da Vinci (administered by Leargas and the Higher Education 

Authority respectively) and Youth programmes. Education and lifelong learning is 

a vital component of the Lisbon process and the use of the open method of coordination 

in the education area will necessitate further involvement of the 

Department in EU business. The International Policy Unit of the Department 

services working group meetings in Brussels, along with the Departmental 

attaché (first appointed in 2001, interview 78, 18.07.02). In order to manage the 

increasing education agenda, the Department established an EU Consultative 

Group of senior managers who meet on a regular basis to discuss proposals from 

the Commission. 

As with the Department of Education and Children, the Departments of Social and 

Family Affairs (from 1992-97 the Department of Social, Community and Family 

Affairs) and the Department of Health and Children must service sectoral Councils 

and are involved in EU policy initiatives through the Open Method of Coordination. 

The Department of Health and Children services the Health Council, 

which deals with issues such as food safety and medicinal products. Within the 

Department of Health and Children, the EU Co-ordination function is located in 

the Insurance and International Division and is dealt with full time by one official, 

who attends the SOG and other interdepartmental committees. The Department 

of Health also has an official seconded to the Permanent Representation to the EU 

in Brussels who attends the Health Working Group. Relevant departmental 

experts attend working groups when specialised issues are under discussion. 

Within the Department of Social and Family Affairs, the EU/International Section 

in the Department’s Planning Unit has overall responsibility for coordinating the

Department’s business in relation to EU and international fora. The Unit has a 

staff of 10 led by one principal officer. The core business of the section is 

monitoring the development and application of EU Regulations on social security 

for migrant workers. The Unit also monitors the development of EU policy on 

social protection, combating social protection and pension policy through the 

open method of coordination (OMC). The OMC has brought the Department, 

traditionally thought of as a department primarily located in the domestic arena, 

in more frequent contact with the institutions of the EU. The Department has one 

representative in Brussels and the representative, along with the head of the 

EU/International Section mainly service Council working groups such as the Social 

Protection Committee. 

Prior to the reorganisation of Government departments following the 2002 

General Election, the Department of the Marine and Natural Resources serviced 

the EU Fisheries Council. The EU has played key policy, legislative and financial 

roles in a number of areas falling within the Department’s remit, including 

fisheries, forestry, maritime transport, marine environmental protection, marine 

safety and mining. Particular aspects of the Department’s engagement with EU 

matters tended to fall within the remit of individual Divisions, no one division was 

devoted to the management of EU business. On the occasions where EU issues 

transcended the responsibilities of individual Divisions, the relevant Divisions 

tended to liaise on an ad hoc basis, with more formal coordination being 

conducted, as required, by the Second Secretary of the Department. General EU 

coordination services (e.g. dissemination of information) were provided by the 

Corporate Management Division. The Departmental representative in Brussels, 

along with officials from the home department, serviced the relevant working 

groups in Brussels. 

Finally, before the reorganisation of government departments in 2002, the 

Departments of Arts, Heritage, the Gaeltacht and the Islands (DoAHGI) and the 

Department of Tourism, Sport and Recreation (DoTSR) had limited engagement 

with the EU arena. The DoAHGI had no international or EU division or 

coordinating section and the Corporate Development Division provided a contact 

point for general EU developments. From 1997 to 2002, the DoTSR had no direct 

role to play in the transposition of EU legislation and on a general level various 

divisions within the Department were involved in the work undertaken by a 

number of EU committees. The DoTSR did differ from the DoAHGI in that it had a 

designated EU Coordinator.

HORIZONTAL STRUCTURES 

The Cabinet 

The Cabinet is the main centre of political decision making in the Irish system. It 

processes EU issues according to the same standard operating procedures and 

rules that govern the processing of domestic issues. An item for discussion and 

decision comes from the relevant minister in the form of a memorandum. Foreign 

Affairs is the funnel for the macro-issues and the sectoral departments for items 

that fall within their remit. There is some concern that significant EU directives 

may only come to Cabinet at the transposition phase, which is too late for the 

Cabinet as a whole to exercise any influence. There is a process underway 

designed to align the treatment of EU law and national law in terms of approval 

and the Cabinet handbook is being revised to address this. Although under 

institutionalised by continental standards, the sub-structure of the Irish Cabinet 

has been strengthened by the establishment of a series of Cabinet subcommittees, 

including an EU Committee. In preparation for the 2004 Presidency, 

the Committee meets once every two weeks and is chaired by the Taoiseach. It is 

attended by the key ministers with an EU brief, ministerial advisors, and senior 

civil servants. It deals with contentious issues and broad policy issues. Cabinet 

committees are seen as a focal point for officials and as lending urgency and 

salience to issues. 

Committees 

In all of the member states, committees at different levels in the hierarchy play a 

central role in the inter-ministerial or horizontal co-ordination of EU affairs. They 

are the main institutional devices for formal horizontal co-ordination. Of course, 

the number, remit and extent of institutional embeddedness of these interministerial 

co-ordinating committees varies from member state to member state. 

A key characteristic of the Irish committee system was its institutional fluidity and 

malleability. See Table 5 for a chronology of the differing committee devices that 

have been established in Ireland. Between 1973 and 1987, the key 

interdepartmental committee in Ireland was the European Communities 

Committee, chaired by the Secretary General and later by the head of the 

Economic Division in the Department of Foreign Affairs. As stated earlier in this 

report, in March 1987, the Taoiseach, Charles Haughey, re-established the 

European Communities Committee, with Maire Geoghegan-Quinn, Minister of 

State for European Affairs, as its chair. Mr Haughey later established a Ministers 

and Secretaries Group (MSG) in 1988 to prepare Ireland’s national plan arising

from the significant expansion of the EU’s structural and cohesion funds and he 

set up a Group for the Presidency in 1989. A period of institutional innovation 

began as a consequence with the establishment of ministerial and senior official 

committees to deal with approaching presidencies and issues of a cross-cutting 

nature. Throughout the 1990s, a variety of committees were established to deal 

with the key agenda issues. 

The Ministers and Secretaries’ Group continued under the incoming Fianna Fáil/PD 

government in 1997 and was described as having a ‘general supervisory role in 

relation to EU policy’ by the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, in reply to a Dáil question in 

September 1998. 25 The intensity of MSG meetings was only 6 in 1997 and 7 in 

1998. Its work was prepared by a senior officials group at assistant secretary 

level that produced papers for consideration by the higher level group. The MSG 

did not meet in 1999 because its work was superseded by a cabinet subcommittee 

(number of meetings unknown) and an Expert Technical Group that 

focused on the Agenda 2000 negotiations up to the Berlin Summit of March 

1999. 26 

The Irish committee system is finally beginning to become embedded in the Irish 

system. At its apex is the Cabinet and the Cabinet sub-committee. Below this is 

the Roche Committee, which in turn can set up sub-groups. The Cabinet Sub- 

Committee is serviced by the Roche Committee or directly by Government 

Departments on EU matters. The Minister of State for European Affairs chairs the 

Roche or Interdepartmental Coordinating Committee for European Union Affairs 

and the European and International Affairs Division of the Department provides 

the Secretariat for the Committee. Senior Officials, usually at Assistant Secretary 

or Principal Officer level, attend the Committee from each Department, along with 

the Permanent Representative who is based in Brussels. From December 2002, 

the Roche Committee has met every second week, before the Cabinet Sub- 

Committee on European Affairs. The Committee is used as an early warning 

system for potentially problematic issues arising out of EU business, as well as a 

forum to facilitate strategic thinking across government departments. As in the 

25 http://www.irlgov.ie/debates-98/30sep98/sect1.htm (question 17485/98). 

26 The expert Technical Group met seven times between January and the Berlin 

European Council to develop a detailed negotiating strategy for the end phase of 

the Agenda 2000 negotiations. The group consisted of four key officials from the 

Departments of Foreign Affairs, Finance, Enterprise, Trade and Employment and 

Agriculture and food who were involved in the Agenda 200 negotiations from the 

outset. This group was chaired by the Taoiseach and serviced by the head of the 

European and International Secretariat of the Department of the Taoiseach.

Cabinet Sub-Committee, the practice of holding presentations on relevant issues 

also takes place within the Committee. 

