Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

On Deputy Ó Caoláin's question about the services directive, it was withdrawn in its current form. There is not a draft directive. It has gone back for reworking to take account of many issues, including some raised by the Deputy. President Barroso said reformulation of the directive would allow people to consult, and that is what is happening. The meeting with ICTU and many other bodies is to ensure an input into that. We have to wait to see what comes back from the Commission before we can have any meaningful discussion. At that meeting many months ago we supported the view that the directive should not proceed in its current form. I was one of the strong supporters of President Chirac's initiative at that meeting.

The Clinton Foundation conference discussed four topics. I participated in the session on Shimon Peres and the Palestinian question. There were other sessions and therefore we were not discussing any of those issues. I read some of the data on climate change and other issues afterwards but I was not involved in that. To the best of my knowledge they did not have a session on climate change. What I was doing on behalf of the country was commiserating, including in writing when I had the opportunity, with President Bush on the loss to the country.

On the EU constitution, the position is that the European Council decided that for the next year we would have a debate and reflection in all countries on the objectives of the European constitution and the tasks facing us. We will return to that in the Austrian Presidency. What will happen then will be a matter for that Presidency. That debate is now opened and a number of initiatives have been put forward already. The Jesuits had a major conference in Dublin earlier this week which was attended by the former Commissioner, Peter Sutherland, and many other eminent people, including from the Forum on Europe. Maurice Hayes and others participated in that session also. These are the kind of debates we hope will continue. For its part, the Government will do as much as it can to ensure the people are empowered with the information, knowledge and understanding of what the European project is about. The next decisions will be made by the Austrian Presidency.

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