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Taoiseach Enda Kenny today made a statement to the Dáil concerning the upcoming European Council meeting on the 23rd and 24th of June.

The Taoiseach spoke on a number of topics:

Finance Ministers dealt extensively with the question of Greece at their meeting on Sunday and Monday. The ball is now firmly in the Greek court. Having last night won a vote of confidence, the Greek Government now needs to secure the support of Parliament for new budgetary measures if the fifth tranche of funding under the Greek Programme, amounting to €12 billion, is to be released.

At the meeting I will be working to ensure that Irish interests are fully safe-guarded.

I will also continue to emphasise the importance of ensuring that all aspects of a Programme support the shared goals of early recovery and return to borrowing on the markets.

One element of this is, of course, the pricing of loans, and I will continue to press the case for early implementation of the March agreement to lower the interest rate under the EFSF.

At that time, it was agreed that a lower rate would better take into account the debt sustainability needs of recipient countries. This analysis remains sound and what has been agreed should be put into effect, including for Ireland.

President Van Rompuy indicated to me that he wishes the economic discussion to be a wide-ranging one.

Part of this will be the endorsement of the country-specific recommendations, proposed by the Commission and adopted by the Council, following the submission of National Reform Programmes and Stability Programme Updates by Member States. This is the final step in the new European Semester and, once the recommendations are endorsed, Member States will be expected to reflect them in their forthcoming budgetary processes.

In Ireland’s case, the recommendation is that we continue to implement the EU/IMF Programme as the best means to get the economy back to growth and recovery, and to restore our ability to return to borrowing in the open markets as quickly as pos

The Taoiseach also spoke on Croatia, Shengen Agreement and other International Issues