Second Lisbon poll would be foolish, warns O’Rourke

A SENIOR Fianna Fáil TD has warned the Government it would be “foolish” to hold a second referendum on the Lisbon treaty.

Speaking at a meeting of the cross-party committee on European affairs, former government minister Mary O’Rourke said a second referendum would also be defeated.

“We will not be able to carry another Lisbon… it is foolish, foolish talk,” said Ms O’Rourke, who is a member of the committee.

The Fianna Fáil TD suggested the Government should instead seek another way to get Lisbon passed.

There were several forthright exchanges at the meeting as Fine Gael questioned the value of the National Forum on Europe, the body established in 2001 to promote debate on the EU and Ireland’s involvement in it.

National Forum chairman Senator Maurice Hayes defended its work, but Fine Gael MEP Gay Mitchell said it was failing to reach the ordinary person on the street. The forum held a series of debates on the Lisbon treaty, but it was suggested that the average person was unaware of these events. “The forum produces great reports, but it doesn’t reach beyond a certain elite,” Mr Mitchell said, calling for the issue to be addressed.

Fine Gael also dismissed government proposals for the establishment of a new cross-party committee to examine solutions to the Lisbon impasse. The party said there were already sufficient Oireachtas committees in existence which could examine ways forward. But Ms O’Rourke made clear her belief that the way forward could not be a second referendum.

“I think it is a very foolish route we’re going if we think we can have another referendum on Lisbon,” she said. Ms O’Rourke acknowledged that some pro-Lisbon campaigners were pointing to the fact that a second referendum was held after the Nice treaty was rejected. But she said 34% had voted in the first Nice referendum, whereas the turnout in the Lisbon vote was in the mid-50s, and therefore far more comprehensive.

“I said it here the week after the referendum and I’ll keep repeating it — we will not be able to carry another Lisbon,” she said.