Alex White (Labour)

As other speakers have stated, we touched on this matter briefly on the Order of Business when the matter arose. The question of accepting or respecting the decision of the Irish people does not arise for discussion. It is a constitutional imperative that we not just respect but accept the decision of the Irish people. While it does not arise for debate, we will not be ratifying that treaty that was put to the people of Ireland last week. Let us leave that aside and move forward, lest there is any concern about people's motivation or otherwise.

There cannot be a rerun of the Lisbon treaty that was put to the people last week. I have been listening to some of the debate but have been detained at another meeting also. It has been acknowledged there were difficulties in the campaign. I disagree with some of the last speakers on the other side. I think the campaign was slow to get started. It is manifestly clear that the political difficulties at the top end of the Fianna Fáil party were a factor in that party's overall readiness or approach to the campaign. That is just a matter of fact. I am not seeking to open it for a row. Any fair-minded person looking at those few months can see that was clearly the case. If Members on the Government side are honest about it, they will have to accept that as well. However, it is in the past and we are facing the future.

In fairness to the Minister of State, he put in enormous effort and energy to the campaign, and I congratulate him on that. He was in this House on several occasions. It has been said in this debate that there was no big idea or that it was not fought in a manner that pointed to one big idea on the "Yes" side. Perhaps in that statement we can identify the problem. In fact, there is one big idea at the heart of the European project and at the heart of the European Union, and it is an incredibly successful idea and achievement of historical proportions. Perhaps we did not emphasise that enough. Perhaps we allowed ourselves in the months and weeks coming up to the vote to be distracted by the individual claims made, many of which were entirely false. We felt we had to answer this, that and the other one.

Perhaps we should have concentrated more on a visionary approach to what we were putting to the people. Perhaps we should have been up there on the higher ground of what Europe has actually achieved, especially what it has achieved for Irish people and Irish workers and what it has achieved in a range of different areas for us as a nation. I do not mean largesse. I am not talking about good to Ireland but good for Ireland and Ireland being good for Europe. There is an incredible achievement in that and perhaps we were too slow to claim that ground for ourselves. In this I include all of the parties, not just one or the other. The parties supporting the treaty allowed themselves to be on the defensive.

During the course of the campaign many people on the doorsteps said they took one look across at who was on the other side. Some said they saw Sinn Féin on the other side and that they would not vote for the treaty. Others said they saw that the political parties were for it and decided to go against them. There was much negative decision-making about it. People decided to vote in a particular way because of who was on the other side, not just Sinn Féin but others as well.

Perhaps there is something inevitable about a treaty that is so complex in that people decide where they stand based on who is for it and who is against it. That has actually continued for me, to some extent, since last Thursday. As others have asked, who is happy that this has gone down? What groups and the political organisations not just here but around Europe are happy that the treaty was defeated last week? The Eurosceptical far right of the British Conservative Party is up and at it and revived in the past week, scarifying its own leadership into making somewhat disturbing statements as to where it might go, although it seemed to pull its act together this week. The UK Independence Party is happy, as are the right wing freedom party in Austria, the National Front in France and the Civic Democratic Party in the Czech Republic, all organisations that have been out of the traps in recent days celebrating what they would see as a mortal wound inflicted by the Irish people on the European project. There may be some sense in people standing back and asking who is on the other side and who is against it because this was a deal that was made.

I turn to the issue of where we should go next. I say this to all my colleagues. Anybody now can put together a list of issues we would like to reopen. I am sure the Minister of State, who comes in to the House frequently and who often would not admit to any problems with the treaty because of the rhetorical approach in which he engaged in terms of the campaign, could do it. I doubt if there is anybody in these Houses who could not sit down and make a list of objections or problems with what was in the Lisbon treaty. Anybody who has experience of negotiating knows that the easy part is to make the list of demands; the difficult part is delivering them. It is fine for Sinn Féin to say what the Taoiseach must do tomorrow or in the coming period. I will add some more to that list.

The question is not whether one can put together a credible list but whether one can deliver it when one is going to face 26 other countries and a new set of political parties since the treaty was negotiated. We now have Mr. Berlusconi. What side of the tracks is he on in terms of workers' rights and employment rights? We also have Mr. Sarkozy. A number of European governments have changed their political colour since the Lisbon treaty was negotiated. The idea that we can turn around and go back and that we can be confident that we can deliver something better was a central dishonesty in the conduct of the "No" campaign.

I do not underestimate the difficulty faced by the Government — and it is for the Government principally to come up with a solution. The Labour Party supported the Lisbon treaty and we stand over everything we said about it. We respect the will of the Irish people but there will be a significant reckoning to come in terms of what it is possible to deliver. I do not say that in the sense that I hope I am proven right that the treaty cannot be delivered in the way we want. We all want what is best for the country but I have serious concerns about the danger of a significant shift to the right as an outcome of the defeat last week.