Voters in Ireland will be faced with the most important decision they have faced for decades when the Lisbon Treaty referendum is put before them later this year, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Michael Martin has said.
During a two-hour debate on last year’s No vote, Mr Martin said it has had “enormous implications for Ireland”, and raised “serious doubts” amongst international investors and financiers “about how Ireland sees itself within the EU”.
“Those doubts are deep, and damaging: Particularly damaging in the current economic climate. It is in our national interest that these uncertainties be dispelled as soon as possible,” Mr Martin told delegates on the opening of the Fianna Fáil ardfheis.
Unusually, Taoiseach Brian Cowen stayed for the entire debate that also involved Mr Martin, academics Professor Richard Sinnott, Peadar O’Brion and Brigid Laffan, and Minister of State Dick Roche.
Opening the ardfheis, the Taoiseach said he would only make the final decision about whether, or not to put the treaty back to the people for a second time once a final agreement on clarifications and assurances is reached with EU partners.
If that happens, he said Fianna Fáil will campaign actively: “We will learn the lessons of last year. Our core belief is that the future of this country demands that we be full, positive and active members of the European Union.
Speaking as the Irish Independentpoll showed that two-thirds now favour ratifying the Treaty, Mr Cowen said the Government has had to work hard to identify "a clear negotiating position" with other EU states to accommodate Irish voters' concerns.
“Ireland can’t seek to be on both sides of every argument in a debate – which is the reality of many of the EU campaigns. When our partners say to us, ‘What do the Irish people want?’ they are asking for specifics, not contradictory arguments and general phrases.”
The decision of the December EU summit to agree that every state will continue to hold onto a Commissioner was “a huge achievement in its own right, given the efforts over many years to reduce the number of Commissioners”.
During a vigorous debate, one delegate expressed concerns about the ability of party members to explain the Treaty on door-to-door canvasses: “How do we sell it to the Irish people?” he asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs.
However, the delegate went on to say that voters who were last year concerned about Irish neutrality and the loss of a commissioner for some years were now worried “about whether they will have a job, or no job”.
Professor Bridget Laffan of UCD said that the next referendum “is about Ireland’s relationship with Europe and whether we’re in or out, and it’s as stark as that”.
She said that at the last referendum “if you’d landed from Mars you would have thought Joe Higgins was Taoiseach of the country”.
She referred to the “access to primary radio and TV that was given to people who were essentially either non-representative or weakly representative. I think Pana (Peace and Neutrality Alliance) is the one to think about. They get a lot of exposure and at their last annual general meeting there were 25 people there. They get such access because of our rules in terms of balance. I think there should be balance for non political parties, but access by political parties should be based on their democratically elected ratios in the Oireachtas. That at least would reflect their standing."
She also said the extent of the domination of the British press in Irish media was extremely serious, and its “real core euro-scepticism”.
Access to the facts should not be “driven by media influence from another jurisdiction”.
She referred to the Sunday Timeswhich "didn't have a single favourable article about Lisbon in that campaign. It was a deliberate editorial decision that 'we're going down this road'."
”We've got to be extremely careful in a way that we have access to the facts and that it's not driven by media influences from another jurisdiction. There are real dangers here in that drip-feed of real core euroscepticism, that comes out in the British media and it holds sway here.”
Minister of State for Europe Dick Roche said it would be the “ultimate irony if a British euro-sceptic rag could come into this country and skew a public decision”.
Associate Professor Richard Sinnott of UCD said research had shown that “the more people know about the EU the more they support it”. He told delegates that “treaties are complex but the issues can be explained in simple terms” and the campaign would be a “process of persuading people and reassuring them”.
Peadar O’Broin, editor of the ‘consolidated version of the treaties as amended by the Treaty of Lisbon’ said “the real issue is about communication rather than complexity”.
