Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny and the party's finance spokesman Michael Noonan are to meet the European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso in Brussels later this evening.
The two men are expected to raise the issue of the average interest rates Ireland will have to pay for the EU-IMF bail-out.
A spokesman for Fine Gael said there are regular contacts between the party and the European Commission. Jose Manuel Barroso is, indeed, from the same centre-right political family in Europe.
But there is no doubt this is the first electoral campaign thrust by Fine Gael to show it is serious about trying to renegotiate the terms of the bail-out.
EU officials have acknowledged it is an opportune time for Ireland to get the question of interest rates looked at again.
There are intense and somewhat divisive discussions between member states and the European Commission about the overall European rescue fund, and whether its size and scope should be changed in order to forestall any potential attack by speculators on a major economy like Spain.
Within that process the question of interest rates, and the danger that they could pose too heavy a burden for bail-out recipients, is now part of the discussions, although perhaps not at the top of the agenda.
President Barroso has not yet taken a public position on a reduction in interest rates. He has focussed more on the need for a definitive and quick solution to the euro zone debt crisis.
There is, though, formidable opposition to any loosening of the interest rate policy, which was agreed unanimously last May and was designed to make the bail-out an absolute last resort.
In any case, EU officials point out that the credit for getting a reduction onto the agenda lies with finance minister Brian Lenihan, who first raised it at the meeting of euro zone finance ministers on January 17.
