John Gerard Hanafin (Fianna Fail)

Last week the Taoiseach spoke in this House for the second time in a short period. It is an honour when a Taoiseach or former Taoiseach speaks in this House and I commend the Leader on making the arrangements for the debate.

On this occasion the Taoiseach spoke on Europe and many issues arose from the debate. We should learn lessons from the debate on the proposed EU constitution and any further referenda should be well debated beforehand. Deleting references to God from that constitution was political correctness gone mad and a fundamental error. This is a matter to note for the future.

The Leader might consider a debate on accession countries in the future. Issues concerning Turkey were raised on a number of occasions during last week's debate. Looking east, Russia is part of the greater European plain. The Rivers Volga and Don are European rivers, the Urals are European mountains and Minsk, Kiev, St. Petersburg and Moscow are European cities.