Heart of the matter

WHILE Lisbon Treaty campaigners compete with each other for every available lamp post, there is little doubt the prize for the most inappropriate poster slogan must go to Fine Gael for its line ‘Keep us at the heart of it’.

Whatever the arguments for or against the treaty, it can hardly be said that by giving up our EU commissioner and voting to reduce our vote at Council of Ministers meetings to 0.8 of 1%, we will, as FG suggests, keep Ireland at the heart of Europe.

The opposite is true. Our views are being ignored by Commissioner Peter Mandelson at the world trade talks. Is FG really suggesting we will be listened to more if we reduce our voting power to less than 1% while bigger states such as Germany double theirs? I do believe that Ireland should be at the heart of Europe, and that’s why I will vote no.