I continue to have great confidence in the Irish people but not in those parties who are currently conducting a fear-mongering campaign against the Treaty of Nice. They are trying to stoke up the fear that Irishmen and women in the Defence Forces will be forced into an imperialistic war of no concern for us. That is completely wrong. They question the validity of the European Union having a military force that can be deployed for crisis management and humanitarian operations. They would want Ireland to shy away from involvement in this force, to hold our nose at democratically and UN-mandated operations with a peacekeeping or peace enforcement role. The worst and most hypocritical of this opposition comes from Sinn Féin. With its history and link to a private army, it is in no position to tell democratically-elected governments of the European Union how to protect European peoples by organising a military force for peacekeeping and crisis management.