Senior officials from government departments also attend a number of other, 

generally ad hoc, inter-departmental committees designed to deal with specific 

cross-cutting issues. In the aftermath of the September 11 th tragedy, an 

interdepartmental committee was set up, was chaired by the Second Secretary 

and serviced by the EU and International Affairs Division. Other interdepartmental 

committees dealing with cross-cutting EU issues include 

Enlargement 27 , Justice and Home Affairs 28 , the Future of Europe 29 , and the 2004 

Presidency committees 30 , the Lisbon Group 31 and the Convention Overview 

Group 32 (See figure 10 below). 

The ongoing Lisbon Agenda poses a fundamental challenge to the Irish system 

with regard to the structures necessary to handle cross-cutting issues. The 

primary reason behind this is the development of the open method of 

coordination as a policy mechanism within the EU. The diverse and broad range 

of policy areas that are gathered under the Lisbon umbrella necessitate some 

form of central coordination. Heretofore, this overall coordination has been 

undertaken by the Department of the Taoiseach but if this practice is to continue, 

a greater degree of resources will need to be allocated to the EU and 

International Affairs Division of the Department of the Taoiseach. 

27 Chaired and serviced by the EU Division of the Department of Foreign Affairs. 

28 In the immediate aftermath of the September 11 th tragedy, it soon became 

clear that the negotiation of the European Arrest Warrant and Framework 

decision on terrorism necessitated more intensive mechanisms within the Irish 

system. An interdepartmental committee was set up to deal with the European 

Arrest Warrant negotiations, included officials from the Departments of Foreign 

Affairs, Finance, Justice, the Attorney General’s office and the Department of the 

Taoiseach. The Department of Justice was the lead department on this issue and 

an official from this department chaired the committee. The Committee was 

serviced by the Department of the Taoiseach. On the conclusion of the European 

Arrest Warrant negotiations, this committee became the Interdepartmental 

Committee on Justice and Home Affairs and generally meets before every Justice 

and Home Affairs Council meeting. 



31 Chaired and serviced by the EU and International Division of the Department of 

the Taoiseach. 

32 Chaired and serviced by the EU and International Unit of the Department of the 

Taoiseach. This group meets once a week and includes officials from the 

Department of Foreign Affairs, Finance, Attorney General’s Office and the 

Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

Table 5: EU Committees in the Irish System 

Period Committee Chair 

Pre-Accession 

European Communities Department of Finance 

Committee 

1973-84 European Communities 

Committee 

Department of Foreign 

Affairs 

1985-87 No meetings of the 

committee 

1987-90 European Communities 

Committee 

Geoghegan-Quinn 

(Minister of State) 

1988-90 Ministers and Secretaries Haughey (Taoiseach) 

Group 

1989-90 Ministerial Group on the Haughey (Taoiseach) 

Presidency 

1992-94 European Communities Kitt (Minister of State) 

Committee 

1994-97 European Communities Mitchell (Minister of State) 

Committee 

1994-1999 Ministers and Secretaries Bruton/Ahern (Taoiseach) 

Group 

1994-98 Senior Officials Group Department of the 

Taoiseach 

1998-99 Expert Technical Group Ahern (Taoiseach) 

1998- Cabinet Sub-Committee Ahern (Taoiseach) 

1998-2002 Senior Officials Group Department of the 

Taoiseach 

2002- Interdepartmental 

Coordinating Committee 

on European Union Affairs 

Roche (Minister of State)

Figure 10: 

Central Committees for the Organisation of Cross-Cutting EU Issues 2002 

Cabinet 

Cabinet Sub- 

Committee on 

European Affairs 

Interdepartmental 

Committees 

Interdepartmental 

Coordinating 

Committee on 

European Union 

Affairs 

D/Taoiseach 

Lisbon Group 

Convention 

Overview Group 

D/Foreign 

Affairs 

Future of 

Europe Group 

Presidency I 

Group – 

Logistics 

Presidency II 

Group – Policy 

D/ETE 

Article 133 

Committee 

D/JELR 

JHA 

Committee

The Permanent Representation 

The Permanent Representation is an integral part of Ireland’s management of EU 

business. It is a microcosm of Ireland’s core executive in Brussels. The number 

of staff of diplomatic rank increased from 7 in 1971 to 15 in 1973 following 

accession. The 1975 Presidency led to the next important increase in the staffing 

levels to 24 to manage the work of the Presidency. The number of staff in the 

representation remained relatively stable for the remainder of the 1970s and 

1980s. The next significant increase in staffing came in the 1990s when a 

number of domestic ministries felt the need for a presence in Brussels. By 1999 

the number of officers of diplomatic rank rose to 35 and had reached 40 by 2002. 

The number does not include the four military staff in the representation. 

The expansion of staff from the mid-1990s onwards points to the growth of EU 

related business in the post TEU and Amsterdam environment and to the further 

Europeanisation of a number of domestic ministries. The size of the 

representation is in comparative terms very small. Apart from Luxembourg, it is 

the smallest representation among the member states. The incremental process 

of Europeanisation is evident in the number of ministries that have a presence in 

the representation. In 1973, six ministries had staff in Brussels. A further three 

ministries joined them in the late 1970s and 1980s. In the 1990s and onwards 

the Ministries of the Marine (1991), Justice (1995), Health (1996), Attorney 

General’s Office (1999), Defence (2000), Education (2001), Arts Culture and the 

Gaeltacht (2002) were added to the list. All domestic departments with the 

exception of the Taoiseach’s department and one other relatively minor ministry 

are represented in Brussels. 

The departmental breakdown of staff at representation reflects the important role 

played by the Foreign Ministry in Brussels. It has 15 staff in the representation 

including the three most senior staff. The Department of Enterprise, Trade and 

Employment has five staff, and a further three departments have three staff 

each. Eight ministries have only one member of staff in the representation. No 

domestic ministry has more than five staff in Brussels. The staff of the 

representation is formally part of the Foreign Service when in Brussels but the 

domestic departments decide who should go to Brussels. Foreign Affairs have 

never formally attempted to direct the process of recruitment. 

The Irish representation is organised along functional lines arising from the work 

of the Council and its working parties and the departmental presence in Brussels.

In addition, it is hierarchical in that the Permanent Representative, the Deputy 

and the ambassador to the Political and Security Committee carry the authority of 

their position at the apex of the office. The Permanent Representative is the 

head of the office. Since 1973, Ireland has had seven Permanent 

Representatives who tend to stay in Brussels for an average of five years. The 

first permanent representative spent eight years in Brussels, which reflected the 

early phase of membership. Two of the Permanent Representatives had acted as 

deputies in the representation with the result that they had considerable EU 

experience. They came to the posts with considerable EU and Council 

experience. In 2001, Ireland appointed Anne Anderson to the post of Permanent 

Representative, the first woman member of COREPER. 

The cycle of Council, COREPER and working party business sets the tempo of 

work in the Representation. The Antici person (COREPER I) and Mertens 

(COREPER II) prepare the work COREPER with the Presidency and the Council 

Secretariat. Meetings of COREPER act as a filter between the political and the 

official. Issues are pushed to the limit here to determine if they should be sent 

up to the Council level or back down to the working parties for further 

consideration. At this level, national positions are highlighted and the 

representatives come under pressure from their counterparts. According to one 

former ambassador, the ‘real wearing down process goes on in COREPER’ 

because this is where the trade-offs takes place. According to this official, ‘The 

major job of the Permanent representative is to ask ‘is this something we can 

win’ and ‘what will I advise the Minster’ (Interview 55, 07.03.2002). There would 

be continuous and high level contact between Dublin and Brussels during 

sensitive negotiations on the stance Ireland should take. The members of 

COREPER II and I operate at the coalface between the national and the European 

and between the technical and the political. The aim of the ambassadors is to 

push things along and to solve the problems through negotiations. The 

ambassadors have a keen sense of where the eventual compromise will lie and 

they work to ensure that the political level can solve the outstanding political 

issues. They are very sensitive to each other’s problems and will try to assist the 

state in the most exposed position. Given the technical nature of much of the 

business of COREPER I, the deputy ambassador require considerable knowledge 

of the domestic issues. The ambassadors tend to challenge the briefing material 

they receive because they do not want to find themselves exposed at COREPER 

attempting to defend a position that was weakened through bad presentation or 

inattention to the evolution of the dossier.

