Minute's silence at Brussels Council meeting

The Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mary Harney, has on behalf of the Irish Presidency expressed her deepest sympathy to the Spanish Government and its people following the terrorist attack in Madrid early today.

Harney, presiding at a meeting of Competitiveness Council Ministers in Brussels said: "We in Ireland know only too well the devastation that is perpetrated by terrorist atrocities and we empathise with the pain and suffering being felt by the Spanish people at this time."