Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail)

Like colleagues on all sides of the House, I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Roche. I endorse what has been said. This is a proud day for him as Minister of State with responsibility for European Affairs and for Ireland generally. This is the culmination of a journey which began following the Nice treaty negotiations. We are now, effectively, completing the process of ensuring the ratification of the accession states.

In the context of our EU Presidency, I hope that accession day – 1 May next year – will be inclusive. I hope local communities will be encouraged to identify with accession day, particularly those towns and villages in which citizens of those countries currently work and live. I hope such places will make a special effort to commemorate accession day and it is appropriate for the Minister of State's Department to co-ordinate these events. We have a great reputation for having a party at the drop of a hat and it would go a long way towards addressing the points made so eloquently by Senator Quinn about engaging our citizens in the European experience. This proposal may seem somewhat trite but as we have commemorations for everything else, why should we not mark the end of the journey which we undertook in partnership with the people and celebrate it in the traditional Irish manner?