The negativity associated with the Nice treaty debate always worried me. The countries concerned will overcome the challenges. They will surmount the deprivation and eventually be international trading partners. It is important for us to forge relationships with them, even for purely mercenary reasons, because we will want them as trading partners. If we leave a legacy of misunderstanding that in some way we did not want to be part of their development, we will suffer in a trading sense. There will be other countries which will step into the breach at that time. We were lucky that for more than a decade we had been interacting with communities within them. We have exchanged delegations on many occasions and had many cultural and social exchanges. There was a knowledge of Ireland. It is not as if we were a small peripheral player. In many ways they looked to us for answers during the years. We are lucky, therfore, to have created that relationship with them.