Postcards to outline treaty guarantees

EVERY household in the country will receive a postcard outlining the newly secured guarantees in the Lisbon treaty as the Dáil prepares to debate the issue.

The bill paving the way for the second referendum on the treaty was published yesterday and is expected to be passed in the Oireachtas tomorrow. A date for the vote, expected to be October 2, will be officially announced by the end of the week.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin said the two million postcards would outline the outcome of last month’s European Council during which the assurances on tax, neutrality and ethical issues were agreed.

“The Government has ensured that when the people vote on the Lisbon treaty in October, it will come with new legally binding guarantees to address the concerns which emerged during the referendum campaign last year,” he said. “The distribution of the postcard is part of the Government’s determined effort to ensure that the public will be well informed about the treaty and Ireland’s legal guarantees which were agreed by the EU leaders in Brussels recently.”

The postcard will be printed in both Irish and English and available in audio-visual and braille formats.

Following the council meeting last month Taoiseach Brian Cowen said the guarantees made crystal clear that Ireland controlled its own taxes and Lisbon would not affect our neutrality or ethical issues such as the right to life.

Mr Martin said the Lisbon treaty bill “restates the prohibition on Ireland joining any EU common defence arrangement”.

Both Fine Gael and Labour welcomed the publication of the bill and said they will be supporting it in the Dáil and campaigning for a yes vote. But Labour spokesman on Europe, Joe Costello, said: “The Government are pursuing the same guillotine process in the Dáil as they put in place for other end-of-term legislation this week and last week.

“The bill in all its stages will be dealt with on Wednesday in a single day. Even that is curtailed by a considerable amount of other Dáil business on the day. Consequently, the maximum amount of time for all stages of the bill will be six hours on Wednesday.”

Former MEP and anti-Lisbon campaigner Patricia McKenna said the postcards were an abuse of taxpayers’ money.

“Taxpayers money, from both sides of the Lisbon debate, is being used to peddle Government spin that these guarantees will somehow change the treaty’s impact on Ireland,” Ms McKenna said.

“But this is legally impossible without changes to the actual text of the treaty or legally binding protocols attached to and ratified by all member states before the treaty comes into force.”