Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

In regard to the review I thank all speakers for the points they have made. I will respond to some of them, particularly the request by the Labour Party for an easily read text. It is the Government's view that we should have a text that would be available to the general public which would explain it in as simple a language as possible. Obviously the reform treaty is a complex set of amendments to existing treaties. That is something we are conscious of and we have to explain it properly for the people and give them all the information as has been the case before.

In regard to what Deputy Ó Snodaigh said, I do not want to be confrontational about it but he said Irish foreign policy is slavish and that we lose our ability to have our own foreign policy. I believe passionately that being part of a group we have a much stronger voice in the world and we have been able to punch above our weight on the international scene, particularly at EU and UN level. We are not slavish when it comes to making our views known on issues. Recently there was an Egyptian resolution in regard to a nuclear free Middle East. Ireland went against the flow in the EU and voted for the Egyptian resolution. Similarly, in regard to the outlawing of cluster bombs, Ireland is leading the way at EU and UN level in order to, hopefully, bring about a complete ban on cluster weapons and next year we will sponsor a conference here with a view to getting some of our colleagues on board so are not slaves to the rest of EU on foreign policy.

Deputy Ó Snodaigh's party espouses the elimination of partition, as do most of the parties in the House, including mine. As someone who was born, bred and still lives in the Border area, I recognise that the influence of the European Union on the issue of the Border has been dramatic in recent years. The European Union has had a much bigger influence on eliminating the practical issues of partition than anything anybody in Sinn Féin has done during the years. Those of us who live in the Border area have seen clearly how the Single European Act——

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