Confrontation has been replaced by partnership in the relationship between Ireland's employers, unions and wider civil society. It is an Irish model but was inspired by a European method. Jean Monnet, one of the founding fathers of European integration, stated: "When you change the context, you change the problem". I believe that in the context of having a presence in the corridors of power of the European Parliament, the European Commission and the Council of Ministers our small State has learned to think of itself in terms of equivalence with the other states of the European Union. The old ghosts and atavism in our nationalism and feelings about Britain have matured and changed.