Page "Dermot Ahern" Paragraph 10

Ahern spoke of the ' Third Phase ' in Irish foreign policy which he calls " Active Neutrality ".

This is a vision of non-aligned Ireland taking up its international responsibilities by acting as a bridge between the developed and developing world, and by acting as a world leader in conflict and disasters.

In this regard he took an extremely outspoken line on the crisis in Darfur, calling on the international community to ' wake up to the reality of rape, murder and destruction in the region.

More recently Ahern has announced the establishment of an Irish Volunteer Corps and a Rapid Response Corps which would harness existing expertise amongst the Irish public to assist in the developing world.

He has stated that, in foreign policy terms, ' the single greatest, economic, environmental, geopolitical issue now facing us is climate change.