Feargal Quinn (Independent)

I thank the Minister of State. On the basis of returning to first principles, I pose the question, does the result we now have to consider in the form of the Lisbon Reform Treaty live up to the aspirations set out so clearly in the Laeken Declaration? Along that road, have the lawyers and the bureaucrats taken over the process so that instead of a new beginning we are being presented with more of the same? I do not wish to prejudge the issue but I want to urge the House to consider the question.

We can, and indeed should scrutinise the reform treaty from the viewpoint of Irish interests. The Minister of State had done that today, in taking us through his five points. We should ask ourselves carefully whether the benefits to Ireland exceed the undoubted costs of going along with the treaty. We owe the people of Ireland a duty to carry out that scrutiny, and to do it diligently. Surely we have another responsibility as well, one we embrace not just as Irish people, but as Europeans. We are in the process of building a supranational structure under which our children and grandchildren will have to live. In this reform treaty we are taking a decisive leap towards shaping the Europe of the future. It is incumbent on us to ask ourselves solemnly whether this is really the way we want to go and if the treaty lives up to the Laeken Declaration or does it undermine those fine principles and aspirations on which the reform project was launched?

If we have any doubts, now is the time to voice them, as the Minister of State said, while we still have an opportunity to affect the course the future Europe will take. If we stay silent over the next few months, we are agreeing in effect to one particular way forward for Europe and turning our back on any other. I believe the forthcoming referendum will pose some of the most important and fundamental questions ever put to the Irish people. In preparing for that referendum we must treat this issue with all the seriousness it deserves. The Irish people will not be bullied and there were some sounds of that from the Taoiseach last week. Neither will they be blackmailed into giving one particular answer or the other. They demand a reasoned response and my hope is that they will get. I urge the Minister of State to recognise that the many Irish people who are enthusiastic Europeans are concerned about the drift towards a federal states model, away from subsidiarity and towards losing some of the fervour they had for a united Europe, because we are getting involved in so many areas that are not just about the European Economic Community.