Mr. Bertie Ahern:

Yes, plenty of questions. I will not go into the whole American, Chinese and global issues. On a general note, the European Union position for the Commission to follow criteria in assessing new member states is fair enough to carry the support of the masses in the EU and all our populations. It cannot go at it willy-nilly. Democracy, the rule of law, trying to assist people as much as possible with moving away from oligarchs and corruption of all kinds are the rules the EU has set down and that is fair enough. There cannot be any compromise on those issues. Yes, as I have said, countries should help new member states as much as possible.

At Christmas, the European Union said in the last major statement it made on the matter that it had decided to open accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova and that it would work on the frameworks to be adopted once Ukraine and Moldova met certain key requirements that were set out in the November document. Candidate status was granted to Georgia on the basis of further steps that were also set out. The EU signalled that it would open accession negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina once the necessary degree of compliance with the membership criteria was achieved. It has stuck broadly to the ground rules. It gave an oral update, not a written one, on Moldova, stating it had completed two of the three steps, namely, anti-corruption dealing with the oligarchs and vetting of judicial candidates. They are straightforward and important enough. If countries cannot stick by those kinds of criteria, there is a problem and the issues of money, resources, CAP reform and all the rest cannot come into play. They have to stick to the basic values. That is why, although I am not as familiar as I used to be with what goes on in the Commission, gradual integration is probably the road to go down. Countries are pulled in step by step, incrementally, as they fulfil the criteria step by step. That is probably the best way to go.

On the immigration issue, the Deputy is right that until the global situation is dealt with, no single country can control it.

We are going to get huge movements of people from sub-Saharan Africa for the foreseeable future as long as they have the difficulties of drought and famine. There are other issues. We might look at how the population of Nigeria has changed and at the figures, although maybe Nigeria and Georgia are not exactly the same as the famine-stricken areas we are getting. The challenge for us is to be fair, but not be used and abused at the same time. In spite of all the pressures, I detect that there still is huge sympathy among the Irish people to do the right thing on migration and be as helpful as they can.

I will pick up on one position on which I do not think I answered Deputy Howlin. I have been out and about recently helping a few old buddies on the doors. It is interesting; I am not out there that much. It struck me massively that it seems as if practically none of the European people who are here from other European countries know their rights. If I can put in a plug for the Electoral Commission from the committee - the Chairman has probably done it long ago - it is not exactly a hard thing to do to say to our Polish friends and our other friends that they have a right to register. I think they still have a few days, but it should certainly be done for future elections-----