Paschal Donohoe (Fine Gael)

As I begin my contribution to this very important debate and before I go on to my observations as a politician, I want to reflect on how I felt as a person when I heard the result last week. As a person, the abiding feeling I had on hearing the result was loneliness. I felt my country, of which I am a member, is on the margin. So much of the success we have had in progressing our economic and social interests is because we have been able to create solidarity with our neighbours and rely on that solidarity to progress what we believe is important. When that result came in I felt, for the first time in many years, I was a member of a small island country off the coast of Europe.

My second impression was a worry that the opportunities and benefits I have enjoyed might not be extended to my children as a result of the decision. People on the "No" side who hear my points will accuse me of scaremongering. I respect the decision that was made but those two emotions will drive the points I will make as a politician and the work I hope to do in the future. The first emotion is loneliness and that we have the potential to be marginalised in what will happen in the future. The second and probably more important feeling is worry about the effect the result will have on the prosperity and social wealth I have been lucky enough to enjoy and concern that I might not be able to pass that on to my family and the people I try to represent.

As a politician I want to offer my reflections on what happened during the campaign and my pointers on what we need to do differently, particularly given the debate I have just heard. The first vital point is that if we end up in a mind-set that the treaty was good and the communication of the treaty was bad, we will not progress this. If we say we need to better explain the merits of what we have to the people than we did during the campaign, that indicates a lack of respect for and understanding of the motives of many people who voted "No". I can see the Minister nodding as I make this point. I hope as we move forward we do not look back and say it was a failure of our communication strategy and posters. We must accept that our people weighed up the treaty and decided, on the substance of it, that it was not acceptable.

My second point was on the attitudes of young people. This was the most significant thing I learned during the campaign. My attitudes to the European project are driven by two experiences. The first was of going to Dublin Airport with all my belongings in a suitcase to emigrate to the UK to get a job that I could not get in Ireland. The second was watching what happened in Srebrenica in the 1990s, the miracle of the EU managing to bring peacefully into the EU countries that were at war with and suspicious of each other earlier in our century. Those experiences, so recent for me, forged my opinion on the EU but are not shared by people who are just a few years younger than me. They see the prosperity and peace of the EU as a given. They have only ever enjoyed economic prosperity. That has had a decisive influence on how young people in particular have viewed this.

My final point is on the view people have of our political institutions. A poll taken at the start of this year found that 22% of people in Ireland trusted our political institutions. Of the last five referenda, all of which were supported by the mainstream political parties, three have been defeated by the people. I hope I am correct; the Minister will correct me if I am wrong. The people have not accepted what the politicians have said. That must give us great pause for thought in analysing what is happening and deciding what we want to change.

The Monday morning after the defeat of this referendum I was out doing a leaflet drop in my constituency when I met a person who said I had lost the battle but, clearly, not the war, because I was out engaged in political activity. We need to step up to the plate, engage with our electorate and offer them a way to move this forward. As politicians it is our responsibility to lead, not that of the voters. Respecting the substance of the decision, understanding why young people did what they did and pausing to recognise there is a crisis in the faith people have in these institutions are pointers towards our delivering an outcome that will be successful for Ireland and Europe. Both can happen at the same time and are not mutually exclusive.