Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

Sorry. I thought the Deputy was speaking generally. Obviously, the issue of energy will come up as part of competitiveness because every country in the world, particularly in Europe, is looking at their dependency, especially on Russia. Those assessments are going on here. The Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Deputy Noel Dempsey, has been involved in assessments from the Irish point of view. The Department of Finance has been involved in those assessments.

To the best of my knowledge, some of the non-governmental organisation groups, including Friends of the Earth, have applied for membership. However, as the Deputy is aware, as the environmental NGO views are conveyed by several different organisations, their work is fed into the process. Nevertheless, the Deputy is correct in that issues pertaining to sustaining and protecting our position in the future are related to issues regarding competitiveness and energy. As I have noted previously, we are pressing on with initiatives in wind energy and other matters. Sweden's forestry is a great natural resource. We have good natural resources as far as gas reserves and some other areas are concerned. It would also help us in the future if we could make use of some of the assets we possess, having gone through the proper processes.

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