EAMON GILMORE HAS taken his last set of Dáil questions as Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs.
There was much giggling as Ceann Comhairle Seán Barrett accepted that, although the cabinet reshuffle has yet to be formalised, “I just read the newspapers like everybody else”.
Gilmore’s successor as Labour leader, either Joan Burton or Alex White, will be announced tomorrow and he is not expected to remain at the cabinet table.
In the final scheduled questions this morning, Gilmore was asked about the continued impasse in Northern Ireland as the Northern parties begin two separate rounds of three-day talks:
I have been frustrated, and I’ve expressed this, that there’s been a kind of a stop-go approach to these talks since the new year. I’m glad now that the two three-day sessions have been arranged.
He stressed that, although he wanted the Irish Government to be “as close as possible” to the negotiations, he didn’t envisage the Irish or British Governments taking part.
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