Eugene Regan (Fine Gael)

I have been involved in European affairs since 1974, and my own personal experience is that Europe has been good for this country. We have found our way in Europe, we can work within the system and it has benefited the country enormously. Fine Gael was unique in embracing integration and has been at all times a consistent supporter of European integration. I pay tribute to people from Fine Gael such as Garret FitzGerald, Peter Sutherland and John Bruton, who continue to play a role in fostering European integration. Europe has been good for us in every sphere of activity, be it the economy, environmental policy and social rights. It also strengthened Ireland as a small country on the international stage, whether it has been through trade agreements, fostering climate change agreements and other environmental issues.

This treaty is a consolidation of the treaties that are currently in operation. Its objectives are to create an area of freedom, security, justice and peace in Europe and internationally, as well as the protection of human rights. They are noble objectives and I do not think anybody can fail to subscribe to them. The treaty is particularly designed to improve its workability, with 27 member states in the EU at the moment. In many ways it is more democratic and it provides for a greater involvement of national Parliaments. Two of its major selling points are the increased role of Europe in the fight against international crime, as well as the codification in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the rights which have been implicit in the treaty and in the jurisprudence of the European courts to date. I fully support this treaty.

Before the date for a referendum is announced, advice has been given on whether the referendum is legally required. I question whether it is legally required. We all support the holding of a referendum, because it has worked to involve people in the process of European integration. However, just because we are having a referendum, it does not follow that it is legally required. In the Crotty judgment, many changes on Europe were permitted. The changes that are envisaged in this treaty are simply improvements in natural developments from the treaty.

We will also have to overcome a number of problems which inevitably will emerge in the referendum campaign. There has been a failure, in the five years since the Nice Treaty, to fulfil a promise to scrutinise EU legislation and to involve the Oireachtas intimately in such scrutiny. The recent decision of the Government to opt out from policing and criminal law matters has created a doubt on whether co-operation in that area is beneficial for this country, when I believe it is a selling point of this treaty that Europe can enhance our efforts at national level to combat organised crime.

A more fundamental issue arises at this point that voters will find difficult to ignore. The main proponent of this treaty, the current Taoiseach, cannot be trusted to tell the truth even when he is giving evidence on oath. There has been a cover-up about payments received by him in 1994 and 1995 and the entire Fianna Fáil parliamentary party and the Government are complicit in that. This is an issue of confidence and trust in politics. It cannot be avoided and it will emerge on the doorsteps. I ask the Minister of State to address these problems and explain how he proposes to overcome them, especially the latter, which will be a fundamental problem in the referendum campaign.