MEMBERS OF the Government would continue to travel abroad despite the Fine Gael ban on Dáil pairing arrangements for Ministers taking part in trade missions, Taoiseach Brian Cowen has said.
In his speech at Enterprise Ireland headquarters in Dublin to launch a five-year jobs plan, Mr Cowen said there would be more high-level trade missions to develop bilateral trading links.
At a news conference afterwards, the Taoiseach was asked whether ministerial participation in such activities would be feasible, in the light of Fine Gael’s refusal to facilitate Tánaiste Mary Coughlan’s education trade mission to the US this week.
Mr Cowen said it was important for a small country like Ireland, which was dependent on its exports, “to get out there and sell the country and sell what it is we have to offer”.
“And that will be done with ministerial leadership from time to time and also done by myself. I intend going on a trade mission in early January to China.”
Separately yesterday, Fine Gael TDs rounded on their Labour Party counterparts after the pairing arrangement brokered by Labour’s Ruairí Quinn allowed Ms Mary Coughlan to travel to the US.
Alan Shatter, Fine Gael spokesman on justice, said Labour leader Eamon Gilmore’s insistence that his party would not enter coalition with Fianna Fáil after the next election could not now be taken seriously.
“The events of the last 24 hours confirm that Labour cannot resist the Fianna Fáil embrace. Whilst the Labour Party enjoys the publicity it obtains from kicking Fianna Fáil for a while, it is always available to Fianna Fáil when that party is genuinely under pressure and in need of a political cuddle,” he said.