Mr. Bertie Ahern:

On North-South co-operation, we have been saying there is a lot of scope for more and more activity. We never got anywhere on the debate about representation in the Oireachtas. We discussed that for many years but there was not great support down here for it. People were prepared to go for committees but were not prepared to see people who were elected to the assembly participate in Leinster House. We tried it for the first few years but there was no great support for it. There were some constitutional difficulties as well but I do not think they were the main reason for the lack of support.

As for the date for a constitutional referendum, my view is that it should be as soon as the work is done and as soon as the questions that need to be answered have been answered. I said this decade and I still think that is a reasonable proposition. When I said that, very little work had commenced. I think that was on the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, so almost five years ago. We are in a different position now and, thankfully, there is a lot of work ongoing. I do not know if Ms Begley heard me earlier when I said that if there is to be a referendum, we have to be able to say the institutions and the North-South bodies are up and running, we are making good progress and we are all working together. The main issues that would come into a referendum, some of which I mentioned earlier, would have to be answered. My view is that within a few years that work will be done. I never put the question of finance up front but, as it happens, that is the last one on which work is to be undertaken.

It is starting in January. I have always thought the figure the British Government put forward for grant-in-aid in Northern Ireland is not a real figure because you get slices of a whole lot of things into it. When we are able to see a quantified figure done by professionals and academics away from the political system, it will be a far more interesting debate than it is in a vacuum. We are not too far away from that, however. It will probably be a few years.