merrion street

Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore has said today that he will lead a "co-ordinated diplomatic drive" to win political support for Ireland among EU member States.

Speaking on RTÉ Radio 1's programme This Week, the Tánaiste announced that he would brief Ambassadors of each EU state as well as holding a series of bilateral meetings with Foreign Ministers in other EU states:

What I am doing is I am launching a new diplomatic initiative to win support for Ireland across the European Union. We have already started this week by having our embassies in the different European Union states being fully briefed and communicating to the governments of the other European Union states what Ireland's position is and the actions that we are taking. This week, I will be inviting in the Ambassadors of each of the European Union states to brief them on the decisions that we are taking, the approach that we are taking to rebuild our banking system and the kind of support that we are going to require from the European institutions and from the European Union states, and in addition to that I will be undertaking a series of bilateral meetings with my counterparts as Foreign Ministers in the other European Union States to win political support for what we are doing and in turn the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance will be engaging with both the Heads of States 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 European Union. 

The Tánaiste's full interview can be listened to here.