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

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