Seanad debates

Thursday, 5 June 2008

Lisbon Reform Treaty Report: Statements

 

12:00 pm

Photo of David NorrisDavid Norris (Independent)

I wish to share time with Senator Quinn. I welcome the Minister of State who made an interesting case to the House. I also compliment Deputy Perry on the report produced by the joint committee he chairs. It is important that both sides of the debate are heard today, as has not been the case thus far. Mr. Pöttering, for example, was invited to the House to advocate the treaty without a balancing performance by anybody else. There has been a chorus of "Yes".

It has been argued that those who advocate a "No" vote are the same old people who have never voted in favour of Europe. I have always been an enthusiastic European and have supported every treaty, although I have done so with growing reservations on account of the incremental militarisation of the European Union. I have no doubt this is the case.

I mentioned on the Order of Business today that the Taoiseach acknowledged that he has not fully read the treaty. The Commissioner, Charlie McCreevy, stated he has not fully read the treaty and one would be an idiot to try. An attempt was made to cover that up by stating that the Minister for Finance presents the budget to the Dáil and the Deputies, who have not read the entire document, vote for it. That is true but the Minister for Finance is in a position to commend it because he has read the entire document. Today, as I pointed out on the Order of Business, we have a worrying situation where Mr. Justice Iarfhlaith O'Neill, the man who is in charge of the Referendum Commission and who is supposed to explain it, acknowledges that some aspects of the treaty are completely impenetrable.

I have a number of questions. It is a matter of balance. There are good measures in this treaty. Some of those on the "No" side are an embarrassment. For instance, I have heard people state that one would get gay marriage stuffed into this country, there would be access to abortion, there would be free contraception and there would be euthanasia. If I thought that were the case I would be out campaigning for it, but I acknowledged that it most definitely is not and that should not be used as an argument against the treaty.

However, there are questions I would like to ask. In terms of the democratic unresponsiveness of the treaty, for example, what percentage of it is precisely the same as the rejected draft EU constitution in light of the fact that it is reported widely in the press today that people from other European countries who are grateful to us for having this debate state that they have been robbed of the right to vote? It is perfectly clear from the words of senior European politicians that they do not trust their own people and that there is not time to name them all, but we know what Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, for example, has stated on this issue.

In particular, I am concerned about the Government's position on the Crotty case. The Government has stated that there must be a referendum because of the Crotty case. The Crotty judgment stated that a referendum was only called into play when a treaty involved substantial change here, and yet the Government states the treaty involves no substantial change. They cannot have it both ways. That worries me.

I have asked a series of questions on militarisation because I do not like the Western European Armaments Group, even though they have tried cosmetically to repackage it as the European Defence Agency, EDA. I would like to ask the circumstances in which we take part in this. Do we really want to be part of the European Defence Agency? Why was there no Dáil discussion on this decision to join the EDA? Can we have clarification on that? What are the financial implications of our membership? I understand we will be required to contribute. There is an upping of the military budget. I am very concerned by the statements of the former director of this group that one of the principal targets is so that they can increase production of armaments.

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