Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I had two short discussions with President Chávez. I did not include them in my reply as comprehensive meetings. He is anxious to see the European Union working with him on some of the central issues he wants progressed. He would hold the view that Europe has not done that to a sufficient degree. It is an issue on which he campaigned strongly before and since the LAC meeting.

On issues of educational disadvantage, we have been very strong on the EU-UN agenda and have invested significant resources in it, and many of our models are considered to be very good. To be fair, in the first instance we took some of our models on these issues from the OECD, which did much good work in this regard. A number of these countries have in recent years examined issues with which Deputy McGrath will be very familiar, moreso than I, including with regard to the training institutes in St. Patrick's, which has developed many projects for disadvantaged education, and the Department of Education and Science, which has been very good at exchanging programmes.

People in these countries experience horrendous difficulties, disadvantage and marginalisation. One hears the horrendous plight of people in these countries in the submissions. These countries are still very underdeveloped and face huge difficulties. Without help, many of them will face an appalling future. That was their real plea to Europe.

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