David Norris (Independent)

I welcome the fact that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are hacking lumps out of each other over the European treaty because it gives an opportunity for me, as practically the lone voice in this House trying to present a reasoned argument against the Lisbon treaty, to be heard. That is not particularly easy, especially since The Irish Times has dropped its neutral stance and committed itself to campaigning for the treaty. It is not just Deputy Brian Cowen who has not read the treaty but also our European Commissioner, and he thinks anybody who tries to do so is an idiot. He said as much. People have tried to defend their positions by saying the treaty is like the Finance Bill, about which ordinary people do not know every detail because they have not read it. That is true but the person who presents the Finance Bill, the Minister for Finance, certainly ought to have read it given that he wrote it. The same applies to the Taoiseach and the European Commissioner. If they have not read the treaty, they are not in a position to recommend it.