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Following Government approval, Mr Phil Hogan, T.D., Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, today (30th June) announced the nomination of two full members and one new alternate member of the Irish delegation to the EU’s Committee of the Regions.

The full member nominees are Councillor John Sheahan (Fine Gael), Limerick County Council, and Councillor Des Hurley (Labour), Carlow County Council, while Councillor Catherine Yore (Fine Gael), Meath County Council, is nominated as an alternate member.

The full Irish delegation to the CoR is comprised of nine full members and nine alternate members. All the Irish nominees are serving members of local authorities. Three members of the Irish delegation resigned from the CoR following the recent elections to the Houses of the Oireachtas. Each of the regional authorities is represented on the delegation and arrangements are in place to ensure that the regional authorities liaise regularly and effectively with their CoR members on matters of regional interest and vice-versa. The Minister wished the nominees well in their work in the years ahead.

The CoR is an advisory assembly in relation to legislation and policy of the European Union. The formal appointments to the CoR are made by the EU Council of Ministers on the basis of nominations submitted by the Governments of the Member States. The term of the current CoR lasts until 2015.