Politicians must voice concerns now

One of the most surprising aspects of the Mahon report was the silence of ministers and TDs throughout the Celtic Tiger years.

The same ministers and TDs sat in silence when we voted No to the Nice and Lisbon treaties. After the Nice Treaty, the then-Taoiseach Bertie Ahern told us we didn’t know what we were doing, and with the help of the courts we were forced to unconstitutionally vote again.

In the wake of the Mahon Tribunal it is clearer than ever. We knew exactly what we were doing by voting No to Nice, and an apology is long overdue to the Irish people by the members of the then-Fianna Fáil-led government for not honouring the democratic choice we made.