SECTION III – PROCESSES AND PROCEDURES 

Having outlined the key structures in Section II, we turn now to how the 

structures work in practice. A key factor is the impact of the EU calendar and the 

collective agenda. No member state controls the emergence of issues on the EU 

agenda, the manner in which they are dealt with, the tempo of collective decision 

making and the eventual outcome. One of the central means by which the EU 

manages to create a capacity for collective decision making is to establish 

timetables for decision making— Commission annual and multiannual 

programmes, rotating Presidencies, multiannual sectoral programmes, 

multiannual financing, periodic reviews of legislation and programmes, and 

targets to be achieved by a certain date. The use of the calendar technique is a 

central feature of EU governance. The consequence of this for national 

administrations is that domestic processes and procedures must have the 

capacity to enable national actors participate in an extra-national policy making 

system with its own tempo and agenda setting dynamic. Moreover, domestic 

systems must have the capacity to participate in a number of different EU 

governance modes such as regulation, re-distribution, and benchmarking and 

light policy co-ordination. 

Codes, Rules and Guidelines that govern the handling of EU business 

Ireland’s management of EU business is not highly formalised. There is no Bible 

of European Affairs either for the system as a whole or within individual 

departments. Unlike the UK system there is no tradition of putting on paper 

Guidance Notes on substantive policy issues or horizontal procedural issues 

(Bulmer and Burch 2000) Those rules and guidelines that exist can be found in a 

series of Government Decisions, a small number rules and circulars issued from 

time to time by the Foreign Ministry and the Finance Ministry. The rules and 

guidelines that exist relate to the following matters: 

• Cabinet rules on how a memorandum should be prepared for and 

processed through the Cabinet; 

• Original Foreign Affairs Circular on how EU business should be handled 

(1973 and subsequently amended albeit rarely); 

• Department of Finance rules about notification of policies and 

programmes that might lead to a cost to the Exchequer;

• Rules and guidelines about the drafting of governmental bills and 

statutory instruments should be handled between an individual 

department and the Office of Parliamentary Council in the Attorney 

General’s Office. 

Departmental rules and guidelines within individual ministries supplement these 

rules and guidelines. An important feature of the Irish system is the dominance 

of convention and ‘standard operating procedures’ over formal rules and 

guidelines. The Department of Foreign Affairs has never in the past adopted the 

role of producing codes, rules and guidelines for the system as a whole. Such an 

approach would go against the deep-rooted convention of the dominance of the 

lead department in the Irish system. The need for improved parliamentary 

scrutiny following the Nice ‘no’ has led to the introduction of new rules and 

guidelines. These are discussed in the section on parliamentary scrutiny. 

The preparation of briefing material is not systematised in the Irish system at all 

levels in the hierarchy. In fact it is not until Council and European Council 

meetings that there is systematic preparation of briefing material. For working 

groups, those attending are responsible for ensuring that they have consulted 

with interested sections within their own departments and with other 

departments. If an officer from the Permanent Representation is attending, they 

will contact the relevant domestic sections to get briefing material and will discuss 

the position they are likely to take with their domestic counterpart. As an issue 

moves up the Council hierarchy to COREPER or the high level Committees there 

are a variety of procedures and processes in place. There is not a practice of 

sending written instructions to the COREPER representatives from Dublin or of 

holding pre-COREPER meetings in the national capital. Rather, within the 

Representation, the Permanent Representative and the Deputy establish their 

own modus vivendi with the attachés concerned. They usually insist on a written 

brief on all agenda items. The material is supplied by the Brussels based official 

who is responsible for liaison with Dublin on how issues should be played. The 

instructions to the Permanent Representative and the Deputy tend to be broad 

but will highlight non-negotiable issues or issues on which Ireland needs 

movement in the negotiations. Senior officials attending the high level 

committees such as the Special Committee on Agriculture, the Economic and 

Finance Committee, the Employment Committees and the Social Protection 

Committee are all Dublin based and will get their briefing from within their own 

departments and from their attaches in the Representation.

Within each department and across the system there are well-established 

standard operating procedures on how briefing material is prepared for Council 

meetings. The central features of this are the centrality of departmental and 

divisional responsibility. The ‘lead’ department must prepare the brief for its 

Minister for each Council meeting in their sector and within each department the 

‘lead’ section on a particular agenda item takes responsibility for preparing 

briefing material for that issue. In all departments responsibility for the coordination 

of briefing material rests with one section. The designated section is 

responsible for ensuring that the brief is comprehensive covering all agenda 

items. For example, the Co-ordination Section in the EU Division in Foreign 

Affairs deals with the draft agenda for the General Affairs Council (GAC) in the 

first instance. The agenda is circulated with requests for briefing material from 

the relevant sections and the preparation of each agenda item becomes the 

responsibility of a designated officer. That officer is responsible for consulting 

other sections within the department, the Permanent Representation, Irish 

embassies and other Government departments where appropriate. The section 

then collates the briefing material and it prepares a ‘Steering note’ for the 

meeting. The EU co-ordination section replicates this for meetings of the 

European Council beginning at least three weeks before such meetings. Unlike 

the GAC, briefing material from other government departments plays a more 

central role and the Department of the Taoiseach is responsible for the final 

briefing. Within all Government departments the processes for preparing briefing 

material are broadly similar and the frequency with which such processes are 

activated depend on the cycle of Council meetings in particular policy domains. 

The departments most involved in preparing briefs are Foreign Affairs, 

Agriculture, and Finance, Enterprise Trade and Employment and Justice given 

that their ministers are most actively involved in EU affairs. The EU agenda and 

timetable dictates the intensity of response needed from the Irish system while 

an issue remains within the Council/ European Parliament system. The focus at 

this stage is on the projection of Irish preferences into the Brussels arena. 

The writing and circulation of reports of meetings is a vital component of the 

procedures of managing EU issues as they proceed through the policy process at 

EU level. Although there are no formal guidelines about report writing, there are 

well-established practices of reporting within the Irish system. Some 

departments are more systematic than others in the preparation of reports. The 

Foreign Ministry, Agriculture and Justice appear to have the most comprehensive

and systematic approach to report writing and to the circulation of such reports 

within the department. In other departments, individual officers appear to have 

more autonomy on report writing. In the Foreign ministry, officers attending 

meetings at all levels in the hierarchy prepare reports that provide an overview of 

where the negotiations lie, the approaches of the other member states and likely 

future developments. COREPER reports are used to prepare for up-coming 

Council meetings. Officials from the Department of Agriculture attending 

Management Committees meetings send immediate reports of votes and policy 

developments to their Divisions and the EU Division. The circulation of reports 

within the Irish system is dealt with below. 

Once a law is passed or a programme agreed at the negotiating stage, the focus 

changes to the reception of the output of EU decision making into the national 

system. The reception of the EU into the national brings an extra national set of 

institutions and policy makers into sub-national levels of government and into the 

wider society. There are four different ways in which the EU requires a response 

from the national systems at the post-decision phase of the process. First, EC 

law must be transposed, implemented and enforced at national level. Second, 

Irish public bodies must comply with reporting and notification procedures and 

demands in areas such as public procurement, state aids and competition policy. 

Third, Irish public bodies must participate in processes of soft policy co-ordination 

and peer review in areas such as justice, social provision, budgetary policy, 

health and education. The demands here range from engagement with peer 

review processes to the preparation of reports for submission to the Council or 

Commission. Fourth, Irish public and private bodies engage in seeking funding 

from programmes under the EU budget. 

The role of the Core Executive during this phase of the policy process is 

substantial but more limited than the negotiating phase. The Core Executive is 

responsible for the transposition of EC law in the Irish system. Individual 

Government departments are responsible for implementation. The drafting of 

Bills or statutory instruments is the responsibility of the Office of Parliamentary 

Counsel, which is located in the Attorney general’s Office. The Office is organised 

into three groups and following instructions from a department, the relevant 

group drafts the Bill or SI. In order to streamline the preparation of legislation, 

the Government has instituted a Legislation Committee with responsibility for 

managing the timing and processing of new legislation. EU business is not 

sufficiently integrated into the work of the Government Legislation Committee

and when the implementation of EC law requires primary legislation in Ireland 

this gives rise to delays. A Government Decision (2000) agreed that all ministers 

appearing in front of the Government’s Legislative Committee should inform the 

chief whips of what EU legislation awaits transposition. This is designed to 

integrate EU and national legislative programmes. When Ireland fails to 

implement or incorrectly transposes EC law, the Department of Foreign Affairs 

received notice of infringements reasoned opinions and notice of ECJ proceedings 

via the Representation in Brussels. It then sends the relevant documentation to 

the AG’s Office, the department concerned and the Chief State Solicitors Office. 

