Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I congratulate the Minister and his team on the work done in Europe during the past few months, which has been, as I stated previously when the Minister was not in the House, very impressive. The Minister has done difficult but important work. I extend those words of congratulations to the Minister's team of advisors who I am sure also did a huge amount of work in this regard. It is very much appreciated.

There is an important point that needs to made in this debate. As Senator Fitzgerald correctly stated the world has changed since last year, as has people's understanding. It is important to point out that not one word of the treaty has been changed. That is crucially important in terms of our credibility having stated all last year and the previous year that we believed what was stated in the treaty. However, we failed to convince people on issues from conscription, neutrality, pro-life, taxation and in regard to Commissioners. It is important that the Minister when speaking about this stresses that point publicly. If one word of the treaty had been changed we would have been in the same mess we were in last year with people suggesting such wording meant something different than it did. What we have now is an interpretation by our European colleagues which confirms what we told the Irish people last year. We can now go to the people and say that while we may not have been convincing enough or did not put enough effort into explaining the treaty last time, our credibility is sound. What we said has been copperfastened, reinforced and underlined by our European colleagues.

In terms of my view, I am unapologetically pro-Europe. Almost everything for which I have fought in my public life, as an educationalist, a teacher representative, a politician, a trade unionist involved in the ICTU, is encompassed in this treaty. The Charter of Rights is probably the issue of most importance to me. I believe that the right to collective bargaining and the rights of workers is stitched into the treaty. I accept not everybody shares that view, which is as it should be. I believe that issues such as taxation and neutrality will be revisited many times in the future. I can foresee a time when the Irish people will be seeking a European-wide view on taxation when our position has been undercut by others. However, that is not a matter for now. It is crucially important that we retain our control, autonomy, independence and constitutional right to govern our people as we see fit.

Our neutrality is our independence, our autonomy, our power to take decisions on issues of importance to us. I ask the Minister, when this issue is out of the way, to ensure we have a proper debate on neutrality. I am not suggesting I have all the answers in this regard. My views in this regard have changed many times down through the years. It means different things to different people. I know what I want it to mean but I know it is not a passive state, that we cannot idly stand by when wrong is being done. I do not know what should be the exact line in this regard but I believe we must consider this.

As Senator Fitzgerald stated, the world has changed. There were times during the past six, seven, eight or nine months when we, having seen what happened to Iceland, welcomed our membership of Europe. I am not suggesting this has solved all our problems but it gives us a different perspective in terms of where we are as part of a larger body that had to take note of our problems and allow us to draw on its resources when we needed them. These were important. I am not saying that is a treaty issue but I want to look at the bigger picture.

In many ways, I am the wrong person to be talking about this. During my years in European trade unions, I made more advances in Europe than I did in Ireland. I remember fighting for employment equality legislation during the 1970s which the Government would not accept until we joined Europe. All the legislation which I spent 30 years campaigning for was delivered in that first ten years of membership.

The same happened with education. I asked for a reference to education in the Maastricht treaty because different establishment bodies from 1956 did not want education to be included. The charter of rights and recognition of workers rights was also crucial.

I wish the Minister well and I will do my bit in this campaign. I am a member of the group of trade unionists that supports the treaty. I hope the Government has a strategy for the campaign and that the Minister will outline it to us on a county by county basis so we can put our shoulders to the wheel.