Ahern blames Blair in row over opt-out

THE Taoiseach yesterday confirmed that the Government had sought no opt-out from the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights and laid the blame for any confusion on the issue at the door of his “good friend and smart colleague” Tony Blair.

Last week it was claimed the Government had investigated the possibility of an Irish opt-out from the charter, which upholds such values as the right to freedom of speech and thought, and equality before the law.

As a result of that, on Tuesday the Irish Congress of Trade Unions said it would ask its 650,000 members to campaign for a “no” in the referendum on the new EU treaty if the Government did not completely divorce itself from any opt-out clause.

However, yesterday the Taoiseach, speaking at the ICTU biennial conference in Bundoran, said the Government had merely wished to study the implications of the last-minute opt-out sought by Britain, but its support for the initiative had not diminished.

“We simply, prudently and sensibly indicated that we would wish to study the implications of the British position regarding their request to introduce a protocol on the charter relating to its scope in British law.

“I think you will agree that, when my good friend and smart colleague Tony Blair, going out the door, throws in a protocol about 2am, it makes me understand that I need just to check what it is about and I did no more than that.”

Meanwhile, as part of the Government’s strategy to improve the skills of the workforce and boost competitiveness, Mr Ahern announced a new initiative to alleviate fees for part-time students in third level public institutions who have not previously pursued a third level qualification.

He said the scheme is still being finalised by the Department of Education and the Higher Education Authority, but will be rolled out in the autumn.

On a less positive note, the Taoiseach was given a detailed account by the ICTU of why it believes co-location is not the way forward for the health service. ICTU general secretary David Begg said: “At the moment we have a point of view from Professor Drumm that we don’t need any more capacity into the health service. In parallel with that, we have 11 private hospitals being constructed. If we don’t need any more capacity why are we constructing the hospitals?

“The fear we have is that the real intentions of the architects of that policy is to create a private internal market in the private sector in which the HSE can become a commissioning agent and in which the public provision can become a rump service to that. We have a hybrid model of health service provision that has worked, though people have argued about it. Our fear is that we will change the balance of public and private to the disadvantage in the long term of the Irish people if we do that.