THE GOVERNMENT is to launch a diplomatic drive among other EU member states to win support for Ireland’s position in future negotiations on the bailout package from the union and the International Monetary Fund.
However, Fianna Fáil has accused the Government of raising the “white flag” on burden-sharing with senior bondholders and Sinn Féin said Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore was trying to deflect public attention from the Coalition’s surrender on the issue.
Mr Gilmore said one of the things that had come to his attention since taking over the foreign affairs portfolio was the degree to which Ireland has lost political support in Europe.
The Minister said he was launching a diplomatic initiative to win support for Ireland’s position.
“We have already started this week by having our Embassies in the different EU states being fully briefed and communicating to the governments of the other EU states what Ireland’s position is, and the actions that we are taking,” he told RTÉ Radio. “This week, I will be inviting in the ambassadors of each of the EU states to brief them on the decisions that we are taking, the approach . . . to rebuild our banking system and the kind of supports that we are going to require from the European institutions and the EU states.”
He also said Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Minister for Finance Michael Noonan will be engaging with heads of state and the other finance ministers.
“There will be a co-ordinated diplomatic drive by Ireland to win political support for the discussions that we are having with the ECB and the EU,” he said.
When it was put to him that the debate was over as regards burden-sharing, he said: “As far as the senior bondholders in the two pillar banks is concerned, a decision has been made on that and that decision has been made on the basis that we want those two banks to be able to attract private capital.”
He added that the issue of burden-sharing is an issue that is in continuing debate, even within the European Central Bank.
Fianna Fáil frontbencher Michael McGrath said the previous Fianna Fáil-led coalition had been “absolutely pilloried” by Mr Gilmore and the rest of the opposition over burden-sharing.
He said the EU and the IMF had made it clear they would not accept unilateral burden-sharing by Ireland. “The new Government has now been confronted with that reality and . . . have raised the white flag on the issue,” he said.
