Taoiseach Enda Kenny said this morning he believed progress was being made in tackling the euro zone debt crisis.
Mr Kenny will travel to Brussels later this week for talks on the with European Commission president José Manuel Barroso.
The meeting will be one of a number Mr Barroso is holding with national leaders following the decision by European Council president Herman Van Rompuy to postpone an EU summit on the debt crisis for almost a week.
Euro zone finance ministers will be called to an emergency meeting later this week as efforts intensify to reach a comprehensive new deal to finally settle the debt crisis.
Speaking in Dublin this morning, Mr Kenny said the talks would be a continuation of discussions he held recently with Mr Barroso in Warsaw.
“I had six formal bilaterals there and I had a number of other conversations with leaders and we agreed to continue this conversation in Brussels on Thursday,” he said. “Obviously the situation as far as the euro zone countries are concerned will be the focus of our attention, as will the questions in regard to recapitalisation, restructuring and obviously the crisis,” he said.
“As you’re aware, Mr Van Rompuy put off the meeting for next Monday for a week, because as I spoke to him yesterday he indicated progress is being made,” he said. “Clearly European leaders would like to be in a position to deal comprehensively with this when the heads of government meet on Sunday week."
The flurry of meetings follows the Franco-German summit in Berlin at which Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Nicolas Sarkozy declared they had reached agreement on the need for changes to the Lisbon Treaty, and bank recapitalisation.
Mr Kenny and Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore yesterday expressed a preference for dealing with the EU debt crisis under existing programmes and treaties.
Mr Kenny said he would prefer to see the Lisbon Treaty “explored to the limit”.
Speaking on the campaign trail with presidential candidate Gay Mitchell in Galway yesterday, Mr Kenny said changes in the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) represented a change to the Lisbon Treaty, but this did not require a referendum. “We support that, because my view is that we have a crisis now and this crisis must be dealt with in the short term,” he said. “That means that you use all of the instruments, all of the facilities that were agreed upon and signed off on July 21st under the EFSF programme to deal with the current crisis.”
Mr Gilmore said there was not an appetite for treaty changes that would require a referendum in Ireland. “I think that what needs to be done to deal with both the banking situation in Europe and the financial situation in Europe is to implement the measures that have already been agreed and to do the things that it is possible to do within the existing treaty framework,” he said.
Minister of State for Europe Lucinda Creighton said it was premature to discuss treaty change but added such a move could not be ruled out in the future. “The immediate crisis demands that we find a solution to the Greek problem.
“Obviously if Greece encounters any more dramatic difficulties it’s going to have an effect on all of us and on the euro currency,” she said.
Ms Creighton, in Luxembourg for a meeting of EU ministers, said it was important to see how the existing agreement to strengthen EU budget rules worked out.
Asked whether it would be difficult to persuade Irish people to back another EU referendum, she said that would depend on whether the proposal was in Ireland’s interest. “I think if the Irish people saw that a change to the treaty would make our currency more robust, would make Ireland more competitive, would ensure a strong and stable future, that we emerge from this crisis, then I don’t think they would think twice,” she said.