Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

On the first question, this process came from the European constitution. When the European constitution did not go ahead, we decided to proceed anyway. It was not as though nothing happened through 2005, as a process had to be structured. This was a serious effort. We wrote to all the churches and other religious bodies, as well as the humanists. There was a long period of engagement as they were obliged to go through their own consultative bodies and processes. This was a long and drawn out process. I understand they were obliged to go to their councils and conferences to ascertain whether they would engage in the process. This happened.

The second part consisted of engaging with officials as to how the bodies wanted to structure the issues. I refer to the meetings, agendas and the kind of issues to be covered in this respect and this process is not quite complete. There are also some issues regarding who represents who in these structures and this has taken some time. The process includes the Most Reverend Dr. Robin Eames, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland, as well as the Most Reverend John Neill, Archbishop of Dublin. It also includes the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, the Methodist Church in Ireland, the Baptist, Lutheran and Moravian churches, the Religious Society of Friends, Jehovah's Witnesses, the Salvation Army, the Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox and Romanian Orthodox churches, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland, the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland, the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the Republic of Ireland, the Irish Council of Churches, and the chairperson of the Humanist Association of Ireland. It has taken considerable time to structure it as per the European constitution and get agreement. The officials have worked hard to so do.

This work is almost complete and I understand a possible structure has been worked out. I share Archbishop Martin's view that we could get on with it.

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