Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)

The night before the referendum, I received a telephone call from an RTE journalist inquiring how I thought people in Donegal would vote. I told him given the soundings on the doorsteps it was obvious the majority of people would be voting "No". I also told him this was a good omen because while Donegal has consistently returned a "No" vote in European referenda, the opposite has been the case in the remainder of the country. I remained hopeful the "Yes" vote would win despite the fact that people in Donegal were voting "No". I was sure when standing in the count centre in Buncrana when the "No" side was winning 3:1, that the result in the remainder of the country would be different.

However, we must respect the result returned. We must persevere and ensure we take care of vital Irish interests. On the other hand, however, we must inform the Irish electorate about Europe and how we have benefited from it and can benefit again in the future.

The Ceann Comhairle has taken the initiative of inviting secondary school students to visit the Dáil and Seanad Chambers. We need to adopt this model at European level where so much is happening, yet the Irish electorate does not know about it.

It was a referendum based on fear. There were elements of fear in the "Yes" arguments but within the "No" camp there certainly was fear. When an argument sets fear against fear one cannot be confident of a positive outcome. Among the plethora of arguments one element was the Catholic church. Many priests were involved and in County Donegal one of them went public in the media to advocate a "No" vote.

There were many elements to this treaty and no single entity was responsible for returning a "No" vote. One thing is sure — we have a job to do. There are elements within the EU Committee of the Regions that have worked hard for 12 years in the area of subsidiarity to give more autonomy to regions and local authorities. That message must be got out to the Irish public and we still have an opportunity to do that. We must work hard and I know the Minister will persevere through his office in this regard. We must respect the vote and look after the vital Irish interest.

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