Information Pathways 

Information is the lifeblood of any policy process and in an organisational 

resource that can be harvested or shared. Ireland’s administrative culture 

characterised by considerable autonomy for individual ministries could well 

militate against the sharing of information. However, the demands of the Brussels 

system require a degree of information sharing. In the Irish system there are 

formal pathways for the dissemination of information. The EU co-ordination 

section in Foreign Affairs is at the centre of the formal information pathway for 

pillar one issues. Commission proposals and related papers are received by the 

Documentation Centre and are then distributed to the relevant sections within 

Foreign Affairs, other government Departments, and the Oireachtas. All formal 

communications from the Commission to Ireland come to this section via the 

representation in Brussels. In addition, the EU co-ordination section in the 

Foreign Ministry distributes reports of COREPER and Council meetings throughout 

the system. In 2002, new guidelines were established on the briefing material 

from Ireland’s embassies in the other member states. All of this information is 

distributed widely throughout the system. The Foreign Ministry clearly adopts a 

policy of the maximum sharing and distribution of information. According to a 

Foreign Ministry official, ‘the over-riding approach is to get the material out’ 

(Interview 51, 12, March 2002) The Ministries’ Political Division is responsible for 

gathering and distributing information that arises within the Political and Security 

Committee. This material is by definition less widely distributed within the 

system. The key actors involved are Foreign Affairs, Defence and the Army. 

The approach of domestic ministries to the sharing and distribution of information 

depends on the departmental culture, the sensitivity of the issue and the degree 

to which a particular department wants to insulate particular issues from system 

wide discussion. In the home departments the most widespread practice is to

have one unit responsible for the circulation of information but in some cases 

there are multiple information points, particularly if a department is responsible 

for more than one Council formation. These units are responsible for the internal 

circulation of information within departments and the circulation lists can range in 

size from two to sixty. Most departments operate on the basis of lists based on 

the nature of the information. Some departments have a tradition of very wide 

circulation of information within departments whereas others tend to confine 

circulation to particular sectors. The former is more likely the case if a ministry 

has a clear sectoral mandate such as agriculture whereas in ministries with multisectoral 

responsibilities, information circulation is more likely to be restricted. In 

areas with a tradition of secrecy such as JHA or financial affairs, the circulation of 

information is also more likely to be limited. In assessing the openness to 

sharing material, it was suggested that the decision to establish a committee on 

JHA was a good thing as it would force the Department of Justice, a traditionally 

secretive department to air issues outside the department. In contrast, the 

Department of Finance was perceived in the following terms, ‘Finance know what 

they are doing but don’t share information’ and that the EU activities of the 

Department of Finance are not ‘subject to robust scrutiny’ (Interview 56, 

12.03.02). Thus although there is considerable sharing of information, there are 

also pockets of the system where information is harvested and not shared. 

While Foreign Affairs is formally responsible for the circulation of information, 

individual departments do not rely solely on it for their information needs. In fact 

in a survey of EU co-ordination units in 1999, only two domestic departments— 

the Taoiseach’s department and the Marine cited Foreign Affairs as their most 

important source of information (Laffan, 2001). In addition, the Attorney 

General’s Office also cited Foreign Affairs as the main source of information. For 

all other departments, their officials in Brussels were the primary source of 

information on EU developments. This underlines the crucial vertical link between 

the home departments and their people in Brussels. Foreign Affairs was the 

second most important source of information for all departments with the 

exception of Agriculture, which ranked it in fourth place behind the Council 

Secretariat and the Commission. 

Co-ordination 

The key structures designed to co-ordinate Ireland’s European policy are set out 

in Section II above. These are the core-core —Foreign Affairs, Taoiseach’s 

Department and Finance that form the innermost core of the system. All

departments have co-ordination units and some have internal European Affairs 

Committees reporting to the departmental Management Committee. As outlined 

in section II, there is a system of inter-departmental committees that has been 

subject to considerable flux since membership but is now becoming more stable 

and institutionalised. Overall responsibility for day-to-day co-ordination lies with 

the Foreign Ministry. In its 1998 Strategy Statement, Foreign Affairs stated its 

ambition to develop ‘with the Irish administration as a whole, a strategic, coordinated 

and coherent response to the protection and promotion of Ireland’s 

interests in the EU’ (Department of Foreign Affairs 1998). A series of actions 

relating to this objective were identified: 

• to stimulate maximum awareness in the Irish administrative system of 

EU issues and work to ensure that these receive appropriate priority; 

• to develop in co-ordination with other departments detailed strategies 

for the promotion and protection of Irish interests; 

• To keep under active review and seek to improve as necessary the 

mechanisms for EU-co-ordination within the department and between 

departments. (Department of Foreign Affairs, 1998, 21). 

These aspirations identify Foreign Affairs as advocates of EU awareness in the 

Irish system and as joint custodians of Ireland’s management of EU business. The 

objective is to ensure that EU matters receive adequate prioritisation within the 

Irish system, that the system develops detailed strategies and that co-ordination 

mechanisms are reviewed periodically. The ability of Foreign Affairs to achieve 

these aims is, however, limited. 

National Policy styles differ in terms of the ambition to co-ordinate and manage 

the interaction with Brussels. Two styles predominate - containment and 

internalisation. The containment model attempts to adopt a gatekeeper role 

between the EU and the domestic. This style involves horizontal management of 

such issues as the appropriate legal basis, inter-institutional relations, comitology 

committees and so on. The national systems have a central focal point that places 

a premium on control and co-ordination. The arch type states that fall into this 

category are the UK, France and Denmark. The internalisation style is 

characterised by the dominance of the lead department, little formal tracking of 

interaction with Brussels and less formal systems of co-ordination. Germany, the 

Netherlands, Luxembourg and Ireland fall into this category.

The co-ordination ambition depends on the nature of the issue on the Brussels 

agenda, the phase of the policy process and the national style in managing EU 

business. A fourfold distinction between routine sectoral policy making, major 

policy shaping decisions within sectors, cross-sectoral issues and the big bargains 

is apposite. Departments can handle the routine business of dealing with 

Brussels within clearly defined sectoral areas without engaging in too much interdepartmental 

consultation ad co-ordination. In addition, the Irish system gives 

individual departments considerable autonomy within their own sectors even on 

the major shaping issues provided the wider system is kept informed. This is 

often a problematic category in the Irish system. For example, the Department 

of Finance is the lead department on taxation but an issue like energy tax 

involves Finance, Environment and Public Enterprise. One official remarked that 

‘Finance may have a problem, but they talk to DFA instead of Public Enterprise, 

therefore, they are not getting a co-ordinated view’ (Interview 56, 12.02.02). 

Water policy was another area where it was felt that the co-ordinating systems 

were not sufficient. For the latter two categories, processes that go beyond 

consultation are required and here the Irish system has put in place structures 

and processes to ensure co-ordination. The co-ordination ambition in Ireland 

could be defined as a high level of co-ordination on selected issues that are 

accorded domestic priority. 

The member states can achieve their co-ordination ambitions in a variety of 

ways. Bartlett and Ghoshal offer a threefold categorisation of co-ordination 

styles— centralisation, formalisation and socialisation (Bartlett and Ghoshal, 

1989, 158-66). All organisations deploy a mix of the three processes of coordination 

but one approach will usually dominate. A highly centralised system 

involves ‘top down’ processes of co-ordination with issues pushed up the 

hierarchy for deliberation, arbitration, resolution and strategic analysis. A highly 

formalised system would be procedurally strong with extensive rules and 

guidelines. A system that rests on socialisation relies on the development of 

common understandings and norms. The Irish system utilises all three 

approaches but the dominant mode of co-ordination on a day to day and week to 

week basis is undoubtedly socialisation. 

