Election should be about Ireland leaving the EU

Instead of an election to send politicians to Europe, we should have a referendum to decide if we want to be a part of the EU.

With Maastricht the last fair treaty of consequence, two generations of Irish citizens haven’t had a say on whether they want to be part of a united Europe. Many people who voted in favour of the Maastricht Treaty hadn’t envisaged how much sovereignty we would cede.

Since 1992, the Irish people have had the Nice Treaty (twice) and the Lisbon Treaty (twice) put to them. Rejection of those treaties was never an option. We have also had the Fiscal Treaty, which was presented as part of the solution to the financial crisis so, despite Brian Hayes’ assertion that our ‘yes’ vote indicated our feelings on Europe, that cannot be taken as endorsement of the EU.