HC Deb 16 December 2002 vol 396 cc545-6W
Mr. Dodds

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many meetings of(a) the North/South Ministerial Council and (b) the British/Irish Council have taken place in each year since their formation. [86618]

Mr. Paul Murphy

The numbers of meetings were as follows:

Institution/Year Number
North/South Ministerial Council
1999 1
2000 22
2001 24
2002 18
British/Irish Council
1999 1
2000 2
2001 1
2002 4

Mr. Dodds

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much has been spent in each year since their formation on the running costs of the(a) North/South Ministerial Council, (b) British/Irish Council, arid (c) Northern Ireland Civic Forum. [86624]

Mr. Paul Murphy

The running costs to the Northern Ireland Administration were as follows:

£
Institution Running costs
North/South Ministerial Council1
1999–2000 94,949
2000–01 737,162
2001–02 787,609
2002–03 466,800
British/Irish Council2
1999–2000 6,365
2000–01 7,420
2001–02 10,158
2002–03 17,344
Northern Ireland Civic Forum3
2000–01 145,000
2001–02 450,000
1 Expenditure by the Northern Ireland Administration includes salaries, administration and cost of meetings.
2 Includes cost of ministerial meetings in Northern Ireland and travel and subsistence costs for ministerial meetings outside Northern Ireland.
3 Includes cost of salaries, administration, meetings, Members expenses, printing of reports and researchers.