John Minihan (Progressive Democrats)

I join previous speakers in welcoming Deputy Bruton and thank him for his very frank and direct speech. Once again he showed that he was not afraid to raise the thorny questions that so many people discussing Europe like to avoid. We must face these issues. The Convention is timely, given the European enlargement before us, and we must look at the management structures of the EU to ensure it works properly. We have learnt lessons here, particularly during the Nice referendum, and we could equate them with lessons learnt from the recent poll in Malta. There are issues to do with convincing people, and the Convention should take heed of these lessons.

For example, it is clear to me that the understanding among the public of general EU issues is very weak, and it is to the discredit of all of us that we have failed to communicate properly with the electorate in explaining these issues. Such failure plays into the hands of the Eurosceptics who can often attract many votes with simple and often incorrect slogans, while those of us who are pro-Europe must go into much analytical debate to get our points across.

We have also seen in the last Nice referendum that Irish people, like others, value their Constitution, and are concerned that activities of the Convention could downgrade or weaken it. Equally, we all value the democratic process and there are some fears of secret activities among small numbers of people who do not fully engage in the democratic process. We need to take heed of the lessons learned, particularly when we are trying to educate the public in the months ahead, and to bring them with us on these issues. Such issues are important to us as politicians, because regardless of our political differences, we are the ones trying to promote them to the electorate.

I would like to know if the Convention is taking heed of how we are to communicate our message to the people, because it is clear to me that the websites, brochures and various other means we have used to communicate the European message have not worked, because the people are not engaged. We all know how difficult it is to sell these European messages, and I wonder if the Convention is proposing any new ideas to bring forward its benefits to the people.