Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

To respond to Deputy Kenny's question, that matter is always discussed in detail at the spring Council, which is given over to it totally, and there are always some updates on it at the other Council meetings. I do not think all the targets will be reached by 2010 but substantial progress has been made in many of the areas. All member states are still very committed to the ongoing issues of the Lisbon Agenda. It will continue to be policy for the foreseeable future. Obviously it is being used as the benchmark for every member state to report back.

On Deputy Sargent's question, I would not like to give the impression that the relationship between the European Union and Russia is soft on the human rights issue. There is considerable tension on this issue. It applies far more to others than to ourselves as they are directly engaged in many everyday dealings with Russia. Those tensions, if anything, are getting greater by the month. Obviously, because the recent poisoning happened in London it has received far more publicity here than, in fairness, did the death of Anna Politkovskaya. There have been so many that the tensions are growing and there were sharp exchanges at the European Council. There have been fair reports of the meeting, but there were very sharp exchanges, both ways. President Putin does not sit there on these issues. He defends his position and attacks fairly aggressively.

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