On the key national priorities, the Irish system engages in ‘selective 

centralisation’ (Kassim 2002). The system will channel political and 

administrative resources on the big issues. Three examples illustrate the capacity 

of selective centralisation. In 1983 Ireland had a major problem with

Commission proposals on the introduction of a milk super-levy. The Irish 

government and administration effectively transformed itself into a task force to 

ensure that the outcome was not too detrimental to Irish interests. The then 

Taoiseach, Dr. Garrett FitzGerald, toured all of the capitals of the member states 

prior to the Athens European Council, December 1983. This was augmented by 

a number of bilateral visits by the Agricultural Minister. The Ministers’ of Foreign 

Affairs and Finance attended Joint Councils on the issue. Special briefing material 

on the importance of this issue to Ireland was prepared and circulated to all 

member states and EU institutions. There was thus a high level of political 

prioritisation and commitment to the issue. The European Communities 

Committee met frequently on the superlevy and an ad hoc policy group was 

established to service the work of the senior civil servants and political office 

holders. 

Procedures and processes for managing the 1996 Irish Presidency were highly 

centralised and formalised. In preparation for the running of the Presidency, the 

Irish system deployed a number of very flexible but effective tools of coordination 

such as intensive ministerial and Cabinet involvement, 

interdepartmental Committees, particularly the Ministers and Secretaries Group, 

departmental liaison officers, management and policy groups, the development of 

procedural manuals and delegation to the Permanent representation (Humphreys 

1997). The successful 1996 presidency led the Committee for Public 

Management research to commission a study of the 1996 Presidency to identify 

what management lessons could be gleaned for the future management of crosscutting 

issues in Irish central government (Humphreys, 1997). 

The 1997-1999 Agenda 2000 negotiations offer a third example of selective 

centralisation in the Irish system. An Inter-departmental Agenda 2000 Group 

established in 1997 was the main vehicle for the development of the Irish 

approach to the negotiations. The Ministers and Secretaries Group met eight 

times in 1998 on the issue. There was daily contact between the two Finance 

attachés in Brussels, the Permanent Representative and Dublin-based officials. 

The Department of Foreign Affairs co-ordinated briefing for COREPER and Council 

meetings on these negotiations with input from Agriculture and Finance. A 

practice developed whereby written briefs for all EU meetings on Agenda 2000 

were produced. Excellent links between Dublin and the Representation led to a 

high level of coherence in the management of the Irish negotiating position. 

Throughout the negotiations, there was extensive monitoring of the positions of

the other member states and the Taoiseach engaged in a very intensive round of 

bilateral meetings with his counterparts in other member states. The 

management of the final phase of the negotiations was in the hands of an Expert 

Technical Group that consisted of the Taoiseach and officials from for 

departments—Foreign Affairs Finance, Agriculture, Enterprise, Trade and 

Employment. This was unusual in that is consisted of the Government’s most 

senior member and four line officials from the relevant ministries. Essentially, 

the Taoiseach brought together the four most informed officials on the Agenda 

2000 negotiations and met with them seven times between January and March 

1999 when the negotiations concluded in Berlin. 

The issues that are dealt with on the basis of selective centralisation are the most 

salient issues but are limited in number. Co-ordination in the Irish system relies 

heavily on mutual adjustment and informal processes of interaction across 

departments. In addition to the system based around the EU Division in the 

Foreign Ministry, a number of additional poles of co-ordination have emerged. 

These are a hub involving the Political Division in Foreign Affairs, the Defence 

Ministry and the General Staff of the Army in relation to the European Security 

and Defence Policy (ESDP). The development of ESDP brought the Defence 

Ministry and the Army into the EU arena. Given the political sensitivity of the 

ESDP in Ireland and its evolving nature, the three actors involved in this pole of 

co-ordination work extremely closely together, share information and interact on 

a continuous basis with the CFSP and ESDP personnel in the Irish Representation. 

A second pole of co-ordination is evident the area of Justice and Home Affairs. A 

government decision established an interdepartmental JHA committee serviced by 

the Taoiseach’s department, chaired by a senior official from the Department of 

Justice, and attended by the Foreign Ministry, and the Attorney General’s Office. 

This committee meets before JHA Councils. Major cross-cutting environmental 

issues are managed within the Environmental Network of Government 

Departments, which meets at Assistant Secretary level. However, there are a lot 

of environmental issues that do not fall within its remit. The processes 

associated with the open method of co-ordination could well lead to the 

development of additional poles of co-ordination.

SECTION IV - THE AGENTS 

Participation in the activities of the European Union poses challenges to those 

who work in national civil services. In order to live with the Brussels system, 

states need a cadre of EU specialists who can combine technical/sectoral 

expertise with European expertise. European expertise rests on deep knowledge 

of how the EU system works, of the legal framework and the personal skills to 

work in a mutli-national and multi-cultural environment. It also rests on the 

stamina to make the early flights to Brussels, work effectively in meetings and 

analyse the discussion and direction of the negotiations. The core of the EU cadre 

in any member state can be found among those officials for whom EU business 

takes up more than 50 per cent of their time. They gain their initial experience at 

working party level and may later find themselves at more senior levels with 

substantial EU responsibilities. The most experienced of them spend time in the 

Representation Centre or one of the EU institutions. Extensive exposure to 

Brussels brings the added bonus of contacts with counterparts in other member 

states or in Brussels. This cadre acts as ‘boundary managers’ between the 

national and the European. They develop and transmit national preferences in the 

course of EU negotiations and later filter Brussels outcomes back into the 

national. They mediate between the domestic system of public policy making and 

the EU. 

Ireland’s EU cadre can be found in Foreign Affairs, Enterprise, Trade and 

Employment, Agriculture, Finance and Justice. In all of the other departments, 

there are significant EU related posts but these are few in number. The small size 

of the EU cadre relative to the size of the civil service is striking. Internal civil 

service estimates prepared in 1980 concluded that 151 (7 per cent) officials at AP 

level upwards spent the greater part of their time on EU related matters, and a 

further 111 (5 per cent) officials had significant EU involvement. The total 

number of officials at this level was 2,217 (Internal Note, September 1980). Thus 

EU business was central to the work of about 12 per cent of Irish civil servants. 

An incomplete estimate prepared in 2002, that analysed those involved at Higher 

Executive Officer (HEO) level or above, suggests that the numbers have increased 

but not dramatically. Only three departments, Foreign Affairs, Enterprise, Trade 

and Employment and Agriculture had over 50 staff working on Europe for more 

than 50 per cent of their time. In many departments, the number was five or 

less. Ireland’s EU cadre is relatively small in size.

Irish administrative culture influences how EU business is managed. As 

mentioned in Section I, the cult of the generalist is very strong in Irish 

administrative culture. Irish civil servants are expected to handle any post that 

they are placed in and to move to radically different work in the course of their 

careers. It is thus exceptional in the Irish system that an official would work only 

on EU matters for their entire careers. That said there are a small number of 

officials whose careers are largely EU related in the diplomatic service and in the 

key EU ministries. These are officials who might have served on high level EU 

committees for long periods and because of their EU knowledge become a key 

resource in the system. Although they constitute an essential resource in the 

Irish system, the EU cadre may not be adequately recognised. One senior official 

concluded that : 

Within the system, there is hardly any incentive to be a ‘Brussels insider’, 

in terms of finance or family commitments. There is no one central system 

to bring this about. People don’t want to be pigeonholed in that way … the 

weighting given in civil service panels to such skills might not be great’ 

(Interview 53, 12.02. 02). 

There is no specially trained EU cadre in the system or no EU related fast track. 

Training is ad hoc throughout the system. In 1974, there was extensive training 

for the first Irish Presidency, which included considerable exposure, to how the 

EU worked. The training effort for subsequent Presidencies was geared more 

towards meeting management as it was felt that EU knowledge in the system was 

adequate. Lectures on the EU formed part of induction programmes for young 

diplomatic staff and administrative officers. Officials assigned to the 

Representation in Brussels would not receive training before leaving for Brussels 

and would not shadow the area of responsibility before taking up their new 

positions. Language training within the Irish system is also weak. Consequently 

EU expertise is build up on the job 

The manner in which Irish officials do their homework for negotiations in Brussels 

and conduct negotiations is influenced by a number of factors. Size matters. The 

relatively small size of central government, coupled with the small size of the 

country, and the fact that Irish delegations tend to be smaller than those of other 

member states all influence perceptions of how the Brussels game should be 

played. Irish officials have an acute sense of the constraints of size. Irish 

officials work on the basis that as a small state; Ireland has a limited negotiating

margin and should use that margin wisely. One interviewee for this study argued 

that ‘Ireland has fewer guns, and not many bullets so it must pick its fights 

carefully’ (Laffan 2001). In 1985, the then Taoiseach, Garrett FitzGerald, 

identified Ireland’s negotiating strategy in the following terms: 

As a small country we must ensure that we not create problems for our 

partners save in the case of issues that are of vital importance to us. Only 

when our case is strong—so overwhelmingly strong that in logic others 

should objectively accept it. Should we press our interests in a way that 

can create problems for other people (Fitzgerald 1985) 

This approach was confirmed by an official who suggested that in negotiations 

Irish officials would not raise difficulties unless they have a real problem 

(Interview 75, 29.05.02). 

