Treaty errs on side of caution

The agreement is not as controversial as Lisbon and Nice were, says Tom O’Malley

GIVEN the relative frequency of constitutional amendments nowadays, it seems strange to recall that the amendment adopted in 1972 to facilitate Ireland’s entry to the European Economic Community was only the third amendment to the Constitution which had been enacted 35 years earlier.

It was the first amendment adopted by referendum. The 1972 amendment allowed Ireland to ratify the three central treaties which then constituted the EEC and, importantly, provided that nothing contained elsewhere in the Constitution could be invoked to invalidate any laws or measures which were necessitated by our membership of what is now the EU.