{"id":659308,"date":"2025-12-28T07:14:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T07:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/659308\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T07:14:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T07:14:14","slug":"irelands-eu-presidency-set-to-cost-state-more-than-e293m-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/659308\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s EU presidency set to cost State more than \u20ac293m \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland\u2019s upcoming presidency of the council of the European Union<\/a> will cost the State over \u20ac293 million, with \u20ac125 million being allocated to An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na<\/a> alone. <\/p>\n

Ireland will hold the EU presidency from July until December 2026, and for six months will have an opportunity to lead the policy agenda of the EU.<\/p>\n

Over the course of the latter half of the year, Ireland is expected to host at least 50 European leaders during what will be the eighth time Ireland has held the EU presidency. Ireland will also chair dozens of formal meetings of the European Council<\/a> in Brussels and Luxembourg.<\/p>\n

According to the Department of Public Expenditure<\/a>\u2019s report on the 2026 budget, \u20ac282 million has been set aside to cover the costs of holding the EU presidency. This is on top of \u20ac11.7 million in capital expenditure that has already been allocated to the Office of Public Works<\/a> (OPW) in advance of the presidency. The OPW has had \u20ac39.3 million in current spending budgeted towards the costs of the presidency.<\/p>\n

Of the \u20ac282 million budgeted for current expenditure, \u20ac125 million has been allocated to An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na. This is expected to go towards the increased security and operational costs associated with dignitaries who are expected to visit Ireland during the presidency.<\/p>\n

Concerns have already been raised about Ireland\u2019s defence capabilities if a rogue actor like Russia were to try to stage a drone attack or disrupt communications during a high profile event. During its presidency, Ireland will host a meeting of the European Political Community, which will involve dozens of political leaders travelling to what will be one of the largest political events ever held in the country. <\/p>\n

Ireland is also expected to host 22 informal ministerial meetings, including some held outside of Dublin. Another 250 meetings associated with the EU presidency will be held all across the country over the course of the six months.<\/p>\n

The Department of Foreign Affairs, one of the lead Government departments responsible for co-ordinating the EU presidency, will have \u20ac65 million budgeted towards the costs of the presidency. The Department of Culture has been given \u20ac8 million towards the cost of the presidency, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has been given \u20ac5.6 million, the Department of Enterprise will spend around \u20ac4.7 million and the Department of Finance\u2019s allocation is \u20ac4 million. <\/p>\n

Irish ministers will use the EU presidency to discuss pressing issues for the bloc, including security and defence. Enlargement of the EU will also be a main theme for Ireland\u2019s presidency, as Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin mentioned during the recent visit of the Ukrainian president \u200dVolodymyr Zelenskiy. <\/p>\n

Better competitiveness for business, including less red tape, and the multiannual financial framework will also feature. <\/p>\n

Minister for Communications Patrick O\u2019Donovan has already said that Ireland will use the EU presidency to try to advocate for better online child safety, including the possibility of an EU wide age limit for social media. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s upcoming presidency of the council of the European Union will cost the State over \u20ac293 million, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":659309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[43053,11324,143344,2000,299,5187,42649,1699,198239,332],"class_list":{"0":"post-659308","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-an-garda-siochana","9":"tag-department-of-foreign-affairs","10":"tag-department-of-public-expenditure-and-reform","11":"tag-eu","12":"tag-europe","13":"tag-european","14":"tag-european-council","15":"tag-european-union","16":"tag-office-of-public-works","17":"tag-russia"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115795962419600906","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/659309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}