Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)

Senator Terry Leyden made a number of points in his original intervention, but his proposal that the flags be flown in public places nationwide is excellent and one I will pursue. I agree with him as it affects these Houses also. It was a great source of pride this week to see the flags flying here and we must remind ourselves of the key role we played in the enlargement of the European Union with the accession of ten member states in 2004. It was an emotional time that signified for me the reunification of Europe and so on. Ireland can be extremely proud of the role it played at the time.

On the question of holding a major event to mark 40 years, I agree entirely. We are considering holding a public conference to explore Ireland's relationship with the European Union and how we want to shape its future. We need to do some soul searching about that because I am getting tired of the tit-for-tat debates. We do not debate European issues in a meaningful way. We only debate them when we hold a referendum-----