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THE MINISTER responsible for overseeing Ireland’s forthcoming EU presidency has said the six-month term will cost significantly less than its last one.
Lucinda Creighton said Ireland’s six-month term as the President of the Council of the European Union, the body made up of individual ministers from each of the 27 member states, would cost in the region of €60 million.
This compares to a price of about €110 million when Ireland last held the office in 2004.
The €60 million does not include security costs, though these will be significantly lower for the forthcoming presidency because most of the high-profile meetings involving heads of government, and cabinet ministers, are no longer held in the host country.
Since the Lisbon Treaty was enacted, and gave legal standing to the European Council, the institution has had its own headquarters and full-time secretariat in Brussels, which hosts most meetings.
This means that the high-profile meetings of all 27 leaders, or events such as the joint EU-US summit including then-president George W Bush held in Dromoland in 2004, will not be a feature of the forthcoming presidency.
However, Ireland will host a series of meetings of lower-level ministers, such as the Justice and Home Affairs council which will be chaired by Ireland’s justice minister, Alan Shatter.
Creighton said yesterday that given the strain on public finances at present, it would not be appropriate to have a fleet of luxury cars carrying attendees through the capital.
She added that the Irish presidency, which will be dominated by chairing negotiations on free trade agreements and the EU’s seven-year budget, would be “about substance and not style”.
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This woman infuriates me. An appalling representative. Good luck I’m going to the pub.
I’m back from the pub. Still think she is a shambles.
€6o million that our country cannot afford …….just think how many frontline services would do with that kind of money !
If only our spineless government had the balls to turn down been the host of the presidency and used the 60 million euro in the budget of Ireland . Any how it will be interesting to see how much they over spend our money on this waste of time .
Just goes to show they have it when they want to spend it. Turning it down would be the ultimate two fingered salute to Germany & France in particular. All it’s good for is boasting the ego’s of Enda ‘Frank Spencer’ Kenny & raising his profile to the European fat cats.
Ah shur when they cut the childrens allowance they will pay for this charade. I have lost all respect for this government .
Mary lets not forget the €25 Million top up for the pension fund so its not just €60 million its €85 million and counting
Eh folks, without the EU we’d have to cut our spending by billions more, overnight. €60 million is a pittance compared to what we have received and continue to receive. And I’m not just talking about the bail-out but also CAP payments to farmers and structural funds and cohesion funds that helped build almost all the motorways and other infrastructure in this country. It’s amazing how people fail to join the dots and have such short memories.
eu presidency is nearly akin to winning the eurovision song contest ,nobody wants to win it….
FG looking back as usual, trying to compare with the past in order to give the impression things are better. Is this what passes as a government achievement these days? God help us!
Wild Rover , save for “spineless” jibe , I agree with you . This is a big waste of our money on top of a hugely inflated EU budget. These talking shop guys ought to cop on.we just cannot afford it. What would 60m do for home help?
Rory They are Spineless and 60,000,000 would go a long way towards home help .
EU presidency my a*se. That’s like letting a child sit in the drivers seat and pretend that they’re driving the big Fire Engine. At the end of the day we all know who’ll REALLY be in charge.
And is Lucinda going to tell us silly peasants in detail how exactly they’ll be doing away with our state’s Sovereign Seal during this fantasy Presidency?
That Woman epitomises the reason why so many folks mistakenly think that blondes are stupid.
Great comment! the kid in the fire engine lol
True! She’s not exactly a poster child for MENSA is she? And what’s worse, she assumes everyone else is just as dumb as she is as she tries to spin a story to the governments advantage! That woman couldn’t spin a top!!! “just” 60,000,000 euros?? Hope we’re going to be told what EXACTLY is costing so much? That’s a lot of lunches in the Leinster house canteen? And a lot of taxi fares! As long as it’s not the bottomless wining & dining expense accounts and private chauffeur driven car hire we’ve come to expect. All delegates that come here should get a lunch voucher and a bus pass. Especially if they’re from the troika. They want belt tightening, lets give it to them….
The blatant sexism of your comment and similar comments by others is astounding. Are you in MENSA? It takes a great intellect, as we all know, to make a dumb blonde joke.
Wow what could we do with that money?
heading for a pint on the strength of that announcement !
Bonanza for the Dublin Hotels.
It’ll be a bonanza for top hotels, high class hookers and Michelin star restaurants.
If EU officials know how to do one thing with tax payers it is have the decency to use it to really enjoy life.
The EU, esp. the EU Parliament is the greatest gravy train that has ever been seen, even with all that 5% of the entire EU budget goes missing every year. For 18 years in a row the auditors have refused to sign off on EU budgets. Too much goes missing in the kick back and graft city of Brussels. It’s the nearest thing a member of FF can get to heaven.
Yippeeee I’m so relieved to know this I simply cannot contain my joy . Any chance of more good stats and news from these overpaid wasters before they load more misery on us in the coming budget !!!!
Can someone answer this. How and who will decide who the Irish EU President of the Council?
Do you mean, who decides that Ireland will get the job? It’s rotated among each member state, based on (I think) their country names in alphabetical order, in their own national language.
Gavan, why did my comment get taken down (i had a link to an RT TV segment, which was very critical of how Noonan and the Irish Government are squandering Irish tax payers money?)
