Mary Henry (Independent)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I want to congratulate all those who have been involved in the negotiations. They have been conducted on behalf not only of Ireland but of Europe. This is a particularly attractive aspect of the way the negotiators have gone about things.

I regretted very much the fact that – as I said at the Forum on Europe – all the Irish politicians who went out to negotiate were men. I would not like the people of Europe to think that Irish women were not interested in the future of Europe. Person for person, Irish women have gained more from membership of the EU than Irish men, particularly with regard to social policy. I hope that a splendid number of the officials who went out from the Department of Foreign Affairs, and the other Government Departments, were women. No doubt the Minister of State made sure of that, so that the balance was redressed.

I congratulate Senator Maurice Hayes on his chairing of the Forum on Europe. I had the privilege of attending many of the sessions, both in Dublin Castle and around the country, and they were very good experiences. Senator Ormonde and others made the point that we will have to explain the treaty of Dublin to the general public so that, as Senator McDowell so colourfully put it, we will not again be running across hot coals in our efforts to get the treaty accepted by the people. It is terribly important. None of the political parties went far enough in trying to explain the Nice treaty initially, but we made a very good effort the second time around. There is no good reason why we can not do as well on the next occasion.

We need to take a special interest in the new countries joining the European Union. I say that as someone who has been a member of several inter-parliamentary groups which contain members of the European family from outside the European Union. The countries which have been accepted are very excited about access to the European Union, and those still waiting for acceptance are doing their very best to comply with the rules of the club, so that they will not have to wait too much longer. It is a privilege as well as a responsibility to try to bring those countries forward as democratic states. I hope that we in this country, both officially within the European Union and in other bodies outside Europe but connected with it, will try to promote democracy in those areas.

Once again I raise the issue of women in Europe. I have been travelling to Slovakia for some years and it has been really well worthwhile. Women's groups there managed to promote cross-border co-operation and conversation in an extraordinarily successful fashion. I would encourage anyone involved in organisations in other countries to reciprocate by expressing the views they have in order to become involved in what is going on in these countries. It is worthwhile to give a little guidance at this stage.