Junior Minister slams anti-Nice campaigners

A Government minister has said he is stunned at the stance being adopted by some of the anti-Nice Treaty campaigners.

Junior Minister Eamonn O'Cuiv says he's amazed to see that immigration from Eastern Europe is now becoming a major part of the new Nice debate.

Speaking at the McGill Summer School at Glenties, Co Donegal, he noted that anti-Nice campaigners seem to have moved from a stance where some fundamentals were commonly agreed, to a totally different position.

The Junior Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs said that it was commonly agreed in the run-up to the first referendum, that enlargement was a good thing, and that no one was proposing pulling out of the EU.

He says that he is amazed that immigration is becoming an issue now.

The school also heard from anti-agreement campaigner, Aengus Ó Snodaigh of Sinn Féin. He said that Ireland is ceding too much control to institutions, which aren't accountable enough to the people.

He said that the fact a second referendum was being held was in itself undemocratic.

O'Cuiv refuted this claim, claiming that the proposal now before the people includes an absolute constitutional guarantee of non-involvement in a common defence policy.