Council talks on new EU budget to be long and complex, says Taoiseach

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said he expects today's European Council meeting on an EU future budget to be long and difficult.

He said he was confident a deal could be reached if there was goodwill on all sides to achieve a result. The meeting in Brussels, which continues tomorrow, is also to discuss trade and external relations.

Mr Kenny said the budget, called the multiannual financial framework, had been under negotiation since the commission put forward its proposals in June 2011.

"They have been, and remain, both highly technical, complex and highly political, as by assigning resources we are effectively prioritising our common actions, making hard choices and difficult decisions on the EU's actions right up to 2020," he added.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said the clear and growing public disillusionment with the Government was directly linked to the non-stop claims of action and leadership which did not have the slightest connection with reality. "It is obvious to anyone who cares to look at the evidence that this Government has no strategy on Europe other than the hope that something will turn up," he added.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said his party position was clear on the promissory note.

"We want the Government to secure a deal and we wish it well in that regard, but it must be a deal that removes the toxic banking debt from the shoulders of Irish citizens."