Minister for the Environment, Noel Dempsey, would have found himself playing the role of Britain's John Prescott at the Kyoto climate change summit, if Ireland hadn't slipped out of the EU "troika" last July. The troika negotiated on the EU's behalf with the Americans and Japanese in hammering out a deal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Facing Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Britain were two of the toughest trade negotiators in the business, America's Stu Eizenstat and Melinda Kimble, both of whom are accustomed to clobbering smaller countries over the head to get access to their markets for American products, from soya beans to semi-conductors.
Dempsey was "out of the loop", however, even though he would have quite enjoyed being in the thick of things. After all, he was one of FF's chief negotiators in cobbling together two coalition deals at home - one with Labour, the other with the PDs. After those encounters, even the US might have been a pushover.