Cóir’s anti-treaty stance has been vindicated by succession of events

IT’S refreshing to see Fine Gael’s Lucinda Creighton admit that the Lisbon Treaty was lost in part because voters had concerns about moral and social issues.

The 2,000 Cóir volunteers who spent six months explaining this, and other related concerns, to the electorate are now having their role acknowledged by a succession of events.

In recent times, Cardinal Seán Brady warned that the EU seemed hostile to Catholic values and pointed to this hostility as a factor in the no vote to the Lisbon Treaty.

We now repeatedly hear that abortion concerns were a major issue in decision-making among voters — a pretty extraordinary result considering the opposition and slander Cóir received while raising these concerns in the run-up to the referendum.

The Red C poll, taken the week after the vote, confirmed that more than 70% of no voters wished to restrict the power of the European Court of Justice concerning our social laws.

However, the sticking plaster remedy tentatively offered so far by EU leaders will not make the Lisbon Treaty more palatable.

In fact, Irish politicians should be insisting that the treaty is dead and that the Irish people’s vote be upheld, rather than offering supposed solutions such as a less-than-useless declaration on abortion or marriage, which would have no legal effect.

Just recently, the EU once again attempted to interfere in the rights of each member state to make sovereign decisions on social laws. The EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency’s most recent report has called for binding EU regulations that would equalise the legal status of married heterosexual couples with that of same-sex couples across Europe.

As Cóir warned during the campaign on Lisbon, a treaty which gave the EU courts increased powers to enforce legislation on marriage and life issues was a treaty to be opposed.

On June 12 last a majority of voters agreed.

Richard Greene

Cóir

60a Capel Street

Dublin 1