EU: The Taoiseach was welcomed with open arms in Strasbourg, writesDenis Staunton.
Goodwill was everywhere - well, almost everywhere - in Strasbourg as the European Parliament welcomed the Taoiseach at the start of Ireland's EU presidency.
With many MEPs expressing relief that they would no longer have to endure Mr Silvio Berlusconi's idiosyncratic sense of humour, even the North's Democratic Unionist Party leader rolled out the welcome mat.
"This may be surprised to find me welcoming the prime minister of the Irish Republic but he is going to be so busy for the next six months that we won't have to tolerate his presence at meetings in Northern Ireland," he said.
Mr Ahern thanked Dr Paisley and said that he would follow the DUP leader's example by combining a number of roles to ensure he could remain engaged with Northern Ireland.
"I have always greatly admired you. You have always managed to be a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly, of Westminster and the European Parliament," he said.
Mr Ahern looked weary at times during the three-hour debate as he listened to tortuous translations of the sometimes incoherent interventions from the floor.
There were a number of familiar faces to reassure him, however, including that of the leader of the Fianna Fáil group in the European Parliament, Mr Gerard Collins.
Mr Collins reminded the Taoiseach that they both signed the Maastricht Treaty more than a decade ago, before going slightly off-message to warn against a hasty resumption of talks on the constitutional treaty.
"A hastily reconvened summit and a second failure could plunge the European Union into a crisis," he warned.
If this was, as one observer suggested, Mr Collins's "don't-burst- the-Union" speech, it appeared to have little effect on the Taoiseach, who stared blankly ahead throughout.
As speaker after speaker praised Ireland and expressed confidence in the Taoiseach's negotiating acumen, an unhappy little drama was unfolding outside the chamber.
A distraught Ms Nuala Ahern, the Green MEP for Leinster, had discovered early in the morning that she had been dropped from her parliamentary group's list of speakers in the debate.
Ms Ahern blamed her Dublin colleague, Ms Patricia McKenna, whom she accused of betrayal and of using underhand methods to ensure that she was the only Irish Green to speak.
Ms McKenna insisted that the group was simply applying standard rules in allocating speaking time and expressed bewilderment at Ms Ahern's reaction.
Ms McKenna told the Taoiseach that he should not be bullied into completing negotiations on the constitutional treaty during the Irish presidency.
"Mr Ahern may be of the belief that if the Constitution is agreed under an Irish Presidency it would have better chance of success in an Irish referendum.
"But he knows the reason that many people in Ireland are critical of the EU constitution is mainly because of its military implications.
"People with grave concerns about this issue will not be swayed simply because the constitution was finalised during the Irish presidency," she said.
Mr Ahern took no notice of her.
Ms Ahern might do worse than to do likewise.