Lisbon referendum - Cowen has to ensure treaty is ratified

IN the aftermath of the humiliation inflicted on Fianna Fáil and their current but wavering partners the Greens in last week’s elections, emboldened opposition members enjoyed goading government figures, challenging them to immediately call a general election.

“You have lost whatever mandate you had,” was the stick-in-the-eye provocation.

Unflappable as only a cornered and deeply-wounded Fianna Fáil grandee can be, the challenges were dismissed with a combination of bluster and self-righteous scorn by one minister after another.

Now that they’ve had a week to lick their wounds it is time to show that their 2007 mandate is still deserved and that they can lead as well as just survive.

It’s time to forget about the self-righteousness and scorn, the arrogance and presumption that did so much to condemn the last Lisbon campaign to failure.

Yesterday Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny announced that he will, next week, present Taoiseach Brian Cowen with a programme aimed at getting the Lisbon treaty ratified through an autumn referendum.

Mr Kenny suggests that Mr Cowen announce the date of this vote and that the campaign to have it ratified begin immediately.

Mr Kenny is right and Mr Cowen and his Government should embrace this opportunity to do the right thing on a number of fronts, though on different levels.

First of all he must energise his bruised, battered and rejected party to campaign energetically and effectively to ensure the treaty is ratified. However, he must ensure that the referendum is not seen as a vote for or against his Government. It is not, it is a vote on the future we imagine for ourselves.

He must, in as much as legislation will allow, bring the influence of Government to bear on achieving a successful outcome. This may focus on supporting Foreign Minister Micheál Martin’s tight-rope act in trying to resolve Ireland’s concerns without provoking a negative response from too many of our EU partners.

Thirdly, he should do something that would go a long way to restoring the public’s faith in a discredited political system. Undoubtedly, he would assert that the system is neither discredited nor scorned, but then this refusal to see that it is, is part of the problem.

Mr Cowen should, with a degree of humility that he may find challenging, lead all Dáil parties who wish to see the treaty ratified as if his life depended on it.

He must know that his political life, and the political lives of his closest allies, depend on it. His party grandees will not be able to dismiss calls for a general election if the treaty is rejected for a second time.

Last week we elected 12 representatives to the European Parliament, 11 of them are strongly pro-European and have endorsed the treaty.

The foremost anti-treaty campaigner, Libertas founder Declan Ganley, failed to win a seat and, with considerable dignity that reflected the core values of democracy, he announced that he was withdrawing from politics and would not be involved in the forthcoming Lisbon campaign.

Unless Mr Cowen can lead a campaign that ends with the ratification of the treaty he may have to consider following Mr Ganley. The stakes are that high for him but they are much higher for the country.