Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I do not have a difficulty with what is decided on the constitution, although I doubt that bringing back the convention would be a great idea. The German Presidency would prefer to keep the process tight and it is correct in that. If the process is opened up, many matters that were agreed in the convention a number of years ago will come back into play. There were delicate balances on a range of issues in the convention and in the discussions afterwards. If agreement cannot be secured it might be necessary to use that forum, but I do not believe it will be. The convention signed off on a position so I doubt that it will happen. I think the issue will be dealt with within the member states.

A total of 19 countries have signed up to staying with the constitution as it is. Six countries have some reservations, including, obviously, France and the Netherlands. The position in France is easier because it is clearer. I am not clear what the position is in the Netherlands; they do not appear to have worked it out. Poland has re-opened the issue of the weighted votes, something on which it was slow to agree in the first place. It was the last country to agree to them.

The problem revolves around a small number of issues. The British Government would like to remove the Charter of Fundamental Rights from the constitution, but that would be a big mistake and it would create many problems. However, its position is that it should be moved into an annexe or removed altogether. The British would get support for their position because we had a great deal of trouble having it included in the first place.

The Deputy is familiar with what happens in Davos. There are open plenary sessions with the president of the G8 and the President of the EU, Angela Merkel, and there are panel discussions on the European agenda. I participated in those. There is an enormous number of sessions on various issues. The one in which I participated was on education, training and skills. This country has high credibility for its position in that area. Between 40 and 50 countries engaged in that session.

I was not involved in the session on climate change but I read the reports of what happened in that session and the reports of what business people said. If I had been there, I would have pointed out that Ireland has successfully decoupled its greenhouse gas emissions from economic growth——

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