Irish expenditure on deepening the State’s relations with Germany is money well spent, according to Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe.
He was speaking at the end of a St Patrick’s Day tour that took him through Frankfurt and Cologne to Berlin
As well as receptions with members of the Irish community and political representatives in the three cities, he visited the new Irish consulate in Frankfurt which has worked to boost relations in the state of Hesse and Germany’s southwest.
New consulate
“I am thrilled by the progress I have seen being made, particularly in Frankfurt,” he said. “As always I want to see us do more. Anything that can underline the cultural interests of Germany in Ireland or Ireland in Germany is something I really want to support.”
As well as a new consulate planned for Munich, and a doubling of embassy staffing in Berlin in the last decade, Ireland is to spend €2 million next year on a year-long cultural programme across Germany.
Mr Donohoe, already a regular visitor to Germany in his role as president of the Eurogroup, said Ireland was making good on its post-Brexit promise to engage more sustainably with its largest EU partner.
He told a Berlin audience on Friday that, at difficult times in the last 100 years, Ireland had reached out to the world: its admission to the League of Nations in 1923 or its embrace of the European integration project in 1973, paving a path to today’s prosperity.
“Europe must look forward and make the right strategic decisions to maintain competitiveness and provide growth for its citizens,” he told an audience at the Bertelsmann Foundation.
Wearing his Eurogroup hat, Mr Donohoe met European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde in Frankfurt and, in Berlin, federal finance minister Christian Lindner, senior chancellery officials and Bundestag MPs.
With conversations overshadowed by concerns over Credit Suisse and Silicon Valley Bank, Mr Donohoe said these events underlined of the wisdom of the euro area’s banking union.
Exceptional difficulties
Set up in response to the last banking crisis, he hoped political minds were focused on implementing political agreements from last summer on additional measures to support banks facing exceptional difficulties.
“I’m not looking to make a reactive case, that we have to move only because of what is happening with these banks,” he said. “Events of recent days underline the importance of banking union and that we have already made decisions.”
Eurogroup commitments and the timing of Mr Donohoe’s trip meant last Sunday’s St Patrick’s Day Parade — the biggest in continental Europe — took place without an Irish ministerial guest.
After a three-year break, this was the 25th anniversary of the first official parade and attracted about 30,000 people over the two-day event in central Munich.
After a shamrock-blessing Mass, about 1,300 people participated in Sunday’s parade, from GAA clubs and traditional Bavarian music bands to Brazilian samba dancing groups.
“We would have liked to see a Minister from Ireland there as it’s an important part of driving the German-Irish relationship,” said Derek McDonnell, head of the Munich Irish Network, which is behind the parade. “But the show goes on.”
