Déirdre de Búrca (Green Party)

I welcome the Minister to the House and am glad to have the opportunity to discuss the Twenty-Eighth Amendment of the Constitution (Treaty of Lisbon) Bill. I hope the Minister will forgive me when I say there is a slight sense of déjÀ vu about this because we sat here before the last Lisbon referendum and discussed the treaty, the campaign and so on. Looking back with the benefit of hindsight, what we have realised is that no degree of complacency can be allowed in the Lisbon treaty campaign. The convictions and views on both sides are strongly held and expressed and the public tends to lack information about the European Union and can therefore be easily swayed by arguments that are persuasively put.

It is important we learn from the mistakes of the previous referendum campaign. An editorial in The Irish Times this morning states that the Government engaged in sleepwalking during the last campaign. Perhaps that is a bit strong but we must recognise that the campaign could have been much more proactive. In the Millward Brown survey carried out after the last campaign, 42% of those who voted "No" said they did so because they did not know enough. As governments provide political leadership and see the need for the European Union and for greater European integration in the challenging global environment in which we find ourselves, they have a responsibility, having negotiated and signed up to treaties and looked after the interests of their own member states, to sell them properly to the population at large.

In the forthcoming referendum campaign we have a second opportunity to provide clear and persuasive information to the public about the Lisbon treaty. The Minister has made a good start with the White Paper that has been published. We must provide clear and accessible information. Unfortunately, the wording of the amendment to the Constitution is quite technical and many members of the public will find it impossible to make sense of it. Thus, the campaign preceding the vote on that amendment will need to simplify the issues at stake so that people are in no doubt about what treaty contains, what its strengths are and so on.

At this morning's meeting of the Joint Committee on European Affairs we mentioned that the Department of Foreign Affairs should prepare rebuttals to the false arguments we know will be raised by those on the other side. It is important that where legally inaccurate points are made we are able to rebut them simply. It will be helpful for all of us who will be out campaigning in favour of the treaty that we have those simply worded rebuttals available to us.

People will say there is no difference between this treaty and the one they voted on last time around. Essentially, that is true; there is no difference to the treaty. However, a number of very solid legal guarantees secured by the Irish Government have been attached to the treaty. This shows that the issues of concern to Irish people which caused them to hesitate or vote against the treaty have been addressed in a clear and legally unambiguous fashion. In sensitive areas such as our traditional policy of military neutrality, the ability to set our own corporate taxes, the right to life, education and the family, Ireland's autonomy, independence and sovereignty have been protected. We have legally binding conclusions to that effect and the European Council decision that contains those guarantees will be registered with the UN once the treaty is ratified and will form part of a protocol in the future, which is positive.

Now that the Irish concerns have been addressed and we have solid legal guarantees, we need to consider what is good for Europe and not just what is good for Ireland. This is important in the global environment in which we find ourselves. When the Secretary General of the United Nations spoke to us yesterday, he talked about the multiple crises the world is facing at the moment. There are a number of serious challenges facing the international community. As a member of the Green Party I would say one of these major challenges is climate change and the threat of catastrophic consequences if we do not begin to address this issue urgently at a national level. In another ten or 20 years' time people will ask how there could have been such inaction. The European Union has provided important global leadership on this issue and it needs to provide further leadership, but we need to empower it to do this by signing up to international treaties on climate change that will set a high standard for us in terms of reducing our emissions and encouraging other major international players to do so as well.

We are all aware that the global economy is in a precarious state and we need a new system of international financial regulation. We need to empower the European Union to sit at the table with other major players and agree a fairer and better regulated international system than has existed to date. The United Nations must also be reformed. We are all aware it is badly in need of reform so that it more adequately represents the international community but also so that it promotes the progressive values the EU and other powers have tried to promote at an international level for many years.

We need a fairer international trade system. Given that it is the largest single trading area world, the EU is in a position to exercise major influence in terms of improving and reforming the international trading system. International terrorism is another major problem. To promote peace internationally, the European Union needs to be empowered to address those issues alongside other major international powers.

We need a strong Europe and we must recognise that collective decision making is no longer a matter of choice but one of necessity. We need, as Irish people, to empower the European Union to become a more effective player at an international level. That is what the treaty of Lisbon is all about. Now that our national and domestic concerns have been addressed through solid legal guarantees, we need to consider what is good for Europe and how we can build a stronger and better Europe. The Lisbon treaty is an important aspect of this.

I have one or two recommendations for the Minister. One aspect of the democratic deficit in the European Union is the lack of information. As politicians and elected representatives, we need to do something to avoid having a crash course in European affairs every time we have a referendum campaign on a European treaty. A permanent EU information service should be set up in every EU member state. This is something member state governments will need to agree to. It is not something the European institutions can do themselves. The Irish Government should promote this actively because we have had the experience of so many difficult popular referendums in which we come face to face with a lack of citizen engagement and lack of information about the European Union.

The other thing we should promote and which will not necessarily require a new treaty is a wider and deeper process of democratisation across the European Union. Put simply, it is about providing more information, consulting people more, and involving them more in decision making. Such challenges are not beyond the imagination of the brightest and the best within the European Union. We must find a way of promoting greater democracy within the EU because if we do not, we will find it increasingly difficult, even with some of the mechanisms within the Lisbon treaty, to get popular support and acceptance of some of the decisions and changes that may be made in the future, especially if people do not fully understand the reasons for them and the context in which they are made. As a country that has struggled with its own referendums in terms of trying to persuade the public of the advantages and merits of various European treaties, we should promote this.

Will the Minister consider again the recommendations of the Sub-Committee on Ireland's Future in the European Union, of which I was a member, and which sat last November and December? It came up with a series of important recommendations that would help give the Houses of the Oireachtas a much more proactive role in terms of the overall European decision-making process. It is through our national Parliament that we will engage the people of this country to a much greater extent in terms of what is happening, what is being decided and what is being debated at European level. The recommendations made were the subject of a lot of discussion, had cross-party support and were set out very clearly in the report. I would hate to see it sitting on a shelf as, unfortunately, tends to happen to the conclusions of many committees that are set up.

It was an important committee. Its recommendations, now that we are examining once again how to try to ratify the Lisbon treaty, are very timely. I ask the Minister to re-visit the recommendations, given that they have cross-party support, and ensure they are implemented as speedily as possible, because it is only through "Europeanising" the activities of the Parliament that we will help to address the very serious democratic deficit which confronts us every time we try to ratify a European treaty in this country.