The EU Council of Ministers will vote on the sixth framework programme, which is a good programme, at the end of this month. I want to ensure that the Irish delegation votes against the funding of research on embryos and embryonic stem cells. It speaks volumes that this issue is being discussed at the European Union under the headings of trade and competitiveness. Whether by accident or design, this implies that human embryos are commodities or consumer goods. Two years ago Ireland could have joined Italy, Germany and Austria to ensure that embryonic stem cell research was excluded from the programme, but it made no effort to do so. Now, the Government seems to take the view that as long as destructive embryonic research is not happening here, Ireland will not stand in the way of it happening elsewhere in Europe.