Ireland for Europe group set about getting a yes to Lisbon

WITH a month left to go until the second Lisbon vote, it’s looking like the yes side will reverse last year’s result and this week, the Ireland for Europe group launched their Clare campaign.
Former hurling star, Brian Lohan lent his support to the launch, which was held in Shannon on Wednesday but declined to speak about the upcoming poll. Scariff based Michael McNamara – who ran as an independent candidate in June’s European election – was also at the launch and he said the referendum hasn’t been won yet.

“I’m very hopeful that it will pass but there’s no room for complacency. It is a very difficult document to sell and I think we have a large absence of trust in the country at the moment. There are no moral forces that are trusted any more. Politics is crumbling, the church has its problems and people are very reluctant to trust anybody. And people are very disenchanted, they’re unhappy with the general economic situation but in my view, it would be almost like cutting off your nose to spite your face if it were to be rejected.”
He acknowledged that the text of the Lisbon Treaty is all but impenetrable to the ordinary man or woman, and he feels that’s a challenge the yes side must overcome.
“I think it’s the fundamental problem. European treaties generally are very technical documents and people don’t want to take the time and can’t be expected to. It’s almost like a Finance Bill that goes through the Dáil. People know what the Budget is and how it affects them but to actually sit down and read the Finance Act that comes out in any given year is very, very difficult, even for lawyers, just as the Lisbon Treaty is.
“But it is what it is; it’s a technical treaty that operates on a European legal level, it’s not a Constitution for Europe, the idea of a European Constitution has been abandoned and it’s not a readable document like the Irish Constitution or the proposed Constitution for Europe was.”
Both Ireland and Clare have benefited from the EU, he claimed, while he feels support from Europe is absolutely vital now.
“People now realise how dependent we are on Europe economically. Our current economic problems and the fact that Ireland is receiving so much money, is effectively being kept afloat by the European Central Bank at the moment as we go through these temporary difficulties. People realise that and see how deep and how important the partnership is to Ireland. It has hugely benefited Ireland and benefited Clare.”
Mr McNamara felt that a large amount of misinformation sank the referendum last summer. “I think that people realise now that there were a lot of myths perpetrated the last time around that were unjustified. There has been a far more concerted effort this time around to explain the treaty and I think people realise that some of their concerns were unfounded the last time for example conscription, abortion areas like that, which the Lisbon Treaty has nothing to do with. I was in Scariff last night and I was told categorically that the Lisbon Treaty would change succession rights and I just want to nail that now. The Lisbon Treaty will have no impact on Irish farmers or anyone else’s right to make a will and to leave their property how they wish.”
There has been some criticism of having two votes in little more than one year but Niall Green of the National Commission of Ireland for Europe, said the country has gone to the polls more than once on other issues. “Let’s remember Ireland has voted twice and in one case three times on things in the past. We voted twice on PR and three times on abortion I think. The principle is the same.”
He accepted that the gap between the two Lisbon votes is unusually tight but he feels that’s as it should be. “We have a very tight time limit on European decision making. As things stand at the moment, without Lisbon, we will have to appoint a Commission under the Nice Treaty. If Lisbon doesn’t pass, the next European Commission will be under the Nice Treaty and Ireland probably won’t have a Commissioner. If Lisbon passes then we will have a Commissioner.”
Mr Green feels there are several reasons for voting yes. “The Lisbon Treaty will make Europe more democratic, more transparent, the Dáil will be brought into the process of decision-making, it will strengthen the union and allow it to deal with some of the big global issues like the environment, climate change, the drugs issue and in all kinds of ways a strengthened Europe will be better for Ireland.”