Mr. Bertie Ahern:

I accept that. In the Chamber are present two members of a Government that not only offered Tourism Ireland for amalgamation, but also to amalgamate IDA Ireland with Invest Northern Ireland. That offer was rejected. It was nearly 20 years ago, but these things are still relevant. If I was a Member of the Houses today, I would still advocate for us to re-offer some of those things. It is by forcing cohesion and co-operation that we will find solutions to drive the process forward.

My fear is that if we try to find difficulties and wonder how agencies will work in the future, we will pull ourselves outside the process.

The reality is that foot and mouth disease or any other animal disease will show that the island of Ireland should be treated as one. Therefore, we should tell Mr. Barnier it is another reason that we want special status. Our tourism sector and industrial policy are other reasons. We think we are very important but if we consider the overall figures, we are very small. That is where we can win concessions. We should look for all the positives on these issues and drive them forward. In saying that, a customs union that is not in some way technologically handled on the Border would be a disaster. We should make that very clear.

Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, Michel Barnier, the chief negotiator on this issue, and Guy Verhofstadt - who I do not agree with on lots of things because he would like to federalise Europe, but I agree with him on this - have all said they respect and accept that Ireland will suffer most. They accept that anything in breach of the Good Friday Agreement cannot happen. They understand the past conflict in Ireland and they want to be helpful. They have many things to do. It behoves us to put forward the clear vision of how that becomes a reality. As I said this morning, a clear vision paper should not be done over the next two years but over the next three or four months.