Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State, who is the son of one of Ireland's earlier European statesmen. The other place to which Senator Brian Hayes referred, where he was speaking at the weekend, was Tipperary. We were commemorating the Emmet bicentenary and discussing Ireland's place among the nations.

I join every other speaker in congratulating the Minister of State, Deputy Roche, Deputy John Bruton, Proinsias De Rossa, MEP, and the team from the Department of Foreign Affairs on all their hard work in the Convention which appears to have been pretty successful. Having participated in similar forums myself, I am sure there were intense discussions between officials and politicians about the right way forward on certain issues.

I also pay tribute to the role played by Senator Maurice Hayes in the Forum on Europe, which has been travelling throughout the country and is due in Sligo next Monday, in explaining the issues and not allowing the consciousness of European issues to drop back again after the two referendums on the Nice treaty. That has been very useful work.

We have a simpler and clearer text. Most of us would agree that the Maastricht and Amsterdam treaties were barely comprehensible to most diplomats, let alone ordinary people. There were many cross-references.