merrion street

The Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Eamon Gilmore, T.D., is in Luxembourg where he will deliver a keynote speech to 800 members of the Luxembourg Business Federation on challenges faced by Ireland in exiting the EU/IMF programme.

The Tánaiste will also hold a series of high-level meetings with Prime Minister Xavier Bettel and Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn. He will also meet with Governor of the Central Bank of Luxembourg and European Central Bank board member, Gaston Reinesch, to discuss Ireland’s debt burden.

In this evening’s address, the Tánaiste will point to the difficulties faced by the Irish people in reaching last December’s landmark bailout exit:

“We have made hard choices and tough decisions. But even in the face of the harshest realities, the Irish Government was, and remains, determined to maintain a threshold of decency in how we face down this crisis. That is why we restored the minimum wage after it had been cut by the previous Government, and maintained core welfare rates for the unemployed, for pensioners, for carers and for people with a disability.”

The Tánaiste will also point to improved investor confidence in Ireland’s economy:

“The recent decision by Moody’s (Investors Service) to upgrade Ireland’s credit rating reflects the significant progress that has been made in stabilising Ireland’s public finances, restructuring the banking sector and, most importantly, creating jobs. Ireland is now rated at investment grade by all of the major credit rating agencies, highlighting the turnaround in investor sentiment towards Ireland.”

Tomorrow, the Tánaiste travels to the Netherlands for a number of trade-related events with key members of the Dutch business community and Enterprise Ireland and Bord Bia clients. While there, he is also due to discuss the ongoing crisis in Syria with Foreign Minister Franz Timmermans.