Here are the relevant meetings scheduled for the Irish presidency, January to June next year:
March 11th, 2004 Competitiveness Council formal meeting (Brussels). March 25-26, 2004 European Council (ie Heads of Government) April 2004 Informal meeting of Competitiveness Ministers (Co. Clare, Ireland). May 17-18, 2004 Competitiveness Council formal meeting (Brussels).
The relevant ministry in charge will be the ministry for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, headed by the Tánaiste (deputy prime minister), Ms. Mary Harney.
(Source: parliamentary answer, http://www.greenparty.ie/pressroom/Dail%20work/031023%20EU%20Presidency.htm
which corresponds to a Word doc on the ministry website, http://www.entemp.ie/ecd/irelandspresidency.doc )
The May meeting is the last date for Ireland to be able to claim the credit for any agreement, so the goal of the presidency will be to push for achievments on as many dossiers as possible by then.
If possible, they will try to get the agreement 'banked' in March, to clear the agenda; the March meeting will also consider what broad strategy and other documents in the area of Competitiveness can be prepared that the heads of government can discuss (or perhaps that should be trumpet) at the end of March.
Given that the Working Group has apparently already had two "very productive" meetings (UKPO), they may feel that March 11th is entirely possible to adopt a finalised Council common text for the directive.
The working party will also still be working on the Community Patent legislation, which the Italian presidency "spectaclarly failed" to bring to agreement (Axel Horns) -- "the Presidency noted that although there was broad agreement on the compromise text, complete agreement could not be reached at that stage as the question of the period for filing compulsory translations of the claims of the Community patent remained unresolved".
If agreements cannot be put in place on March 11, the "informal meeting" in April will see a final attempt to bash heads together at a political level, to produce agreement in time for May 17th.
All best,
James.