Ann Ormonde (Fianna Fail)

The Senator is great at it.

What we must do now is to listen to and engage with the public. We tried to do it during the campaign and it did not work. Democracy has won and I must accept the result. We must consider what happened and analyse where the issues were. We must analyse the diverse range of concerns that were expressed and decide where to go from here. No decisions can be made in the short term; there is no quick fix. I wish the Taoiseach well in presenting his case to the Council tomorrow and ensuring we come out of this in the best way in the future.

There are 27 member states and it looks as though all of the other 26 will ratify the treaty. Where will that leave us? We used to be at the centre of the decision making process in Europe, but this makes us vulnerable. How can we best go forward? The issues mentioned by the "No" side include taxation, neutrality, abortion and euthanasia. I spent my time during the campaign discussing what was in the treaty rather than trying to make people understand that those issues had nothing to do with the treaty, and I failed to connect. There is no doubt a perception exists that there is a disconnect between Brussels and the people of the EU and that decisions are taken by a top-down rather than a bottom-up approach. That was said to me many times during the campaign with regard to regulations and directives that are implemented. People felt we were being over-regulated. This is something that should be considered.

There was also the issue of distrust. People did not trust what we were saying to them. It worries me that people do not trust politicians. It came across to me that the electorate was angry, for whatever reason, although it was nothing to do with the Lisbon treaty. They were not prepared to listen when we were trying to debate the issues that were part of the treaty rather than those introduced as a scaremongering tactic. That concerns me greatly. I hope that out of this will come a new approach for Europe. We must consider how we can reform in order that we may become a better member as a result of this. Unfortunately, that is the situation. The public will want to reflect and consider why they voted "No" and the implications for the future of the EU. Democracy has won and the public is now entitled to consider the decision it has made and how we can shape Ireland into the future of the EU. We must have a period of reflection in the next couple of months. It is only when the pressure is off that people say, as many have already said to me, they voted "No" but did not understand the implications. It has now come across that they did not understand them.