Mr Brian Cowen has persisted - commendably so - with efforts to revive negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians during Ireland's current presidency of the European Union.
When it started he said inactivity on the issue was not an option. Today in Dublin he meets the Israeli Foreign Minister, Mr Silvan Shalom, in the hope that Israeli plans to withdraw from Gaza can be channelled into the internationally agreed road map for a settlement.
There was a constructive discussion about how that might be done at Monday's meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, where five conditions were set out to bring any such withdrawal within the road map's terms. Hopefully this indicates they are ready to exert sustained pressure on both sides to marshal the political will and readiness to compromise Mr Cowen rightly sees as essential if progress is to be made in this most deadly and persistent of conflicts. The EU can play a significant role in maintaining pressure during this election year in the United States, where Mr George Bush is standing on a record widely regarded as the most pro-Israeli in recent American history.
For his part Mr Shalom is willing "to see Europe playing a key role in bringing better relations between Israel and the Palestinians and Israel and the Arab world", as he said after meeting the Danish Foreign Minister in Tel Aviv yesterday. He wants to do so through negotiations on the basis of the road map. But he insists the Palestinian leadership "continues to refuse to do anything to fulfil its commitments and to stop the terror", which this week claimed another eight Israeli lives in a suicide attack on a commuter bus in Jerusalem. He says resolute European diplomacy can help bring the violence to an end.
Over the last two months Mr Cowen has identified a number of small steps that could be taken by each side in a confidence-building exercise to restore trust and momentum to the road map negotiations. They provide a focus for his meeting with Mr Shalom and continuing contacts with the Palestinian leadership.
If the road map is genuinely to be the basis for renewed progress Israel must re-engage with that leadership and not continually undermine it. Mr Shalom has recognised that the EU has not supported reference to the International Court in The Hague of the construction of Israel's security fence/wall, on the grounds that this would distract attention from the need to get direct negotiations going again. His government should reciprocate by agreeing to take some small steps for peace.