Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)

I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak on Second Stage of the Twenty-eighth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2008 on the Lisbon reform treaty. I am delighted also that the Taoiseach named the date for the referendum, Thursday, 12 June 2008. This gives all parties the opportunity over the next few months to go to the people and explain the treaty to them. The people need to have it explained.

The Fine Gael Party supports the Bill and we will encourage a "Yes" vote over the next few months. As a party, Fine Gael has taken its responsibility seriously and will take the campaign to the people. We have already commenced this with meetings in Sligo and Cork. We had a large attendance at those meetings and found the meetings constructive. We had expert speakers who explained the treaty to the audience.

We will have approximately 30 meetings throughout the country at various venues. The meeting in my Clare constituency will be on 6 May, next Tuesday. Our party leader, Deputy Enda Kenny, who is a committed European, will attend many of these meetings. I am delighted he has invited the European People's Party, EPP, group to Ireland and it will attend a summit meeting in the Shelbourne Hotel on Monday, 14 April 2008. We expect there will be a number of European leaders at that summit meeting, including the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel. Some 11 heads of Government are members of the EPP group. It is the largest group in Europe and is a very committed group.

The meeting will have nothing to do with the reform treaty as it is an extraordinary meeting to deal with other European affairs. It is a matter for the Irish people to deal with the referendum themselves. However, I am sure party leaders who will attend the summit will have a keen interest in the Irish situation. As many previous speakers have said, Ireland is the only country out of the 27 European Union members that will put the treaty to the people in a referendum. All eyes will be on the Irish over the next few months to see whether they will ratify the treaty.

I am confident the treaty will be ratified. We have an educated electorate and they will realise that Europe has been good to them and that by ratifying the treaty, Ireland will play its role. I congratulate the Polish Government on its ratification of the treaty this week in Warsaw.

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