Seanad debates

Thursday, 12 September 2002

An Bille um an Séú Leasú is Fiche ar an mBunreacht, 2002: An Dara Céim. Twenty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution Bill, 2002: Second Stage.

 

I hope people will be reassured by what has taken place in the interim on the issue of neutrality. I do not believe the general public is aware of the effect of the Seville declarations or the fact that a "Yes" vote will copperfasten neutrality in the Constitution. I hope people will soon be made aware of this fact because the issue of neutrality is at the heart of the debate on the Nice treaty. I welcome the process which has led to this happening. It is one of the positive outcomes of the debates which have taken place since the last referendum. It should be publicly acknowledged that the Labour Party led the debate on neutrality and proposed the establishment of the Forum on Europe, which continues to be a success. We now have the opportunity to lock our traditional concept of neutrality into the Constitution and I hope that opportunity will be taken. I hope the people will trust the Government on this issue but much work remains to be done on this question in the next number of weeks.

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