§ Rev. Martin Smythasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will list the dates and locations of all meetings of the Anglo-Irish intergovernmental conference and the Ministers and officials from the British and Irish Governments who attended them, together with a breakdown of costs involved for each meeting, covering security, administration, transport and logistical support, stating which vote these costs were met from and what proportion of each of the costs was met by the Irish Government.
§ Mr. Tom KingJoint statements issued after each meeting of the conference, copies of which are in the Library, set out details of dates, location and attendance. It is not the practice to give the names of officials attending. It is not possible at reasonable cost to identify the additional costs to United Kingdom public funds of conference meetings. Costs incurred by the Irish Government are a matter for them.
§ Rev. Martin Smythasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whether, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Belfast, South of 2 July, column 161, there has been any increase in the number of officials employed by the Anglo-Irish secretariat; what is the number of support staff; what information he has as to how many are employed by the Irish Government, the number of support staff, the cost to public funds and the proportion of this cost paid by the Irish side; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Tom KingThe work of the United Kingdom side of the secretariat is still undertaken by three officials, 831W along with six support staff. As to the running costs of the United Kingdom side of the secretariat, I refer the hon. Gentleman to a reply I gave to the hon. Member for Londonderry, East (Mr. Ross) on 4 November. The staffing and expenditure of the Irish side is a matter for the Irish Government.