Questions for the yes camp

BEING cajoled into voting yes or no to Lisbon does a great disservice to the people of this country.

Every Tom, Dick and Harry is entitled to offer their interpretation of the treaty but some of the campaigners on the yes side have barely stopped short of ordering citizens what they should do with their Constitution-given, hard-fought democratic voting power.

I’m a dummy when it comes to the Lisbon Treaty.

That is, I’ve just read the booklet sent out by the Referendum Commission on the treaty, a pamphlet that has been referred to as The Dummies Guide to the Lisbon Treaty.

From reading this, however, and following the media coverage of the various campaigners, should any yes campaigners come calling, I will be raising the following points with them:

1. If, as the yes side claims, Ireland retains a veto on matters such as taxation and defence policies, and our Government uses this veto to shaft EU strategies unfavourable to Ireland, will this not make us even bigger pariahs at the EU than rejecting the treaty apparently would? What’s the point in signing up to the treaty if the Government claims it will torpedo any EU policy that the people of Ireland won’t like?

2. Is the public really expected to believe that those now demanding a yes vote will stand up for the little people of Ireland at the EU when they come face to face with their fellow European party statesmen and women, who only recently sent them back to Ireland to ensure a yes vote?

3. The Treaty’s Charter of Fundamental Rights will champion workers’ and women’s rights, according to yes campaigners. Why do we need the EU to do this? Can Ireland not legislate for itself in regard to the rights the treaty will allegedly advocate?

4. Why does the EU seem to be moving up from basic right and wrong issues like consumer protection and justice to politics-based matters, such as energy, asylum and immigration?

There is little point in asking specific questions about sections and sub-sections of the treaty at this stage, since the guide doesn’t go into any detail on any of the more controversial areas we’re being asked to accede to.

To try to be definite one way or the other now is futile anyway, since the untested treaty, as with any legal document, is open to interpretation.

Kieran Sullivan

Georgestown

Kilmacthomas

Co Waterford