Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. It is not very often that I find myself in full agreement with him and the content of his speech but I certainly agree with practically all of his speech in respect of this subject, especially its refutation of some of the outrageous allegations that have been made throughout the debate on the Lisbon treaty.

The Charter of Fundamental Rights is one of the most important features of the Lisbon reform treaty. Divided into six sections — dignity, freedoms, equality, solidarity, citizens' rights and justice — it is based on the fundamental rights and freedoms recognised by the European Convention on Human Rights, the constitutional traditions of the member states, the Council of Europe's social charter, the Community Charter of Fundamental Social Rights of Workers and other fundamental international conventions to which the Community, the Union and the member states are parties.

The charter is a radical document, a unique feature in the Union and one which I believe every citizen of the Union and its member states should read. It asserts in clear and readable language what the principles behind our Union are, what rights we all have within the Union and what rights we will share as a community of peoples in this Union of peoples.

The charter's origins date back to a European Council meeting held in June 1999 in Cologne. There, the leaders of Europe entrusted the drafting of this fundamental document to a convention created for that purpose. That convention first met in December 1999 and adopted a draft of the document less than one year later on 2 October 2000. Oireachtas Éireann was represented in the convention that drew up the document by the members mentioned by the Minister of State, including Deputy Bernard Durkan, Madeleine Taylor Quinn, Paschal Mooney and Desmond O'Malley of the Progressive Democrats. At a meeting held from 13 to 14 October 2000 in Biarritz, the European Council unanimously approved the draft and sent it to the Commission and the European Parliament. The European Parliament approved the text on 14 November 2000 and the Commission approved it on 6 December 2000, with the presidents of the Parliament, the Council and the Commission signing the charter on behalf of the respective institutions on 7 December 2000.

As the European Union itself notes:

The European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights sets out in a single text, for the first time in the European Union's history, the whole range of civil, political, economic and social rights of European citizens and all persons resident in the EU.

The then President of the Commission, Romano Prodi, summed up how the Commission sees the Charter. He stated:

In the eyes of the European Commission, by proclaiming the Charter of Fundamental Rights, the European Union institutions have committed themselves to respecting the Charter in everything they do and in every policy they promote . . . The citizens of Europe can rely on the Commission to ensure that the Charter will be respected.

Speaking on the same day in Nice, the President of the European Parliament, Mrs Nicole Fontaine, was similarly glowing in praise for the document and its importance. She said:

A signature represents a commitment . . . I trust that all the citizens of the Union will understand that from now on . . . the Charter will be the law guiding the actions of the Assembly ... From now on it will be the point of reference for all the Parliament acts which have a direct or indirect bearing on the lives of citizens throughout the Union.

Speaking five days later in Strasbourg, the then President of the European Council, Jacques Chirac, reacted to the text on behalf of the governments of the member states. He stated:

In Nice, we proclaimed the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights, a text which is of major political importance. Its full significance will become apparent in the future and I wish to pay tribute to your Assembly for the major contribution it has made to its drafting.

Many people have spoken, correctly, about the difficulty in understanding the Lisbon treaty. If the treaty itself is full of complex, difficult language, the same cannot be said of the charter which has a clarity of language that would enable it to be read and, indeed, understood by schoolchildren and adults alike. The preamble of the document gives the reasons Europe needs the charter. It states "it is necessary to strengthen the protection of fundamental rights in the light of changes in society, social progress and scientific and technical developments by making those rights more visible in a Charter".

It is hard to find fault with a document like the charter which confirms that everyone has a right to life, that bans executions, cloning, torture and human trafficking, affirms respect for privacy as well as the right to marry, to freedom of religious thought and conscience, to fair and just working conditions, to collective bargaining and many other rights. It is a sign of the frequently ridiculous and off-the-wall claims of the "No" side in the referendum campaign on the Lisbon treaty that even the charter is now being misrepresented by the likes of Libertas.

Recently Libertas claimed on TV3 that the charter would effectively allow for internment of three year olds. Even by the bizarre standards of the campaign such a statement was mind-boggling. If ever there was a moment when the "No" campaign hit rock bottom, that was it. I wonder who Libertas thinks is running the European Union. All the treaty actually says is that children have a right to compulsory education. In other words, no neglectful parent can deny children a right to be educated. How Libertas can twist something as decent and positive as a right to education into some form of internment of children is beyond the logic of most people in this State. Yet it continues to peddle this ridiculous claim rather than admitting it has got it very badly wrong.

We are told that the treaty will not offer protection to workers. In fact, workers rights are stressed throughout the document. Article 28 speaks of the "Right of collective bargaining and action", Article 30 of the right of "Protection in the event of unjustified dismissal", while Article 31 refers to "Fair and just working conditions". Many unions would like more and I understand that. Nevertheless, this document is anything but anti-worker, a claim which is being peddled by some groups.

Apart from the ever more bizarre claims of Libertas, another of the weird claims about the charter is that it will introduce abortion to Ireland. It cannot do so because abortion is a matter for national law, while the charter is about EU law. These are two different types of law, two entirely different categories. Groups like Cóir seem not to understand, or do not want to understand, that difference. Not alone is abortion not part of EU law, Ireland has theMaastricht protocol as a second protection. To read the charter as an abortionists' charter is ridiculous, foolish, and suggests either a chronic lack of knowledge of the treaty or a desire to tell any old lie to frighten people into voting "No".

The Charter of Fundamental Rights is a welcome addition to the body of EU law. It augments the rights we have built up under Bunreacht na hÉireann and the European Convention of Human Rights. I commend the Europe Union for producing this charter. It is something all our descendants will look at with pride, a clear statement of the fundamental rights we all share in the great European family of nations that is the European Union.