Eugene Regan (Fine Gael)

In today's edition of The Irish Times, Vincent Browne has an article titled "Gobbledegook and the case against Lisbon Treaty". His argument is that the treaty is difficult to understand because the compendium version of the treaties, including the amendments, is not available. His argument is ill-informed and quite ridiculous. All the information is available.

We have had referenda on the Singe European Act, and the Amsterdam, Maastricht and Nice treaties. All have been amendments to previous treaties. The core of Vincent Browne's criticism is that we are only voting on the amendments and not a complete treaty. That, however, has been the position on all previous referenda on amendments of treaties.

Information on the Lisbon treaty is available in the Official Journal of the European Union and from the Institute of European Affairs. A track-changes version of the treaties has been produced to allow readers to identify the line version which gives the amendments.

I do not understand Vincent Browne's claim that the treaty is only understandable by lawyers as he is a lawyer himself. He is an influential commentator. To claim the treaty is incomprehensible when all information is available from the National Forum on Europe, the Institute of European Affairs or the Oireachtas is unacceptable and an absurd argument. It is a refrain from quite a number of people in the "No" camp and is ill-informed. It is important it is rebutted.