Brian Stanley (Laois, Independent)
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I want to come to that. The Nice treaty, roughly speaking as I recall it, was rejected by two thirds of voters and passed by one third of voters. It failed the first time. There was a lot of back and forth. In fairness to the Government at the time, it put the triple lock in place and that was the guarantee. That is when it went the other way and the two thirds against and one third for swung the other way in the next vote in 2001. People were satisfied with that. That was a guarantee given.

This is now a fundamental change to that. The triple lock was the guarantee. Regardless of who is in government, the double lock means the Government will decide because the Government always has a majority in the Dáil. A Dáil vote will count for nothing. That is window dressing. Regardless of who is in government, whether it is those of us who are in opposition now or those who are in government, the Government of the day will carry it. As the legislation was framed, it completely disregards the will of the Irish people.

In relation to the veto, the UN General Assembly can also pass a resolution. While I am aware it is not legally binding, it carries a certain amount of political clout. It would be very difficult to ignore it as I think there are 190 countries in the UN General Assembly. Could Ms Maguire address that?