Hi Ciaran & co,
Mmmm, our Council rep for this issue is the Minister for Trade & Enterprise (Mr Martin), backed up by civil servants in Dublin (ENTEMP-see their website) and the Council civil servants in Brussels (COREPER-see below). Because the vote might be taken at the fisheries meeting, then the present is the Min for Agriculture (Mrs Hanafin). The civil servants have been dealing with this issue from the start, it's new for the Minister(s) because they're new in post.
COREPER is the Brussels secretariat of the Council of the EU (formerly called the Council of Ministers, name was changed by the Treaty of Nice, I think). COREPER are the people who organise the meetings and co-ordinate the work of the Council i.e. very important!
The Irish reps in Enterprise, Trade & Employment at COREPER likely to have responsibility for this area are First Secretary for Industrial Policy, Competition (State Aids) Anne Marie O'Connor (annmarie.oconnor@iveagh.gov.ie) and/or Internal Market/Consumer Affairs, Edward Feehan (edward.feehan@iveagh.gov.ie). Probably the fisheries people won't have input (?)because it's not their policy decision, but just in case, this is Michael O'Dwyer, First Secretary, Common Fisheries Policy, Forestry and Mining michael.odwyer@iveagh.gov.ie. I also have phone numbers. Info correct up to six months ago. The letter should also go to the Dublin based civil servants at ENTEMP.
Ian's recent description of the Council was essentially correct, except perhaps that it's quite common for items to be voted through as A items, so the patent directive hasn't been singled out for this procedure. For a description of the work of the Council, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_the_European_Union and COREPER http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COREPER.
The Council are the most important decision making body of the EU, unfortunately they are also the least transparent ;-(
So do I get the free software (I prefer free beer).
Teresa
Our Council rep, not having been involved in the 2003 and 2004 lobbying, is probably quite unaware of the guts of this issue. The current letter should be aimed at (and sent to) him. The first person that can Name That Rep, gets free software!