Madam, - Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has just published his memoirs. As the leader of one of the most influential countries in the EU from 1998 to 2005 and as a committed European, he must rank as a key observer of the political scene during that period.
We Irish like to think that we exercise a disproportionate weight within the EU, with Bertie Ahern credited in our media with almost superhuman powers of negotiation and conciliation. The last Irish presidency achieved agreement on two highly contentious issues, the draft EU Constitution and the EU presidency. Mr Ahern was feted in the Irish media as the "negotiator supreme". The Irish media told us of the standing ovations from his fellow premiers which greeted each of his triumphs.
How strange, then, that Bertie doesn't rate even a single mention in the Schröder memoirs, much of which are devoted to European and EU politics.
Perhaps this is an appropriate wake-up call to remind us that the "Celtic Tiger" economy actually represents only 1 per cent of the overall EU economy. In reality we are only the pimple on the backside of the EU economy and our politicians and media should stop deluding us that everyone else in Europe is looking at us with envy and to us for leadership on how to build a successful economy. - Yours, etc,
PETER MOLLOY, Glenageary, Co Dublin.