Treaty vote may be ‘used’ politically
The cross-party Joint Committee on European Affairs published an interim report on the treaty yesterday, following meetings with the social partners.
The committee said it found a “large measure of agreement” on the importance of the treaty, but said there were differences of opinion between business groups, unions and farmers’ organisations.
The Irish Business and Employers’ Confederation and the Irish Cooperative Organisation Society told the committee they would recommend a “Yes” vote to their members.
Five other organisations “were not prepared to commit themselves prior to consulting their members”.
These were the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), Chambers Ireland, the Irish Small and Medium Enterprise Association, the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) and the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association.
In relation to issues not directly related to the treaty the committee said: “ICTU resents the fact that it was not adequately consulted by the Government on immigration issues, the absence of Government regulation of agency workers, the handling of the Irish Ferries case and the lack of pay restraint in Irish boardrooms.
“The IFA is concerned about Commissioner Peter Mandelson’s handling of the World Trade Organisation negotiations.”
The committee said there were other outstanding issues to emerge from the hearings. One key issue was the maintenance of Ireland’s veto on taxation policy.
Another was the need for “simple, jargon-free and unbiased information” on the treaty.