Irish officials try to avoid isolation in negotiations and are largely successful. In 

the five years between 1996 and 2000 Ireland abstained in 1 vote and registered 

a negative vote 7 times (3 per cent). This was out of a total of 75 abstentions and 

206 votes cast in the Council. Ireland, Austria, Finland and Luxembourg are 

among the member states that find themselves on the losing side of votes least 

often in the Council (Peterson and Shackleton, 2002, 64). One interviewee for 

the study concluded that ‘Very rarely are we without a negotiating margin and 

without room for manoeuvre’ (Interview 55, 07.03.02). In the end the minister 

will decide if he/she wants to go out on a limb but would be told ‘Minister, you are 

totally isolated on this and a lot of people will come down heavily on you in 

Council’ (Interview 55, 07.03.02). The aim is to avoid this if at all possible and to 

negotiate away problems. 

The approach to negotiations is to seek to shape or re-shape the five or six 

problem areas in any proposal for Ireland. This stems from Ireland’s size, limited 

human resources and pragmatic culture. All proposals are scanned and assessed 

in terms of problems. The identification of problems is identified on the basis of 

an informal checklist of the kinds of issues that need watching. Those that 

surfaced most frequently in interviews were: 

• existing national law or policy; 

• departmental policy; 

• likely impact on the public purse either in terms of the cost to the national 

budget or erosion of the tax base,

• where relevant constitutional licence; 

• views and concerns of relevant interests; 

• administrative capacity to implement (Laffan, 2001) 

The strategy was likened to ‘shooting ducks in the arcade’ by one interviewee. 

The problem solving approach to negotiations means that Irish officials tend to 

intervene on specific issues and would have little to say on the broad thrust of 

policy. This approach was identified in the following terms: 

The Irish tend to go for short interventions in the Council. Our negotiating 

culture in Brussels—we pride ourselves on being short and to the point. 

We have to decide tactically when we should intervene. It is important not 

to waste your capital (Interview 66, 09.04.02). 

When looking for solutions, Irish officials will seek to deal with problems at the 

lowest possible level and will rely on a drafting solution in the first instance. The 

logic of this approach is that issues become more politicised and thus more 

difficult to solve as you move up the hierarchy. Links are maintained with 

colleagues in other member states but on a less systematic basis than in some 

other administrations. Given the changes in the EU, more attention is again being 

paid to bilateral contacts at all levels in the system. Tactical rather than strategic 

thinking is prevalent in Ireland on EU matters. Considerable attention is paid to 

the negotiating positions of other member states. 

Personalism is a dominant cultural value in Ireland arising from late urbanisation 

and the small size of the country. Civil servants working on EU matters meet 

frequently in Brussels and Dublin and have an ease of contact. Officials 

throughout the system can easily identify the necessary contacts in other 

departments. Hayes, writing in 1984 concluded that the high degree of 

interdepartmental contact owed much to the small, personal, centralised nature 

of Ireland’s central administration (Hayes 1984). The telephone and to a lesser 

extent e-mail are the main channels of informal contact. While hierarchy matters, 

the need to get business done means that there is a facility to meet across levels 

that is more difficult in more formal and hierarchical continental systems. The 

intimacy of the Irish system can be gleaned from the fact that when a particular 

set of negotiations is mentioned, the names of the four or five relevant officials 

are offered immediately.

There are several well-entrenched norms in the Irish system that influence how 

EU issues are handled. First, is the norm that Irish delegations should ‘sing from 

the same hymn-sheet’ and should not fight interdepartmental battles in Brussels. 

Delegations would not engage in conflict in front of other delegations. Second, is 

a norm of sharing information about developments in key negotiations. However, 

there are pockets of secrecy left where departments would not share information 

that they believed was of primary interest to themselves. There, is a high level of 

collegiality within the Irish system and a high level of trust between officials from 

other departments. This is accompanied by an understanding of different 

departmental perspectives and styles. A high level of trust is particularly 

prevalent among the EU cadre who see themselves fighting for ‘Ireland Inc’. The 

ability of the system to address problems is highlighted in the following quote 

from a Foreign Ministry official, ‘ When we have real problems, we can get 

together and solve them. There is a great degree of trust in the Irish system’ 

(Interview 58, 25.03.02). Fourth, is the norm that Ireland should be as 

communautaire as possible within the limits of particular negotiations. As stated 

above, Irish officials/politicians do not oppose for the sake of opposing. That said, 

the Irish would aim to be constructive players in the EU system rather than 

deploy the rhetoric of the European project. Protecting domestic space is an 

important goal of Irish participants in the EU arena. This stems from Ireland’s 

relative under-development until the 1990s, from its common law tradition, and 

from the character of its political economy. 

SECTION V: NICE AS A CRITICAL JUNCTURE 

Ireland had a smooth political transition to membership. An overwhelming ‘yes’ 

vote in 1972 and the absence of serious splits on Europe in Irish political parties 

enabled successive Irish governments and its public administration to promote 

Irish preferences in the EU system unfettered by a hostile public at home. 

Although there were differences on particular European issues, there was a broad 

cross-party consensus on Europe in Ireland and a reasonable fit between the 

Union’s policy range and Irish preferences. Official Ireland had little difficulty in 

projecting a European identity for the Irish State and its people. Inevitably there 

were contentious issues for Ireland and difficult negotiations but whenever 

Ireland sought assistance it got it. Ireland’s EU profile was that of a relatively 

small communautaire state, a major net beneficiary of the EU budget,

protectionist on agriculture, poor relative to the majority of the member states 

and an outlier on European security (Laffan 2001). 

In the latter half of the 1990s, Ireland faced a number of very tough negotiations 

with the EU on the management of the beef regime, on state aids and corporation 

tax, on environmental policy and in relation to the evolving European Defence 

and Security Policy. In addition, very high levels of economic growth in this 

period altered Ireland’s relative wealth position in the Union and Ireland became 

a competitor for jobs and investment. The goal of economic catch-up was a very 

important motivating factor for Irish policy makers in the Union. When that was 

broadly achieved, it was more difficult to chart Ireland’s engagement in the Union 

and more difficult to assess what kind of Union suited a changing Ireland. The 

road-map was no longer so clear for those responsible for charting Ireland’s 

position in the Union. Once the Agenda 2000 negotiations were concluded in 

March 1999 and the Irish National Development Plan (2000 - 2006) submitted to 

Brussels, Ireland’s European policy began to lose its coherence. 

A series of speeches by Government Ministers in summer 2000 reflected 

uncertainty about Ireland’s place in Europe and the relative importance of the EU 

to Ireland. In July 2000, the Tánaiste, Mary Harney, in an address to the 

American Bar Association endorsed a neo-liberal Europe and ended by saying that 

she believed in ‘a Europe of independent states, not a United States of Europe’ 

(Harney 2000). The key to the minister’s speech was her unease about the 

prospect that ‘key economic decisions being taken in Brussels level’ and the 

possibility that Ireland would be subject to excessive regulation (Harney 2000). 

These sentiments were re-echoed in an Irish Times article in September 2000 

when she again used language reminiscent of De Gaulle and Margaret Thatcher. 

The speech will be remembered largely because the Minister suggested that 

Ireland was nearer to Boston rather Berlin. Another Minister, Síle De Valera, 

Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht delivered, in Boston College, in 

September 2000, the most Euro-sceptical speech ever delivered by an Irish 

minister. She said that ‘directives and regulations agreed in Brussels can often 

seriously impinge on or identity, culture and traditions’. She was not specific 

regarding the directives she had in mind and offered no concrete evidence to 

support her claim. In the speech, she called for a more vigilant, questioning 

attitude towards the European Union and more diligence in protecting Irish 

interests’ (De Valera, 18 September 2000). Neither of these speeches would 

have been made in the period of substantial budgetary transfers from Brussels.

One senior Government advisor suggested that ‘we became overconfident. The 

notion that the US is a substitute is not tenable’ (Interview 51, 28.02.02). 

