The political consensus on Europe has been good but there is a downside. As we saw in the campaign on the first referendum on the Nice treaty, if we take these matters for granted and stop political discourse on the European Union, more and more people will become distanced from it. We must find a way of engaging with the arguments, probably in a party political way, otherwise we will face the dilemma that as long as the main parties seek a consensus on this issue, more and more people will be disengaged from the process and the discussions will be left to more extreme elements on the left and right. While the political maturity we, as a country, have established over the past 30 odd years in coming to a consensus on Europe is beneficial, there are downsides, on which we need to reflect.