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TÁNAISTE EAMON GILMORE has said that no thought has yet has been put into who will be Ireland’s next EU commissioner and has ruled himself out of the running for the post.
Gilmore was speaking this morning in Brussels following reports that Cabinet colleague and former Labour leader Ruairi Quinn was emerging as the favourite to move to Europe when the post becomes available.
The post is currently held by a former Fianna Fáil TD Máire Geoghegan-Quinn who assumed the five-year position in 2010.
Gilmore, however, has dismissed suggestions that his Cabinet colleague is being lined up for the role and added that he himself had “no plans whatsoever” to take the job:
First of all we have’t given any thought at all to who’s going to be the next commissioner, that’s something for the second half of next year. My plans are to continue my work in Government and to lead the Labour Party into next general election, I have no plans whatsoever to be next commissioner.
On his way into the EU’s Foreign Affairs Council, Gilmore was also asked by reporters about Ibec’s prediction for 2014 of 2.8 per cent GDP growth. The estimate exceeds the Government’s official prediction of 2 per cent.
“It is very encouraging that the largest business organisation in the country is pushing a level of growth that is higher than that,” the Tánaiste said. “I assume that that is based on their own knowledge of happening on the ground in Irish industry and in Irish business.”
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