Roche wants the ‘right’ result

WELL, that’s it then.

It appears the matter is decided — we are going to have a rerun of the referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, at least as far as Europe Minister Dick Roche is concerned.

Unfortunately, the Taoiseach didn’t rule it out either in his response to Roche’s comments.

Remember, this is the same Dick Roche who repeated ad nauseam during the run-up to the first referendum (second if you count Maastricht) that there could not be another referendum should the people of Ireland vote no.

In fact, the minister became so short-tempered and tetchy with interviewers and fellow-panellists on radio and TV debates, when asked what plan B was, that his political masters steered him away from such debates in the weeks prior to the referendum.

Roche has had a Road to Damascus experience, it seems, as he believes the electorate misunderstood what the referendum was about. Funny how when people in power fail to get the result they wanted, it’s always down to a failure by the electorate to understand the issue — ie, see it their way.

Anyway, the minister has come up with the astounding revelation that we the people of Ireland do not want to leave the EU and so we must vote again on the Lisbon Treaty.

I, for one, never realised that by voting against the treaty I was actually committing my country to leaving the EU. It looks like we all owe Roche a debt of gratitude on this matter and, thanks to his profound knowledge of all things European, we should rectify our error next time round.

Michael Roche

11 The Downs

Douglas

Cork