Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The story regarding money laundering occurred before I had any knowledge of involvement by Bulgarian authorities, so the matter was not discussed. However, the authorities have been helpful and have been working in co-operation with the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and the Garda. There is an ongoing investigation into the matter and the Bulgarian authorities have been very forthcoming in co-operating and endeavouring to assist. They were not pleased that a bank associated with their country could have been involved with some of the proceeds of the Northern Bank raid on 20 December 2004. I have not received a briefing in the past few weeks. I assume I would hear of any new developments. However, the Bulgarian authorities are co-operating fully and have been helpful in this regard.

I did not have a bilateral meeting with President Bush, although I spoke to him for four or five minutes on some of our own issues at that particular time. I also spoke to him about Russia, as I was nominated to speak on the Russian issue in the division of issues in the European Council. The issue of Iran was discussed. President Bush, and in meetings with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Ahern, Condoleezza Rice, have been at pains to say that the US believes diplomacy is the best way to try to ensure the Iranian authorities co-operate and listen to the voice of the world and, in our case, of European Union leaders to facilitate all tests and related matters. Nothing was said to indicate that some of the hype after Christmas regarding action being taken was true. Indications were to the contrary, namely that there should be a diplomatic effort to try to ensure the Iranians fully comply with international rules in respect of nuclear issues. There is much concern regarding exactly what the Iranians are up to. However, I left the meeting in February convinced that these issues would be dealt with diplomatically.

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