Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

The sugar regime is ultimately a matter for the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Deputy Coughlan, who was party to the discussions in Hong Kong. Obviously some difficult decisions had to be made in that regard and it is fair to say the discussions in Hong Kong faltered in that there was an impression that quite a number of developing countries were to a certain extent benefiting. Our sustained focus on those discussions was to ensure the least developed countries would benefit from free trade and we were reasonably successful in getting that point across.

During my time as Minister for energy I was always conscious that this island is on the edge of Europe, as was raised by a number of Deputies. We are at the extremity of the gas pipelines coming from Russia. If one looks at the map of the gas grid, it is quite significant to see where we are. Thankfully, over the past number of years the Government has put substantial funding into the construction of gas pipelines that link us with the UK. As Minister for energy, I made this point on the mix of the type of supply on many occasions. Given that historically this country has been vehemently anti-nuclear for good and valid reasons related to issues like Sellafield, we must rely increasingly on gas, coal and other fossil fuels and, hopefully, on renewable energy. As a strong supporter of renewable energy, particularly during my time as Minister for energy, I know it is an extremely difficult and complex area. While everyone is in favour of renewable energy, it is difficult to get the critical mass in this sector to have it as a substantial part of the energy mix. I say this as somebody who looks daily out on a wind turbine in Dundalk Institute of Technology, only a mile from where I live. In this cold weather where there is no wind that wind turbine is not moving at all and as a result on the coldest day of the year it is not supplying any energy to the grid. If wind farms are built in substantial numbers one must also provide approximately similar capacity in fossil fuel facilities to ensure supply on those coldest days when demand is highest.

Regarding an all-Ireland energy policy, my successor, the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Deputy Noel Dempsey, took up the baton in putting together an energy policy for the next ten years. I understand that is still being discussed within his Department and the various agencies which feed into it. The intention is to bring forward a long-term policy on energy supply. This and the gas pipeline news of recent weeks brings into greater focus the absolute need for us to exploit our indigenous gas supplies. That is one of the reasons we were strong supporters of ensuring every opportunity is taken, provided all the conditions on safety etc. are adhered to, to use all the gas supply possibilities available to us.

Deputy Durkan raised a number of issues related to the EU constitution. As regards ratification, as he will be aware it was agreed previously that there would be a period of reflection which would culminate at the end of the Austrian Presidency. The Austrian Foreign Minister recently wrote to all the member state governments. Recently I replied giving our view on it, that we should hasten slowly on this matter, that we should look at the period of reflection and perhaps even extend it. We are adamant that we should not touch the text of the EU constitution but that perhaps we should look at ways in which its context should be changed because it was ultimately an extremely fine balance reached after tough negotiations.

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