Ann Ormonde (Fianna Fail)

I also welcome President Cox. He has certainly given us the long history of Ireland's association with Europe. He highlighted the huge investment in education, the equality legislation and the environmental infrastructure that has brought this country to its present state and given it an improved quality of life. He has referred to the point I want to raise.

We all know the core of the Treaty of Nice is purely the creation of a legal framework. However, we must get that message across and try to dispel the confusion that exists. I experienced an example of it last weekend when I was outside the shopping centre. It had nothing to do with Nice, but it is what we are up against. I was asked why we should vote "Yes" to the Treaty of Nice when there are so many directives telling us how to run our country, directives in connection with the quality of meat, water and so on. Fortunately, I was in a position to dispel that myth and to clarify that this treaty has nothing to do with that and that we will and should be using our national parliament to deal with how decisions are made in Europe. Perhaps President Cox would comment on the point he made that when the Treaty of Nice goes through there will be six main larger countries and 19 smaller ones and the possibility that Ireland could be involved in an alliance with the smaller countries and the impact that would have for the future of Ireland.