If I had been making this speech to the Seanad four weeks ago, or even two weeks ago, I would not have put common foreign and security policy at the top of my speech. I would not have singled it out as the most important challenge, but the events of the past two weeks have required me to rethink my own set of priorities in this area and that is why I have stressed this first. It is a most important issue which obviously has major implications for this country and for all of the groups represented in this House, both in terms of the way all of us think about our place in the world and how we may preserve what we have come to enjoy.