Mitchell: Forum on Europe an elitist talking shop

The Forum on Europe is an elitist talking shop that isn’t getting its message across to ordinary people, a MEP today told an Oireachtas Committee.

Fine Gael MEP Gay Mitchell said the public body, which costs €2m a year and sits at Dublin Castle, was giving an official platform for people “who can’t get elected to anything.”

The politician was speaking at the European Affairs Committee in Leinster House which invited Forum officials to debate the Lisbon Treaty referendum.

Mr Mitchell told the all-party body: “The Forum, which is paid for out of taxpayers’ money, is not penetrating beyond an elite and is only producing an alternative Leinster House for people who can’t get elected here – that is our problem.”

Forum chairman Senator Maurice Hayes accused Mr Mitchell of presenting a form of democracy “that unless you are elected by somebody, you are not allowed to speak.”

But Mr Mitchell replied: “The Forum is not doing anything for the public debate.”

Addressing Mr Hayes directly, he added; “You are not penetrating beyond a small elite.”

He continued: “We are exchanging views in the Forum between elected people and unelected people for €2m a year and the public don’t know what’s going on there, that’s the problem.

“We have to address that problem. If you were God Almighty himself, you wouldn’t be able to do it.”

Founded in 2001, the Forum on Europe’s remit is to promote a national debate on the EU, its future and on Ireland’s role in it.

It held several public meetings on the Lisbon Treaty which were addressed by speakers such as Taoiseach Brian Cowen, Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso.

Reflecting on the Treaty referendum campaign, Senator Dan Boyle earlier told the debate that political parties emblazoning the ’yes’ word on posters of party leaders was “like a visual Molly Bloom soliloquy” and insulting to voters.

Fine Gael TD Lucinda Creighton called for the Forum’s budget to be diverted towards EU education programs in schools.