Rinne Seanadóir Ryan tagairt ar stair na hEorpa agus chuir sé ceist faoin daonlathas. Tá níos mó na trí stát ina raibh daonlathas ann sula tháinig sé go hÉireann. I have one thing to say to Senator Ryan about democracy. It is no accident that Greece only joined the EU after the despicable Colonel Papadopoulos left, that Spain joined after Franco was dumped, that Portugal joined after Salazar and that Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania are joining after the collapse of the Soviet empire. Pluralist democracy is the price, first and foremost under the Copenhagen criteria, to enter the club. It is a wonderful thing to remember, even with the distance of years, the maturing of our new State with the handover of power to Éamon de Valera and Fianna Fáil in the early 1930s. This was an act of mature pluralism in a maturing democracy and the same thing is happening all over central and eastern Europe with Governments of the left and right. Something good, deep and abiding is happening and the EU will help it last. This is the power of creative reconciliation.