Looking ahead to federal Europe vote

Finally, with the head of Europe, Angela Merkel, along with EU President Barrosso, ECB head Draghi and other financial spokesperson, publicly advocating a federal Europe, I look forward to our Government and national media debating the pros and cons on such a radical path, especially when rejected in 2005 when it was put to the people of France and the Netherlands.

I feel sure the lessons learnt from previous Irish EU referenda, where scare tactics were the main tool employed, will be heeded and a democratic mandate is achieved ahead of any European meeting, especially for such a monumental change to our once sovereign State.

Anything less would bracket Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore into the same historical context as ”Cornwallis, the Lord Lieutenant, and his chief secretary Robert Stewart” from the 1801 Act of Union, especially with the upcoming centenary of the result of that Act coming in four years’ time.