Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I thank the Deputy for his positive comments. The meeting took place as a result of the issuing of an invitation to me. At my first meeting following my appointment I met the British Prime Minister in Brussels. We have had a couple of telephone conversations, about which I have informed the Deputy. The Prime Minister said we should make an arrangement to meet before the Queen came to Ireland. Yesterday was a suitable date and, on that basis, the meeting took place. It was not announced as a major diplomatic onslaught but was part of a series of regular contacts between the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach, which is important for both countries in the keeping of good relations. We discussed the question of movement in the European Union. The Prime Minister is very supportive of Ireland's position and the decisions made by the Government which are attracting an element of international commendation, which is important. He is supportive of what we are doing and has said so. As I said in response to earlier questions, he is available at short notice to discuss any matter on which we wish to contact him. I said the same in response to him, particularly in the discussions we had on Northern Ireland.

In regard to the work of the Government in respect of the interest rate on the IMF-EU package from which Ireland is now drawing, and in regard to the EFSF, that is being pursued from a European perspective. The bilateral loan from Great Britain, which is not involved here directly, feeds into that. We are pursuing the question through the Ministers for Finance at European level and, obviously, we are hoping for a result there, probably during the summer, now that the bank stress tests have been cleared. The current situation in regard to the IMF is that officials in Portugal are dealing with the details of that country's draw-down. I did not go to London to raise directly the question of the interest rate on the British loan being reduced because it is not part of the main package, which we are pursuing through the European forum in the first instance.

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