Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)

I and my party, Fine Gael, are proud to support the Twenty-eighth Amendment of the Constitution Bill. We support it because the Lisbon treaty is good for the nation and it is good for the people. It would certainly serve Fine Gael's short-term political interests to oppose the Bill proposed by and negotiated by the Government. However, we are putting the potential for short-term political opportunism aside in order to put the national interest first. We believe it is in the interest of the people to secure a "Yes" vote and Fine Gael will be playing its part in convincing the people that this is the case.

It is important to put the treaty in context. Let us cast our minds back to Ireland before we joined the European Union or European Economic Community as it was in 1973. In the period between Ireland's gaining independence and our joining the EEC, we became a closed, inward looking, insular nation. We were a nation that had thrown off a major colonial power in this country and our natural response was to draw into ourselves and shut the door behind us. We ourselves, sinn féin ironically, characterised the Ireland of the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s. At that time, however, we had in reality no meaningful economic independence whatsoever. We were absolutely dependent on the United Kingdom as our dominant export market. Our economic policy was purely dependent on that of the UK. When sterling was devalued, there was no option open to the Government other than to follow suit and the Irish punt would automatically be devalued within hours. Clearly, if England sneezed, Ireland caught the cold.

Our insular economic policies and our absolute dependency on the UK led to the type of economy that can barely be imagined today and has not been experienced by most of my generation. We had enormous rates of unemployment. We experienced depression in the extreme. There was no growth, high emigration and a very depressing and bleak picture for the future. Then we joined the EEC and things began to change dramatically and quite rapidly. The EU and in particular the Common Market has provided a framework through which Irish business has thrived. Ireland has managed to gain confidence and independence by accessing new markets. The EU has opened up enormous opportunities for Ireland to thrive. The new markets opened up to us have seen the Irish economy benefit beyond any expectation we might have had on joining the EEC.

Ireland has been a beneficiary of European funds since our accession to the EEC. Receipts from the EU budget during that period amount to a staggering €58 billion in total, or 3.3% of our GDP. We have received billions of euro in Structural Funds, which built roads and railways that have contributed to our prosperity. While there have been frustrations, dealing with the bureaucracy, red tape and some of the stringent requirements of the EU system, overall it has benefited the country beyond all belief.

What will this particular treaty achieve that will be so significant? Many people are asking whether the treaty is really necessary. Previous treaties focused on clear and crucial initiatives of the EU. At first it was dealing with the Single Market. As it progressed, it dealt with the common currency, the euro. More recently we voted for the Nice treaty to support the enlargement of the European Union, allowing 12 new member states from the eastern bloc to join the EU and benefit from it in the same way as we have done. We now face a new juncture in the development of the European Union. We face new challenges and the Lisbon reform treaty is designed to assist Ireland and other member states in facing up to these challenges.

These challenges are numerous. They are the challenges that affect each and every citizen of this country. Anybody who believes this referendum, this Bill or Europe is not relevant to their lives should think again because they are simply wrong. The challenges that face us are relevant to every citizen. They include the challenge of global warming and climate change, the threat to energy security in Ireland and the rest of Europe, the challenges associated with Third World hunger and peacekeeping and peace-enforcement missions in our neighbouring regions.

Critically, the treaty also addresses perhaps the greatest threat to the Irish people, that of the global economic downturn and the prospect of job losses in this country. The Lisbon treaty focuses on making Europe more competitive and on the completion of the Single Market, with the prospect of greater economic security for all of us in the context of our place in Europe in the future.

While the treaty proposes many important changes in tackling those challenges and in dealing with the functioning of the European Union, it does not, as Deputy Timmins outlined, interfere in any substantial way with how power is divided within the European Union and its member states or with the substantial powers that are already vested in the European Union. Very importantly, this treaty proposes institutional changes which will deal with some of the problems that have been associated with the EU for some time. It will improve the role of democracy by strengthening national parliaments and the European Parliament and by enhancing the role of MEPs. It will downsize the Commission to make it work more efficiently and to make it less unwieldy. It will also create a permanent figurehead and Chair of the European Council who can ensure that there is consistency in the work of the European Presidencies. These changes are good for Europe and particularly for Ireland.

