Irish National Interest should be on agenda at EPP Gathering – Dooley

Published on: 06 March 2014


Fianna Fáil European Affairs Spokesperson Timmy Dooley TD has welcomed delegates from the European People’s Party to Dublin for their summit and has called on the Taoiseach to use the event to promote Ireland’s interests on the key issue of debt relief.

Deputy Dooley commented, “The European People’s Party Summit is a high profile and very welcome event for Dublin. With a reported 2000 delegates from around Europe, it is a reminder of the importance of the convention sector in our tourist product. It comes following the decision of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) hosting its international summit in Dublin in 2012.

“While Fine Gael will understandably seek to use the event for its own party political purposes, I would call on the Taoiseach to remember the Irish national political interest while hosting other leaders. Specifically, I believe he should use this opportunity to press his colleagues on the issue of retrospective bank recapitalisation.

“In June 2012, senior ministers in this Government held a press conference and told us that agreement had been reached on the issue of retrospective recapitalisation. At the press conference, the figure of ‘up to €60 billion’ was used without either Minister Noonan or Minister Howlin disagreeing. Since then however, the issue appears to have been quietly dropped and the Government’s message is that we should all just move along.

“I believe this conference is the perfect opportunity for Ireland to get this recapitalisation back to the top of the agenda. Rather than telling their European colleagues how great they are doing, our ministers should be using the opportunity to remind them of the burden Ireland took on for Europe and that the agreement on recapitalisation needs to be honoured.”

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