 Mr. Chairman, Minister, ladies and gentlemen, Brendan asked me to say a few wise words. I'll do few, but I don't do wisdom. Can I say a few warm words to thank Brendan for his lecture and to thank him for his friendship over 50 years in that my father and himself pursued a very similar agenda, albeit in different parties from the late 60s onwards. In the last 20 years, in terms of the European agenda, where you are totally adidum, and also to this institute, which you have played such a role in setting up, the hugely important role that it now plays in Ireland, and my father appreciated it. He found huge intellectual stimulation in the last 20 years in coming here and participating. I think that the contribution which you have made and which he hugely appreciated to Irish institutions is greatly underestimated, but I think it will be appreciated in the future. You talked about how my father was given free reign by Liam Cosgrave to set out the principles of Irish foreign policy, but what I think was important, and you mentioned, that it was adopted unanimously by the Doyle. He elucidated them, but it was the continuity of Irish policy on Europe. It was the policy of Lamasse. It was the policy of Lynch. It was the policy of Cosgrave and continuing through to today. I think it is interesting the continuity of Irish policy with respect to the EU over such a long period across parties. It was interesting. We got into a lot of difficulties recently that the outgoing Minister of Finance, Brian Lenehan, in his engagement with Europe played a very positive role and handed over the baton so successfully to the current minister. Did you see this continuity? We haven't always been effective in how we've done it, and what my father, I think, my father's huge enthusiasm, he saw Europe as liberation, and it was in his elaboration of the policy. The sense of fun and enjoyment he got from elaborating foreign policy. A former private secretary told me that he came back from a cabinet meeting on one occasion and said, cabinet government is great fun. On that occasion, himself and Michael Leary of the Labour Party had persuaded the government to increase the tax on hunting dogs, much to the chagra of the Thyshuk and Justin Keating, but in more substantial way he managed his enthusiasm and his enjoyment carried true to his engagement with all his other European partners. However, you did say that it was a stroke of genius appointing a Minister for Foreign Affairs, but I can tell you the next morning in the Fitzgerald House out, it was a disaster. Now, my wife Etna didn't help by telling my father that the roads of Ireland were safer for having him taken off those roads. I thought it was funny, but he didn't, but it was my mother's consternation because she had never allowed my father, when he worked for Erlingus, to fly. She was terrified of flying, that this was a disaster in the Fitzgerald household. And my father, Julie, headed off to Brussels by boat and train with a special branch escort from Holly Head through to Dover. After a fortnight, my father said, this can't go on, and my mother said, if you're going to die in a plane, I'll die with you. And the compromise was that she flew with them. But it was also in terms of, he did say that on one occasion she played, probably more than one, but she played an important role when there was an informal Foreign Affairs Council meeting in a Schloss in Germany with Schmidt. And my mother at two in the morning sang, it's a long way to Tipperary with Schmidt and a number of other First World War songs and whatever my father could do, he couldn't sing. And she fulfilled that role. And actually, private secretary said that on another occasion, my father was going on an important mission to meet the Austrian Foreign Minister. And the secretary had told the private secretary, you're to tell the minister he must go to the opera, that this is vital national importance, that he goes to the opera. So my father, Julie, went to four and a half hours of opera, which he hated. But the problem was the Austrian Foreign Minister didn't turn up. And he thought, what's the crisis? The Austrian Foreign Minister next morning said, to my father, he hoped, my father didn't mind that he actually hated opera. So my father went back and he lectured long and hard, the private secretary's role is to protect the minister from the secretary who wants to go to the opera. So my father wasn't big into music, but in terms of the engagement, you need a social engagement, not just an intellectual engagement. And that is something which, minister, I know you are continuing, that it's an important role. It's not something that is widely appreciated outside, but it is how you get things done. You mentioned my father's Francophile background. That proved, I think, very important to him, a big asset, where he was able to communicate not just with his French counterpart, but beyond the French counterpart with the wider administration in French. Now, he was told on one occasion that his French was very good, but my mother's accent was better, which he also didn't appreciate, but was also true. And he did say that on one occasion he learned a lesson when he corrected the French grammar in a draft, and Giscard de Stein did not appreciate that, and he learned, be the smartest boy in the class is not a good idea if you want to make friends, and that's what it's about. You mentioned one other thing, and I think that it's relevant, and you would have been very concerned at what's happening today. My father's role as he saw it as marriage counsellor, trying to reconcile the United Kingdom with Europe and vice versa. And Minister, you and the government have a very difficult task, that it is important for us that a reconciliation is found to this unhappy marriage. How you do it, I don't know, and we cannot be held responsible for it, but on top of everything else, it doesn't make life easy. But it was something which, over my father's career, was hugely important to him, that his father had grown up in the east of London. He talked at one stage, I remember him talking about how if his father and mother had stayed in London rather than move back to Dublin, would he have ended up in British politics? He didn't think he would have ended up in British Conservative Party, but his engagement with the United Kingdom and his ability to communicate there was a big asset to him, that he could go over the head of the British government to a much wider audience in Britain to persuade them that Ireland was right and what needs to be done in Northern Ireland. Finally, in the text which you sent me, you said the rule is to be a contributor all of the time and a demandor some of the time. I'm not sure whether my father would have used the phrase demandor, but it was to engage in finding European solutions and in his autobiography he talks about how you get the European solution and then you whisper, can you do something for me on the side? I've been very helpful and that is how, as a small country, that was how he perceived it and I think even today it is, thumping the table isn't how you get where you want to from a small country. It is by social engagement, by being a good citizen and then showing how good citizenship may have certain benefits for Ireland. So I wish you all the best minister and thank you so much, Brendan, for your memorial lecture which I found fascinating for your friendship and for all the work that you have done through the Institute in the last 20 years. Thank you.