A No vote in the Nice Treaty will be doing the EU a big favour

We are inexorably headed for another referendum on the Nice Treaty in spite of the outcry, even though we've already voted No.

I can’t see any reason for my own vote changing, the main reason being that it copper fastens a bureaucratic form of Government with the larger states having effective control over the union with the new entrants being downgraded to second class states like ourselves.

I didn’t remember this last time round, but now it has emerged that our illustrious foreign minister, unlike many other states (including England), has not applied the rule that the new entrants still have to seek work permits in the other EU states for the first seven years after entry. This leaves Ireland as the only English-speaking state that has elected to allow full free movement immediately upon entry. There are sound reasons for this rule as it would allow catch up in economic development by the new entrants and for any migration flows to be natural ones.

I am well aware that the feeling is there will not be an immediate rush to the more prosperous states, however, even if only a small percentage moved to Ireland, assuming they are entitled to state benefits upon arrival (as are other EU citizens), how many arrivals could we cater for before our Social Services effectively would collapse.

The current enlargement encompasses another 100 million people, even if only a couple of percent decided “Hey, let’s go to Ireland“, we simply couldn’t manage and the Government would be forced into panic measures.

It almost appears the Government is trying to make this a really unattractive proposition and encouraging us to vote No yet again.

When we talk about the Nice Treaty we think of it as a carefully thought out plan for the future of Europe. The opposite is true, it was rushed through the European Parliament with the text only available in French.

As far as I can see, we will be doing Europe a big favour in telling them to go back, think again and bring forward true democratic proposals rather than force through this ill thought out and over bureaucratic treaty.

Richard Ashton,

Gas Yard Lane,

Malahide,

Co Dublin.