Cal – it’s still there… (By default, comments are now sorted by popularity and not by age.)
Grrrrr … its not showing on my laptop .. apologies and thanks for the quick response.
No. As it is Ireland’s turn at the job is it the Government who appoint someone or do we the people get to decide?
Ah – I get you now.
To be honest it’s not 100% right to think of someone as being ‘the president’. It doesn’t fall to any particular person – all that really happens is that the Irish member of each individual group happens to be the chair of each group. So, the Justice and Home Affairs council – which contains each Minister for Justice of each member state – will be chaired by Alan Shatter.
The presidency doesn’t involve any executive decision-making powers so really it’s mostly symbolic.
The only presidency positions that have any real executive power are the ones held by full-time permanent individuals like Herman van Rompuy or Jean-Claude Juncker. They’re not affected by the Irish presidency or anybody else’s.
@Padraig
‘…Or do we the people decide….’
You do understand how democracy works ?
-We vote in people to represent us.
-They form a government
-They appoint ministers to run departments
So they do the work on our behalf. We can’t have the people making all the decisions all the time or nothing would get done.
Can you imagine trying to get all the fantasists, pessimists, luddites, general whingers and the ‘hurlers on the ditch’ that you have on here trying to form an effective residents committee never mind an effective government !!
I guess jim ahh jim ahh jim
that depends on if ya wanta be ‘governed’ or ya want to be a genuine democracy….
of course genuine democracy can take longer than being dictated to…
I know..how inconvenient
@Joseph
I don’t understand the point you are trying to make
Cal
It seems you went to the bottom of the list due to a lack of popularity.
We do not live in a democracy. We live in a dictatorship which changes every 5 years. We vote in our local TD and he is told to sit on the back bench, only called from the Dáil bar to do his masters bidding at Dáil vote time. It’s a dictatorship
We need Direct Democracy like the Swiss have enjoyed for the passed 200 odd years
Oh yeah, because Switzerland is such an enlightened country. It’s built on a banking industry with secrecy laws that allow tax dodgers to hide their money from the tax man in the countries where they reside. It is forbidden to wash your car in your driveway or mow the lawn on a Sunday. It is almost impossible to get long-term residency – let alone citizenship – unless born there. And they hold referenda on populist issues that result in diminished rights for minorities, such as Muslims.
And don’t get me started on referenda, which can be very dangerous things, allowing extremists to whip up fear and scare people into voting for populist measures that result in less freedom and less democracy for all, especially for minorities. It’s not a coincidence that referenda are prohibited in Germany since WWII. And look at the unholy mess caused by our two ill-conceived referenda on abortion. Our democracy may not be perfect but direct democracy is absolutely not the solution.
This is what Russian TV station thinks of our very own FFG party
David Higgins …. are you watching it?
Federalist bureaucrat.
She is really good at getting elected like Healy Rea and Lowery. That does not mean she has the ability to represent our country in Europe. She is a player not a vey intellectual person with much else going on. She regularly gets caught out on lack of knoledge on many subjects yet she brazens it out like Pee Flynn and Bertie Its Irish politics.
@ Frank I love your first line. ” She’s really good at getting elected “. It’s one of her few genuine talents, I think. Also, I think that you’re onto something, when you group her with Flynn and Aherne. Bad company to keep, but then, like attracts like, or so they say. One more intriguing point to mention, is the ease with which she is clearly so disliked by so many commenters. It appears that her facade has been so poorly constructed, that it has been as easy to see through, as a pane of glass.
Gentlemen
I would imagine that some of your comment ps were insulting and in breach of the the Journals policy. But sure you would have known that when you hit the submit button so why ask the question?
No, just a youtube link to Vincent Browne destroying poor Lucinda. No insult intended but she was caught red handed twisting fact and fiction.
Mine was a complimentary comment about her.
I think she is …CENSORED-CENSORED-CENSORED… and thats why I feel that way
Gavan,
My comment about Lucinda was deleted too !!!
Whats the problem ??
same here, bloody lucinda lovers
Are there such people? Surely not!
I think she’s lovely!
I shall beat you with your white stick!
Total chancer.
So Gavan, why was my comment deleted? I’m seeing this happen more and more on the Journal. So much for free speech ‘n’ all that
To be blunt, Rodrigo, a lot of what was on this thread was simply personal abuse. Fair comment is fair enough, but personal abuse isn’t tolerable, irrespective of whether the person receiving abuse is another commenter, a staff member, or the subject of a story.
Play the ball, not the player. Critique Lucinda’a arguments, policies and party – not her very existence.
€60 million? People living on the street, people loosing their homes, people self harming, people not knowing how they will manage to put food on the table. Our government are going to spend €60 million on what?
Themselves and their friends. The music changes, but the song remains the same, as someone once said.
Censored
hey there!!!! nothing wrong with being a Luddite!!
@Patrick
Hmmm, well actually there is ….
Did you know the earth isn’t flat either ?
Would it not be better to just say “sorry guys we’ve decided the money would be better off spent internally, skip to the next country please”. Each country no doubt pays twice over given the associated expense claims. And another thing what are the quantifiable benefits to having 6 months at the helm, politically very little could be achieved in this time…oh but politics is not about actually achieving things. No relation by the way!
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