A very public spat followed these ministerial speeches between the Minister for 

Finance and the EU Commission concerning the Broad Economic Guidelines in 

2001. The Commission advised the ECOFIN to issue Ireland with a formal 

recommendation on its budgetary policy, the first country to receive this. Given 

Ireland’s strong economic performance at the time and the healthy state of the 

public finances, the Commission’s strategy, which had some merit, was portrayed 

in Ireland and Brussels interfering in Irish domestic policy and picking a fight with 

a small member state. Views about the conflict with the European Commission 

were divided. There were those who were concerned about the tone of 

engagement and the loss of standing within the system. Others were concerned 

that the Finance ministry did not appear to have the networks and political 

contacts across Europe to manage the conflict. In any event, the appearance of 

discord within the Cabinet and the spat with the Commission set the tone of the 

referendum. The defeat of the Nice referendum in June 2001 was a major shock 

to the Government, the main opposition parties, and the key economic interest 

groups, all of whom had promoted a ‘yes’ vote. Given the successful ratification of 

four previous EU treaties, the ‘no’ was unexpected. It left Ireland’s European 

policy adrift and the Government with a major external and domestic challenge. 

The impact at the level of central Government was to ratchet EU issues up the 

political and administrative agenda. There was considerable soul searching in 

Government and in the administration on how to respond to the crisis. Once 

senior official claimed that: 

The whole way we were conducting our business in Europe was uncertain 

and in transition. There is a need to go into a new mode, organise 

accordingly and change mindset. Departments don’t always see where 

they fit into the bigger picture. We have gone a bit tired. Losing the 

referendum has brought it all into focus. (Interview 49, 12.02.02). 

A sense of crisis was evident among all those interviewed for this research. One 

official suggested that ‘it was quite frightening how the system has lost its whole 

sense of Europe and how depressed people are working in European affairs’ 

(Interview, 50, 27.02.02) Another official suggested that ‘There is a certain 

wariness about us. Member states are worried about what positions we might

take. It is only an undercurrent at the moment but if we were to vote No again, it 

would be damaging to us (Interview 57, 15.03.02). 

Politically, the Government established a National Forum on Europe to generate a 

debate on Ireland’s place in the Union. There was widespread acceptance that 

there was a gap between those who were involved in Ireland’s European policy 

and the wider public and that the public had not been engaged in European 

issues. The Forum brings together politicians from the pro-and anti- EU sides and 

has an observer pillar drawn from civil society. Within the administration, a 

number of responses were evident. First, in the Department of Foreign Affairs 

the Economic Section was re-named the EU Section and there were a number of 

changes in personnel. The new Director-General of that section was one of 

Ireland’s most experienced EU specialists with strong links with EU institutions 

and domestic departments. There were a number of organisational changes in 

the department and new guidelines were issued for Irish embassies concerning 

the kind of intelligence they should focus on. A new Permanent Representative 

was appointed who in turn introduced a number of new processes into the 

Representation. The Department became more central to the management of EU 

business given the need for a second referendum and the consequences for 

Ireland’s standing in the EU and among the candidate countries. Together with 

the Department of the Taoiseach, the Department of Foreign Affairs has been 

central to managing the post-Nice environment. 

Second, all of the political and interdepartmental mechanisms for dealing with the 

Union became more active. The Cabinet sub-committee, a committee that waxed 

and waned since 1973 began to meet regularly and deal with work sent to it by 

the Senior Officials Group. The tempo of work undertaken by the Senior Officials 

Group (SOG) was greatly enhanced. The Group represents the core of the EU 

cadre in that all members have substantial EU responsibilities and are sent by 

their departments to influence future strategy. This Group began to assume 

responsibility within the domestic system for the establishment of priorities on 

the Union and for plotting Ireland’s future position in the Union. One result of 

this was the publication of a document in April 2002 on Ireland and the European 

Union: Identifying Priorities and Pursuing Goals (Department of the Taoiseach, 

2002). The report identifies the need to engage fully in the complex decision 

making processes of the EU by:

• Cultivating ever better relations with our partners in the EU, the accession 

countries and the institutions of the EU; 

• by developing better domestic systems for enhanced co-ordination, coherence 

and priority setting internally, and 

• By promoting greater public awareness of the importance of the EU to 

individuals’ lives. (Department of the Taoiseach, 2002). 

Three important factors were identified - interaction with the EU system, better 

domestic management of EU business, and sensitivity to the public dimension of 

Ireland’s relations with the Union. The SOG began an auditing process to assess 

EU co-ordination mechanisms and to establish best practice. 

At the parliamentary level, the Government responded to the perceived weakness 

of Oireachtas scrutiny of EU business by introducing proposals for enhanced 

parliamentary scrutiny. The weakness or perceived absence of parliamentary 

scrutiny of EU business was highlighted as a serious problem during the Nice 

referendum. During and after the campaign, former Attorney General, Mr John 

Rodgers, among others, highlighted the democratic deficit that existed at the 

national level as a result of this lack of parliamentary monitoring. In response to 

this, the government developed a new system of enhanced Oireachtas scrutiny of 

EU affairs. This in turn will have an impact on the management of EU business in 

the core executive. One senior official concluded that the new guidelines would 

‘force Europe up the agenda of Departments” (Interview 48, 12.02.02). The 

proposals for Oireachtas scrutiny, drafted in the first instance by the Department 

of Foreign Affairs, were approved by the Government in January 2002 and 

entered into operation in July 2002, following the May General Election. A set of 

guidelines for the new processes was prepared by the administration and became 

‘living processes’ in the autumn 2002. The parliamentary link for the new 

procedures is the Joint Oireachtas Committee for European Affairs (JCEA), 

discussed above. All EU related documents are deposited in the EU Coordination 

Unit of the Department of Foreign Affairs and passed on by the Unit to the JCEA. 

On receipt of these documents (estimated at approximately 10,000 per year – 

interview 77, 11.07.02), the clerk of the Joint Oireachtas Committee, together 

with a sub-committee of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Affairs 

(informally termed the ‘sifting committee’) sifts, on a two-weekly basis, through 

these documents and identifies EU legislative proposals that are significant 

enough to merit parliamentary scrutiny (the types of EU proposals eligible to be 

considered in this manner are specified in the Joint Committee on European

Affairs’ terms of reference). If the sifting committee so decides, a request will 

then be made for the drafting and receipt by the Committee of an explanatory 

memorandum concerning the EU proposal from the relevant department. This 

memorandum is to be drafted by the departmental official responsible for the 

negotiation of the proposal in the EU policy-making arena and will be signed by 

either the Minister or the Secretary General of the department concerned. The 

explanatory memorandum must be received by the EU Coordination Unit of the 

DFA within one month of the sifting committee’s request and it is passed on to 

the JCEA Secretariat. 

Explanatory memoranda should identify the importance of the particular proposal 

- major significance, some significance, purely technical - an assessment of the 

implications for Ireland, consequences for national legislation and the EU budget 

and the likely timetable for negotiations and implementation in addition to 

information about the legal basis, the voting rule and the role of the European 

Parliament. On receipt of these memoranda, the secretariat of the JCEA will pass 

the proposals on to the relevant sectoral or departmental Oireachtas committees 

for consideration. The relevant committee will then produce a report on its 

deliberations, which will be laid before the Oireachtas. While the proposals make 

provision for extensive engagement between the Oireachtas, ministers and 

officials, a binding scrutiny reserve has not been put in place. Instead, Ministers 

are honour bound to take the opinion of the relevant committee into account 

when negotiating in the Council of Ministers. At the same time, committees will 

be obliged to give an opinion on a proposal within a tight deadline and in advance 

of negotiation at Council of Ministers’ level, otherwise approval of the proposal 

will be taken as given. Ministers will be available to give oral briefings and 

reports of EU meetings on an agreed basis and the committees deliberating on 

proposals may meet in private if a proposal is of a particularly sensitive nature. 

If the Committee concerned so desires, the Chief Whips of the political parties are 

in agreement and depending on the parliamentary timetable, proposals may be 

debated on the floor of the Oireachtas itself. 

