Bertie Ahern
There were a few hundred people involved in that - parliamentarians, elected parliamentarians, officials, governments - working together through all the rules that have been there since the Treaty of Rome to bring forward a constitution that set out clearly what it is that Europe wants to do.
There is a Russian Summit later on this year, which I'll co-chair, where they're looking for equal access, they have not got that.
There are people who are associated with political groupings still involved in paramilitarism, not near as much, we're thankful for what's been achieved. But as long as it happens it poisons the democratic system.
There are a lot of pluses but I think that a community and a country like Turkey that will come into the community, it brings different cultures.
Then it opens up, I think, what the questioner's saying - will the opportunities of movement apply then? - Yes they will. Will the opportunities that are open to everybody else apply to them? - Yes they will.
The Union is complicated, complicated obviously because it has different frameworks, it has different institutions, it has a parliament, it has a commission, it has member states, in some sense it's intergovernmental.
The timing of the bombings was clearly designed to wreak the greatest level of havoc and carnage. They are an attack on the democratic process and cannot be justified by any political cause.
The EU law cannot override what is in somebody's constitution and particularly I cannot have any say where they have not competences and of course they have not got competence everywhere.
The educational council have been working on this and doing this but it is an important area.
The charter of fundamental rights - what rights does a citizen of Europe have. And putting those together in a readable document that can be read by anybody who is not a constitutional lawyer.
The administration have been very helpful to us - President Bush has in Northern Ireland - he's continued on the policies of the previous administration. And we're dealing with EU issues. It is an honour that he comes to our country.
That's why we have constitutional amendments when you have a treaty so that you take on board the treaty.
That is standard negotiation but we have to find resolutions to it.
So you cannot give a commitment that you would not go back, I think, one country can't hold up everything, you have to consider your position.
So it has allowed us to develop, to grow and expand. It doesn't mean we've eliminated every problem in society, you never will. But it has certainly changed the whole spirit and the whole wealth of the country and the quality of life.
Quite frankly it wasn't a procedure that I liked very much because regardless of the argument if there was no good argument against the 'no' side or it could have been the 'yes' side, had to think up some spurious arguments and equally put that to the people.
People understand European issues far better because if you've had a campaign, obviously the issues have been debated and problems like this debated in the media, people have been canvassed by political activists about it and so there's a greater understanding and an affinity to it.
People join because they want to join, nobody is coerced into joining. It is based around freedom and solidarity of human rights, good governance.
People have been moving around Europe - in the early centuries, in the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth centuries Irish monks and Irish educationalists were moving around Europe.
Other countries do as well, so it's up to everybody and every country under their own constitution provision and many countries have a situation where parliament delegated that responsibility - in our case the law has always been that you have a referendum.