Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The review that is taking place is both important and timely. The Tánaiste put his finger on the issues. The best way to review foreign policy is to review its success in recent years. If we consider the position we were in such a short time ago, economically, and in the radar of our European colleagues, it has been tremendously successful. In my time in this House I have never seen the degree of activity by the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and individual Ministers in pursuing Ireland’s cause internationally at every level. Every single Minister and their civil servants have all been doing the same thing at the same time for the one cause. That is hugely important. I have never seen it before. I reject criticism from any quarter as to whether we were going in the right direction. First, we were held up as an example two and a half to three years ago as to what might happen in Europe and in this country. Not only did the Tánaiste excel nationally but also internationally in establishing an accord and a rapport with the diaspora in a way that has not happened previously.

Arising from Deputy Crowe’s point on the degree of influence of Parliament, it is not so many years ago when I as a Member of this House was made to feel that Parliament had no function at all and that on a regular basis we were something that should be suffered in silence. On numerous occasions I was rebuffed by individual Departments to the effect that the Minister had no responsibility to the House. What a famous phrase. The Tánaiste would have experienced that as well. There has been a tremendous improvement. John Donne said that no man is an island. I presume he applied that to women as well in modern parlance. It is true, and now is a timely period for the review both to continue our efforts in that regard nationally and internationally as a small country and as a member state of the European Union carrying with us the importance of such membership. We should not apologise and pretend we are a substandard, lower class nation. We are still one of the leading contenders in the globe. We are one of the seven most sought after places to live in the world at present. Our GDP per capita is higher than most of our European colleagues with one or two exceptions, for instance Luxembourg and the Scandinavian countries. That has always been the case. We also have a higher per capita GDP than France, Germany, the United Kingdom and most other countries. One of the things that we need to stop doing-----