Let the Referendum Commission give us all the EU treaty facts and keep powerful lobbies well out of it

THE eyes of Europe and much of the world will be on Ireland when we vote on the new EU treaty — the Treaty of Lisbon — and particularly as it now seems we will be the only member state to have a referendum on it.

That is why we urge the Government to call the Referendum Commission into being some months in advance of the referendum so as to give it adequate time and resources to carry out its statutory function of informing citizens what the referendum is about and encouraging maximum turnout of voters.

We do this even though we ourselves have diverse views on the contents of the treaty.