Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

It is a difficult issue for him to deal with. There is strong support for this measure in the North and it has led to an interesting debate about the island economy, the courage of taking that initial step and so on. We have no difficulty with it but is a difficult matter for the British authorities to decide how to handle it and how to deal separately with Northern Ireland. There is a prolonged effort to secure consideration of it.

It has been left to the German Chancellor, Ms Angela Merkel, to deal with the EU constitution, according to the agreement made last June. She was part of the discussions I attended last week as a consequence of our involvement in the final stages of the discussions on the constitution. She is taking a broad view of where it stands from everyone's perspective, taking into account the approaching Dutch election and the French election that will take place next summer.

Although the German Government is consulting widely and would like to make some movement, the difficulty is that there is a tight timeframe from the time the French election is over until the meeting of the European Council in mid-June 2007. It is in the same ballpark as Ireland in terms of its view of the constitution, that is, it should remain as is and that if there are amendments, they should not be broad based. This is not the view of everyone. Nevertheless, some 15 or 16 countries have now ratified the constitution and the Finns will do so before Christmas.

On the Turkish position, the UN initiative took place during the Irish Presidency, at which time I had extensive discussions with President Tassos Papadopoulos of Cyprus. The Ankara Protocol is the difficulty. The Turkish Prime Minister, Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Foreign Minister, Mr. Abdullah Gul, are not prepared to change their position and this creates a difficult situation both for the Finnish initiative and in terms of what the Germans would like to do later. There is a stalemate and I have talked to the Cypriot President about the issue because Chancellor Merkel asked me to do so. He is not for moving at present but I am due to talk to him again on Friday.

Cyprus believes it has been badly treated by the Turkish Government. At the end of the discussions on the Ankara Protocol, when all parties believed there was agreement, relations were soured when the Turkish Prime Minister issued his position on it. I said in this House at the time that this was not wise. It is a major dilemma, not necessarily for us but certainly for some of our European colleagues. It is taxing many minds and I cannot see progress as long as the present position obtains. Progress on the negotiations is already advancing at a snail's pace and it will become impossible if there is not some movement on this issue. Chancellor Merkel went to Turkey in recent weeks. Representatives of a host of other countries have gone there too. It is currently a major issue for the EU.

It is early days yet regarding the EU Commission. Although there has been contact, I do not believe that it has issued anything. However, regardless of whether the Irish Competition Authority gets involved, it is becoming clearer that it is a competition issue for the EU. I hope to be able to raise the matter personally because I have been afforded a meeting with the full Commission in a few weeks at which I will have the opportunity to put our side of the case. As the Deputy is aware, the issue relates to four Commissioners.

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