Kathleen O'Meara (Labour)

I commend the Minister of State on his clear and extensive overview of the achievements of the Irish Presidency and I appreciate that he concentrated on the matter of the EU constitution. As the countries of the EU prepare to put the constitution before the people in the coming years, it will be a matter of significant concern to all politicians and not only Government politicians. I must also commend the Minister of State and all his colleagues in the Government including the Taoiseach, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister of State, Deputy Kitt, for all their work over the past six months and in the planning stage prior to that. It would be churlish not to recognise the extraordinary dedication and commitment of Government members such as the Minister of State, Deputy Roche, and of our public servants. To achieve agreement on the constitution and on the nomination of a new President of the European Commission and to oversee in such a stylish and commendable fashion the accession of the ten new member states was a great achievement. We can be proud of the Government's performance in its Presidency of the EU.

The agreement on the constitution is the crowning achievement of the Irish Presidency but the work must now begin to ensure that the public is informed of its content and will support it at referendum and there are lessons from the past in that regard. I hope there will not be a repetition of the debacle that was the first referendum on the Nice treaty. Some of the public may be aware that a new constitution was agreed but an even smaller number know what it is about. I estimate that very few people had a clue what was involved in attaining agreement on the constitution and I appeal to the Minister of State and his colleagues, particularly those who are in the know on this matter, to recognise that they are in a minority.

I advise against the use of jargon, such as the term "the principles of conferral, subsidiarity and proportionality" which the Minister of State used in his speech. These types of phrases are fine when one knows what they mean but they mean nothing to the average citizen or indeed to many well-informed citizens. We will lose the argument by conducting the discussion at such an elevated level that it excludes the majority of people. We need to pitch the discussion at a level which people will understand. Perhaps the Minister of State might suggest to the National Forum on Europe the possibility of visiting primary and secondary level schools over the next two years to inform students about the content of the constitution, what it means for them, its wider context and the history of its development. Otherwise we will be faced with a situation where a dearth of knowledge will lead to a dissemination of deliberate misinformation and misinterpretation and the Government will find itself in a defensive position and with a problem on its hands.

I ask the Minister of State to consider how the constitution will be explained rather than sold to the people. The Government must set out the practical implications of the ratification of the constitution, which is a single document applicable right across the EU. I hope the constitution will be met positively both here and in the other member states although I am cognisant of the fact that the context is always political and the political context in which the referendums take place across Europe will have a bearing on the results.

The stewardship provided by the Irish Presidency has been commendable. Ms Brigid Laffan, the Jean Monnet professor of European politics in the Dublin European Institute at UCD, writes about the Presidency in The Irish Times today. She offers a good overview of the management of the Presidency, the meticulous attention to detail and the logistics involved in planning it, the ability to manage the political agenda, particularly after the terrorist attacks in Madrid, and the manner in which the Taoiseach, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Ministers of State conducted business. She notes the key role played by Ms Anne Anderson, Ireland's permanent representative to the EU and the first female member of the high-level Committee of Permanent Representatives. It is good to see a senior female diplomat playing such an important part in one of Ireland's best political performances in recent years and it is a testimony to her diplomatic and administrative skills.

Ms Laffan notes in her article that the organisation of the Presidency would not have been so well implemented had the decentralisation programme proposed by the Government been in place. According to her:

The model of decentralisation that is being pursued at present will exacerbate co-operation problems and would have made the management of the Presidency very difficult. No modern State attempting to govern a complex society would embark on this model of decentralisation.

That is an argument for a different day. Considering the Presidency was such a major success, one must examine why it worked.