Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I will make a number of points. Obviously, the Government will continue to try to develop a consensus on the undocumented Irish as it has done for the past few years. While I stated previously that it might be difficult to make much progress this year, we must continue to make our case. I will discuss it again with President Bush in a few weeks' time.

On the new reform treaty, I have indicated that I would like to deal with it before the end of May or early in June. Parties are working with the Attorney General's office and it would be important to finalise that in the next few days because then it could be brought before the Government next week. That would trigger the legislation for Members to debate in the House. I also am anxious to give three months to the referendum commission so perhaps we can try to get that in place.

On the committees, I agree with Deputy Kenny's point regarding the volume. When the committees were being set up, some people — not Deputy Kenny — stated that we appeared to be establishing too many of them. At the time, however, I made the point that this was due simply to the volume of work before the Houses. Parliamentarians understand this but perhaps those outside the Houses do not. A huge volume of work exists and I split up the two committees to allow them to deal with the volume of work. This is a matter for the commission. The committees in question are going to become increasingly busy for evermore. The issue of such business will be never-ending.

I refer to questions from Deputies Ó Caoláin, Kenny and Burton on Zimbabwe. This probably formed the longest part of my discussion because I was anxious to hear from President Mbeki, who was acting as the negotiator with Zimbabwe on behalf of the overall umbrella group in southern Africa. He gave me a long report and was to go to Zimbabwe the following day to try to make progress and work towards elections.

Time will not allow me to elaborate on every development; suffice it to say that, in the past year or two, the relevant parties have drafted a substantial amount of legislation and the new constitution. There is substantive agreement on some issues, but, as always in such circumstances, it has not been possible to resolve a few deal-crunching issues in respect of the election. One of the key issues is the question of when the president goes as part of the new election. That has been the key deal breaker since January and it has not been resolved since. President Mbeki and others have been involved in the process. President Levy Mwanawasa, whom I met in Tanzania, has taken over as the chairman of the South African Development Community.

On the general point, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and his predecessor have been actively engaged and very supportive of the reforms for a number of reasons. Ireland is highly respected in the region because it is contributing a lot of aid. Ireland is the sixth best donor in the world and a large part of our funds is channelled into the region. We have many key people on the ground and many of the traditional missionaries are still present. They are well known and have educated many of the leaders. Ireland has many substantial people in the UN organisations and NGOs and they are now very well known. We are engaging very substantively in the region. Our presence may not be large in number in comparison to other countries, but the people in question are certainly very significant.

On 17 February, the Kosovo Assembly adopted the resolution declaring Kosovo's independence. At the General Affairs Council on Monday, the Foreign Ministers noted the resolution and reiterated the European Union's commitment to the principles of the UN charter and the Helsinki Final Act, underlining that in light of the conflict of the 1990s and the extended period of international administration under Security Council Resolution 1244, Kosovo constitutes a sui generis case. The Council also noted that member states will decide in accordance with international practice and international law on the relations with Kosovo.

It is regrettable that lengthy negotiations have failed to produce an agreement with Belgrade and Pristina. A new UN Security Council resolution clarifying the position would have been greatly preferable to the current circumstances. A considerable effort was made by us and others to achieve such a resolution but the clear reality is that Serbia effectively lost Kosovo through its own actions in the 1990s. The legacy of the killing of thousands of civilians in Kosovo and the ethnic cleansing of over 1 million made the restoration of a Serbian dominion in Kosovo unthinkable.

The European Council agreed just before Christmas that the status quo in Kosovo was inherently unstable and that more than 90% of the population wanted independence. This is supported by our major partners in the European Union and beyond, many of whom have already recognised Kosovo. Taking all the circumstances into account, the Minister for Foreign Affairs intends to recommend that we recognise the Republic of Kosovo at next week's meeting of the Cabinet. To answer the Deputy's question, we will make a decision on this next week.

On the basis of positive advice from the Attorney General confirming the continuation of UN Security Council Resolution 1244 in the aftermath of a declaration of independence, we are committed to maintaining our enhanced presence in KFOR, the UN-mandated international presence in Kosovo. We intend to contribute members of the Garda in the SDP mission and also to support the economic development of Kosovo.

The Minister for Defence spoke about Chad for an hour yesterday and there is not much point in repeating what he said. There is continuing international support for the deployment of EUFOR. The European Union has reaffirmed its commitment to the mission and the United Nations has condemned the rebels' actions. The deployment of 50 members of the Army rangers is expected to take place today. It is urgent that security and protection be provided for refugees. It is a considerable humanitarian issue and this was emphasised to me when I was in Africa. It has been emphasised to me by several countries since then. I am mindful of the need to minimise risk. We remain strongly committed to the humanitarian objectives of the EUFOR mission.

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