Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

On church-State dialogue, in the context of the constitution for Europe, Christian churches and non-confessional groups on a European basis requested meaningful and open dialogue. It is considered that the French and some other countries do it well. It involves all of the churches within a State in open meetings without any being in a special position. Churches across religions and non-religious groups have collectively put this forward to Governments throughout Europe.

We made all of the churches and non-confessional groups aware of our proposals and took account of what they stated in response. Following that I will make a statement shortly. I hope we will then start meetings with them. The idea is to have an open agenda within which issues of interest can be raised. It has been widely welcomed. In a short period we have moved from having six or seven groups to 25 or 26 groups. They require some type of formal dialogue with Government such as has worked well in other countries.

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