Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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Question 112: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will detail the date, location and duration of all bilateral meetings he has personally held with Ministers of eurozone countries separate from meetings on the margins of meetings of the External Relations Council. [18988/11]

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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Question 113: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will detail the date, location and duration of all bilateral meetings held by the Minister of State for European Affairs with Ministers of eurozone countries separate from meetings on the margins of EU ministerial meetings. [18989/11]

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 112 and 113 together.

The Government is determined to restore Ireland's standing as a respected and influential member of the European Union. To this end the Government is engaging at senior levels with fellow EU Member States. We are making clear the economic and financial realities confronting us and the steps which we have taken to get the public finances in order, to repair the banking sector and to restore growth. We are emphasising our determination to see this process through to a successful conclusion. We count on the continuing solidarity of partners. We seek to inform and to persuade, pointing to the benefit for the euro area and EU as a whole of Irish success.

Members of the Government avail of every appropriate opportunity to meet their EU counterparts, including those who are members of the euro area.

The most time-efficient and cost-efficient way in which to meet EU Ministerial counterparts has proved to be in the margins of the European meetings that we attend and this is where the majority of such meetings have taken place – in the case of the Minister of State for European Affairs and myself, at the Foreign Affairs Council and the General Affairs Council.

However, both Minister Creighton and I have also met our counterparts from the euro area on other occasions. These meetings have taken place either as part of a wider programme during bilateral visits to the countries concerned or in the margins of other multilateral or international meetings. The tables below provide details of these meetings and include a visit that I will undertake later this week to Berlin, during which time I will meet the German Foreign Minister, Dr. Guido Westerwelle. Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade

Minister for State for European Affairs