The two party leaders in the Coalition are determined that any differences which may arise in government will be settled between them "in private", Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Eamon Gilmore has said.
“It is my approach and it is the Taoiseach’s approach that we deal with those issues in private, that we work them out and that we get agreement on them,” the Labour Party leader told journalists in Dublin this afternoon.
Mr Gilmore had been asked about statements in a leaked email to Labour councillors from party chairman Colm Keaveney TD. In the email Mr Keaveney described a recent meeting with Mr Gilmore where the resignation of junior minister Roisin Shortall was discussed.
“He also shared with me his view on recent events and I am satisfied that there is another context to the story that he has not been able to publicly articulate, given the media atmosphere at this time," Mr Keaveney wrote.
“This context needs to be discussed with the party's members and he is considering how to do that at some point in the future,” he wot.
Mr Gilmore explained today: “The other context is the state of the country, the fact that we have a job to do as a Government to restore our economy and to get our economy to recover and to get people back to work.
“That is the mission of this Government. When we entered government over 18 months ago, we committed ourselves to a project of turning our country around, getting the country out of the economic mess that we found it in, and bringing about recovery.
“It is hugely important that the country has a stable Government in order to do that. And I certainly am going to take my responsibilities seriously, and do take my responsibilities seriously, to ensure that that stability of government continues, that this government continues, serves out its term, and that we do the job that we were elected to do.
“We’ve never had a coalition government here before involving the two largest parties in the State, and from time to time there are issues that inevitably arise between the two parties: differences of emphasis sometimes, on policy matters or interpretations of the Programme for Government, and it is my approach and it is the Taoiseach’s approach that we deal with those issues in private, that we work them out and that we get agreement on them.
“I have confidence in what the Taoiseach does in relation to that and he has confidence in what I do in relation to that, and we will not be deflected as a Government from the primary task that we have, which is recovery for this country and dealing with the country’s economic problems," he said.
