Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The position is that the political parties in Germany, including the SPD, know our position on corporation tax, banking union and the ESM. I am satisfied from the discussions that I have had on a party-to-party basis with the leadership of the SPD that it is supportive of Ireland and that if the negotiations for the formation of a new government in Germany are successful, if anything, our position as a country in our relations with Germany will be enhanced. I say this because the new coalition arrangement, if it is a coalition of Chancellor Merkel's party and the SPD, will reflect the political composition of the Government here and will enable us to have political contact with both of the parties in government, and that would be very much to our advantage.

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