Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to speak in this important debate and to recognise the good work of our negotiators at Government and official level. The Lisbon treaty charts the future direction of Europe, characterised by member states working together more efficiently and effectively to exploit shared opportunities and resolve common problems. The biggest issue the Union faces is how to bring about economic recovery, to provide jobs for our people and to protect those already in employment. We are required to improve financial regulation to protect the fabric of our economic structure which has come under considerable strain in the past 12 months. The treaty also concerns energy security, climate change, conflict resolution and judicial and police cooperation in civil and criminal matters. This country is bedevilled by the plague of drugs trafficked through and imported from other member states. It is vitally important to develop a cooperative environment between member states so that we can deal with those who continue to ply such an evil trade.

The Lisbon treaty does not concern some hidden agenda to destroy this country. It does not mean that some rogue state or bureaucracy is trying to undermine or dispossess Ireland, an idea that some on the " side seek to advance as a reason to reject the treaty. It involves updating the legal basis on which the relationship between the 27 member states is governed. It entails improving democracy through the increased participation of the European Parliament in decision-making. The parliaments of the member states will be involved in a manner that gives rise to increased input from national politicians and enhances transparency in a complex decision-making process. It feeds into the notion that we are somewhat removed and our citizens do not understand the EU institutions. I often wonder whether they have a full view of the operation of national and local institutions notwithstanding that they form part of the general discourse. Ireland's media is to an extent removed from what happens in Brussels which creates a deficit in the flow of information. There is a good and compelling reason to have more debate here on issues dealt with at EU level that are important to this State. The involvement through the Oireachtas Joint Committee on European Affairs and the discussions in the plenary session of the House of EU issues will improve the public discourse and give people a better understanding of the issues which will help to deal with the knowledge deficit.

The treaty is designed to improve democracy within the Union by ensuring that the concerns of small member states are not ignored or overruled by the large blocs. Qualified majority does that. A veto is not democratic. To suggest that one country can hold up 26 others is undemocratic. It is a blocking mechanism and it does not serve the Union well. That is why the double majority whereby 15 member states representing over 65% of the population is an effective mechanism to protect small states and prevent the large ones having their way. At the same time it allows the Union to progress on important issues because one country cannot prevent the entire Union from developing solutions to its problems. The citizens' initiative is an important aspect of improving the democratic process or ensuring that citizens can advance a case before the Commission that their national government has ignored.

The treaty also defines the competences of the Union and makes it clear that a competence not explicitly conferred on the Union remains with the member state. In the "No" campaign people sought to introduce extraneous issues which had no basis in any of the legal documentation and suggest in a convoluted way that the European Court of Justice might determine a particular matter that would have a negative impact on the citizens of this State. That is not the case although it has been put forward at almost every opportunity. I am not aware of any group of people that seeks to do that.

A large factor in the previous campaign was that collectively on the "Yes" side we failed to communicate our message although almost all the political parties, except Sinn Féin, supported the treaty. The parties who supported it took for granted that it would pass. There did not appear to be anything particularly contentious in it and we all expected that it would be alright on the night but it was not. We left the way open for the conspirators to influence public opinion. Sure enough there were plenty of far-fetched theories, of notions that some external body would collect up children as young as three years if their parents were not managing their families in the way certain groups believed they should. There were those who suggested that our corporation tax, which is so valuable to the protection of our jobs would be abolished, that young men and women would be conscripted into an EU army, that not only would the abortion issue be back but that we would have euthanasia too and stem cell research with all sorts of outrageous individuals crawling around the State. These conspirators sought to create something that did not exist anywhere in the text and was not in the minds of anybody within the so-called bureaucracy. We all stand indicted of a failure to promote the treaty, although a few of us succeeded in getting a "Yes" vote in our constituencies but perhaps we should have been able to get a greater majority and assist those who had difficulties in achieving it.

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