The new guidelines will greatly increase the formality of Ireland’s arrangements 

for managing EU business. A dedicated web site is being developed for the Joint 

Oireachtas Committee on European Affairs. It will contain all of the legislative 

proposals, identify the responsible Government department, and contain a copy 

of the information notes developed by each department and the subsequent 

action taken by the Oireachtas. For the first time ever in the Irish system, there

will be an accessible database of the flow of EU proposals though the Irish 

system. The need for Government departments to prepare notes for the 

Oireachtas committee will ensure that within each department formal systems 

must be put in place to ensure that such notes are prepared. Management within 

each department will have a far better idea of just how much EU business they 

must handle and how best to deploy their resources. The preparation of notes 

will also make the identification of priorities far more systematic as judgements 

must be made of just how important an EU proposal is. Following the original 

circular on the management of EU business in 1973, the guidelines on Oireachtas 

Scrutiny are the next most significant formalisation of the management of EU 

business in Ireland. 

SECTION VI: 

THE IRISH CORE EXECUTIVE AND EUROPE – THE BALANCE SHEET 

Ireland has experienced interaction with the EU system during its thirty years of 

membership. The process of Europeanisation can be gleaned from the expansion 

of EU related business across the governmental system. In 1973, EU business 

was predominately the business of Foreign Affairs, Agriculture, Industry and 

Commerce (now ET&E), Finance and to a limited extent the Taoiseach’s 

Department. Today, all departments have EU related responsibilities. The 

increased role of Justice and the Environment in the 1990s is particularly 

noteworthy. The gradual process of Europeanisation can be seen in the expansion 

of departmental representation in the Permanent Representation in Brussels and 

in Council working groups. EU business has become more widespread and thus 

more fragmented within the Irish system. The creeping expansion of EU business 

was added on to the business of each department in an incremental manner. 

The EU has imposed a requirement for continuous albeit incremental change in 

the management of EU business. In addition, there are particular period that 

constitute critical junctures. In the Irish system, these were the pre-membership 

phase, the initial period of membership (1973-75), 1988-1992 and more recently 

the Nice ‘No’. The first three critical junctures arose from the demands of the EU 

system and coincided with preparations for membership, accession (1973-75) 

and a significant expansion in the scope and ambition of integration (1988-92). 

During this period, structures and processes were put in place for managing EU 

business and the co-ordination capacity was enhanced. The changes in 1988

coincided with the arrival of a new Prime Minister reflected a growing involvement 

of that department in EU business. The critical juncture created by the Nice ‘no’ is 

likely to have far deeper consequences for how Europe is managed in Dublin. 

Nice is a more significant critical juncture for the following reasons. First, Irish 

ministers and civil servants could engage with the EU system in the past in the 

context of a broad domestic consensus and within an enabling political 

environment. Europe was not a contentious issue in Ireland. This is no longer 

the case. Second, in the past Ireland’s socio-economic position and the desire for 

economic catch-up moulded policy positions across the spectrum. Identifying the 

national interest was relatively straight forward. Third, the desire to be seen as 

broadly communautaire led successive Irish governments to go with the emerging 

EU consensus unless an issue was highly sensitive. The ‘no’ to Nice highlighted 

the weakness of EU knowledge among the Irish electorate, a degree of 

disinterest given the low level of turn-out and the emergence of a gap between 

the government and the Irish people on Europe. One senior official spoke of the 

‘escape of gases’ after Nice, which suggested that in place of the previous 

consensus there were a variety of views about the EU in political parties, the 

Cabinet and the wider civil society. This inevitably led to a lot of soul searching 

and questioning at political and official level. The results of this are likely to have 

long-term consequences for Ireland’s engagement with the EU system. 

The analysis in this report of the structures, processes and activities of Ireland’s 

EU cadre enable us to draw out the key characteristics of the way EU business in 

managed in Ireland. These are: 

• a relatively small EU cadre that is responsible for the burden of work arising 

from membership. This cadre is collegiate and cohesive with a strong sense of 

promoting and defending the interests of Ireland Inc.; 

• strong departmental autonomy with considerable latitude for the lead 

department. This latitude extends to sensitive dossiers; 

• responsibility for co-ordination of day to day business lies with the 

Department of Foreign Affairs and for the macro-sensitive dossiers with 

Foreign Affairs and the Taoiseach’s Department. 

• traditionally weak processes of interdepartmental co-ordination and a weakly 

institutionalised committee system. Consequently there is a reliance on 

informal, highly personalised contact between ministries. This is changing.

The above characteristics influence how Ireland interacts with Brussels and 

manages EU business at home. In terms of reception, the Irish core executive’s 

interaction with the EU is of a more passive than active nature. Change has been 

instigated in response to a small number of critical junctures and has occurred at 

an incremental and slow pace. Taking into account its size and style of 

negotiation, the Irish core executive’s projection onto the EU arena is also by 

definition passive. The style is pragmatic, consensual and broadly collegial. 

There has been a marked focus on those issues that were vital to Ireland— 

structural funds, agriculture, taxation, and EU regulations that might affect 

Ireland’s competitive position of the national budget. The resources of the 

administration have been heavily focused on these key policy areas. The 

approach is to find negotiated solutions to Ireland’s problems in any particular set 

of negotiations. Radically new ideas that may not be immediately appealing to 

the majority of EU member states tend not to emanate from the Irish core 

executive. 

It could be argued that this approach served Ireland well when it was easy to 

identify its core interests, and when the trajectory of the EU and its policies were 

in broad measure close to Irish preferences. One advisor suggested that Ireland 

did not come out with visionary statements ‘because the way the EU works at the 

moment suits us well’ (Interview 51, 28.02.02). The EU is however changing and 

so too is Ireland’s place in that Union. There is evidence that the political and 

administrative class is reacting to those changes and to the Nice ‘no’ but is doing 

so on an adaptative basis rather than through radical change. The Taoiseach’s 

Department and Foreign Affairs are spearheading a reappraisal of the system but 

the home departments are less seized of the issues. Some are actively assessing 

their internal management of EU business but others less so. All those 

interviewed for this study felt the need for a reappraisal but were concerned that 

sufficient political priority might not be given to it in the longer term. 2002 will 

prove a defining year in Ireland’s EU policy.

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Appendix 1 

Table 6: 

Attendance by Ministers and Officials at Council of Ministers Meetings 

2001 

Council 

Council 

Meetings 

Meetings 

led by 

Minister 

Meetings 

led by 

Minister 

of State 

Meetings 

led by 

Officials 

1. General Affairs Council 15 10 4 1 

2. Economic and Finance 11 11 - - 

3. Agriculture 10 10 - - 

4. Environment 8 3 - 5 

5. Justice, Home Affairs and 

8 5 2 1 

Civil Protection 

6. Internal Market/Consumer 

5 - 3 2 

Affairs/Tourism 

7.Transport/Telecommunications 5 5 - - 

8. Employment & Social Policy 4 3 1 

9. Culture 4 3 - 1 

10. Fisheries 4 4 - - 

11. Education/Youth 3 1 - 2 

12. Development 2 - 1 1 

13. Research 3 - 3 - 

14. Budget 2 - 2 - 

15. Health 2 1 1 - 

16. Industry/Energy 2 - 2 - 

Total: 88 53 21 14 

Statistics: 

Ministers led the Irish Delegation to 60 per cent of EU Council of Ministers’ 

meetings in 2001. 

Ministers of State led the Irish Delegation to 24 per cent of EU Council of 

Ministers’ meetings in 2001. 

Officials (Permanent/Deputy Permanent Representative or Department Officials) 

led the Irish Delegation to 16 per cent of EU Council of Ministers’ meetings in 

2001.

Appendix 2 

Bar charts of Ireland’s implementation record in 2001 

Bar Chart 1: 

100 

80 

Infringement Proceedings against 

Ireland 

60 

40 

LFN 

RO 

REF 

20 

0 

1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 

Year 

LFN = Letter of formal notice 

RO = Reasoned opinion 

REF = Referral to the European Court of Justice 

Source: European Commission Annual report on monitoring the application of 

Community law 2001

Bar Chart 2: Infringement Proceedings 2001 - Letters of Formal Notice 

100 

80 

60 

40 

LFN 

20 

0 

B DK D EL E F IRL I L NL A P Fin S UK 

Bar Chart 3: Infringement Proceedings 2001 - Reasoned Opinions 

80 

70 

60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

0 


RO

Bar Chart 4: Infringement Proceedings 2001 - Referral to the European 

Court of Justice 

25 

20 

15 

10 

REF 

5 

0 


Source: European Commission Annual report on monitoring the application of 

Community law 2001

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