Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The task force on citizenship was one of the issues with which my Department dealt by co-ordinating the activity of various groups on the issues of citizenship. This fed into the social partnership model and into a wider model where detailed work was undertaken. I do not have a detailed briefing note on this but work has been ongoing in the Department with a broad spectrum of bodies and groups.

Ten years ago the then Taoiseach, Mr. John Bruton, established joint agreements with Newfoundland-Labrador in a number of areas. This was successful and was the one project which John Bruton asked me to follow up because he had put much personal work into it. Ireland has a long historic relationship with Newfoundland-Labrador but the relationship had not been developed. Mr. John Bruton formally set up this memorandum of understanding which has been updated twice since then.

It covers education, cultural issues, genealogy and family histories and several other streams as well as business. The latest event under the memorandum was a visit here late last year by the Prime Minister with a large trade delegation. Several of our Ministers have visited there in recent years. We have built co-operation on a historic base and it has been an excellent project.

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