Conor D. McGuinness
Question:228. Deputy Conor D. McGuinness asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if she plans to visit Austria prior to Ireland holding the Presidency of EU. [38794/26]
View answerTuesday, 26 May 2026
Questions (228)
Written answers
I have visited my counterparts in a number of EU Member States since my appointment as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade in November last year. While I have not yet visited Austria, I would certainly welcome the opportunity to do so. With just over one month remaining before Ireland assumes the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, such a visit is not currently envisaged but may be considered later in the year.
Austria’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Beate Meinl-Reisinger and I attend the EU Foreign Affairs Council. I hope to arrange a bilateral meeting with her on the margins of an upcoming Council and have asked my officials to explore that possibility. Our two countries have excellent political, economic and people-to-people relations and I am keen to build on those links.
In the meantime, officials in my Department continue to engage closely with Austria. Indeed a senior delegation led by the Deputy Secretary General of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce visited Ireland just last week and held a very constructive meeting with Departmental officials. As well as discussing our upcoming Presidency, there were useful exchanges on competitiveness, the future EU budget and the important role played by SMEs in the wider European economy. There have also been engagements with the President of the Austrian Federal Council, Mr Markus Stotter, who was in Ireland last week and visited the Houses of the Oireachtas.