JAMIE SMYTH EUROPEAN DIARYBRIAN LENIHAN made his inaugural trip to Brussels as Minister for Justice last week to attend a council of ministers' meeting with his counterparts from other EU member states.
He has taken charge at the Department of Justice at a crucial time for EU-Irish relations in the justice field. Terrorism, immigration, and concerns over privacy have dominated the EU's legislative agenda over the past six years.
The Government also faces tricky questions over its relationship with the EU because of its decision to "opt out", along with Britain, from decision-making in the sensitive justice area under the Lisbon Treaty.
So why did it take almost nine months for Mr Lenihan to attend his first justice council?
"There actually haven't been that many meetings. Two in Brussels. One meeting clashed with the Budget," said Mr Lenihan at last Thursday's meeting. "I wouldn't have said there's been any absence. In fact, for any meetings I wasn't at, there was full ministerial representation. We've no semi-status, we're fully part of Europe."
Seán Power, junior minister at the Department of Justice, stood in for Mr Lenihan at the justice councils in December and November 2007. Ireland's Ambassador to the EU stood in for Mr Lenihan in September 2007. The Ambassador also stood in for former justice minister Michael McDowell at the other three councils held in June, April and February 2007.
In fact, no Irish Minister for Justice attended any of the six Council of Ministers meetings in 2007 that drafted key laws on data protection, sharing DNA information and combating racism.
Domestic concerns such as budgets, elections and Cabinet meetings are common excuses trotted out by Ministers for failing to show up at councils. Prior to the general election last May, Dermot Ahern, Brian Cowen and Micheál Martin all missed important council meetings. Just one frontline Minister, Mary Coughlan, the Minister for Agriculture, showed up at a council meeting in May - she has a 100 per cent attendance record for 2007 and 2008 to date.
The attendance records of other frontline Ministers are mixed. Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern has a reasonably good record, attending nine of the 12 foreign ministers councils. Tánaiste Brian Cowen has attended seven of the 13 economic and financial affairs (Ecofin) councils, although he sometimes attends Eurogroup meetings held on the evening prior to the Ecofin meetings instead. Minister for Enterprise Micheál Martin has attended three of the last six council meetings, while Minister for the Environment John Gormley has attended three of the last four council meetings during his tenure in Government.
According to Brussels insiders it makes a big difference if ministers take the time to turn up and "press the flesh" at council meetings because politics is all about personal relationships and, on a practical level, qualified majority voting is being extended to more areas and building alliances between states is more important than ever.
"In the agricultural sector it is essential that Irish Ministers attend councils because it is the forum where all the key decisions on the future of agriculture are now taken," says Michael Treacy of the Irish Farmers' Association. "Most big policy decisions are taken in Brussels not Dublin because of the common agricultural policy."
A good networking minister can identify problems early and seek help from colleagues. Before last week's agriculture council Ms Coughlan met 19 other EU ministers in Brussels to discuss concerns over the European Commission's handling of agricultural issues at the World Trade Organisation talks. She also held a bilateral meeting with farm commissioner Marian Fischer Boel, which resulted in some rural environment protection scheme payments to Irish farmers being resumed.
"A lot of business is done on the margins of these council meetings in Brussels, so it is important to be present," explained a spokesman for the agriculture minister yesterday. And with the EU now the principle legislator in most fields - the German ministry of justice has estimated 80 per cent of all German laws or regulations originated from the EU between 1998 and 2004 - there is a strong case for ministers to turn up.
Council meetings are also useful events to build relationships that can mature and yield fruit in the future. Albert Reynolds nurtured a warm relationship with John Major when they were both finance ministers in the late 1980s, which endured when they became prime ministers and boosted the search for peace in Northern Ireland. "He sat beside me for lunch at the first meeting we attended and said he could do with some friends around the table," Mr Reynolds said yesterday. "I told him by and large it was 11 to one against Britain at the time, but I would make it 10 to 2 as often as I could."
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has also proved a master at networking on the European stage, a fact that could help him to secure a job in Europe later this year.
So there are clear personal and national political gains to be made by Irish Ministers who take the time to make the trip to Brussels.