The detractors from this treaty, from the extreme left and right, are the same people who opposed our accession to the EEC in 1973. At that time those same people warned of a real doomsday scenario. They claimed we would have our sovereignty negated, that we would become subsumed into a giant European super state and that the children of Ireland would be conscripted to a massive war-mongering army. The "anti" campaigners never referred to the huge export markets that would open up to us, nor to the confidence and self-sufficiency that membership of the European Union would lead to in this country. They never mentioned how the Union would enhance equality and workers' rights, while strengthening competition and ending monopolies. They never acknowledged the peace and prosperity that would come from our membership of the EU. Fine Gael did so at that time and continues to do so.

Today, the same people are proffering the same old, tired and discredited arguments. They are peddling the same old misinformation and it is time that this propaganda be exposed for what it is. Let us look at the myth being put forward, that Ireland will become part of a militarised war-mongering Europe and that our neutrality will effectively become a thing of the past. We heard this in 1972, prior to joining the EEC. We heard it again in 1986, before the Single European Act. We also heard it in relation to the Maastricht treaty in 1992, the Amsterdam treaty in 1997, during the first Nice referendum campaign in 2001 and the second successful Nice treaty campaign in 2002. On every single occasion they have been wrong so why should we believe them now?

It is time to listen to the facts rather than the scare-mongering spin, and here are some of the facts. On the issue of neutrality, Ireland will retain its veto on all matters concerning European defence policy. We cannot be forced into anything of which we do not want to be part. The treaties will continue to recognise that EU policy "shall not prejudice the specific character of the security and defence policy of certain Member States", a clear reference to Ireland. The constitutional prohibition in this country on joining an EU common defence force remains in place. The triple lock means that no Irish troops will be deployed without a UN mandate. That position is very clear. These three levels of protection from the treaty and the Constitution mean that no amount of spin from "No" campaigners can undermine the true facts of this scenario.

I am not particularly interested in what we will not be able to do but am more interested in what the common foreign and security policy will enable us to do. I am concerned about what we will be able to do through our membership of the EU. Such a policy allows us to face the challenges of the 21st century in the knowledge that we are facing these challenges from a secure base at home and that we are facing them abroad with a capability that matches our moral position. This is extremely important in the context of any negotiations we have with other major powers in the world. We only have to cast our minds back to the invasion of Iraq when the European Union was so divided on that issue.

The changes introduced by the Lisbon treaty will equip the European Union to undertake widely supported crisis management and peacekeeping tasks around the world and particularly in neighbouring regions. The current UN-authorised EU mission to Chad, in which Ireland is playing a leading role, is a prime example of the European Union's activities in this area of common security policy. The mission will provide security for the provision of humanitarian relief to hundreds of thousands of refugees and displaced persons, many fleeing persecution in Darfur. Surely that is a meritorious activity for Irish troops to be part of and I am proud of it.

Other missions with Irish involvement have included police training in the Palestinian territories, monitoring a peace process between rebels and Government in Aceh, Indonesia and providing support to the police authorities in Bosnia. There have been more than 20 such missions since 2003. The European Union is receiving more and more requests for assistance and it must be in a position to react. I would question the patriotism of those in this country who claim to be patriots while at the same time detracting from what our troops are doing abroad in terms of their fine peacekeeping and humanitarian work and criticising the common foreign and security policy of the European Union, which is simply trying to ensure that the security of our troops is safeguarded.

The reform treaty also extends the EU's potential in terms of conflict prevention missions, post conflict missions and so on. It introduces the idea of permanent structured co-operation, which has been totally misrepresented by certain factions. This will enable our troops to ensure that when they are on a peacekeeping mission with French, Dutch or other European troops they are able to work with them. It will ensure that they have equipment that is suitable and will be able to train in advance to ensure there is harmony between the troops from different member states. I do not see how that could possibly be a bad thing. It is in the interests of the security and safety of the good men and women who represent this country abroad.

Another myth being propagated by the "No" side, particularly by the so-called pro-business elements of the "No" side, is that this treaty will undermine business in this country. I wonder where they have been for the past 35 years.

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