Lisbon vote, part 2, should be brought forward to June

THE saying that “it never rains but it pours” has never been so true as now for Ireland.

Coping with the property market bubble bursting, the global economic climate and the exposure of Irish banks and the entire economy, the Government has still to deal with the issue of the Lisbon Treaty and its relationship with the EU.

When the idea of giving the job of Irish commissioner to EU’s US ambassador, John Bruton was floated, the Government reacted with alarm. “We don’t have to think about that just yet”, was the reaction.

In much the same way the issue of Ireland’s second vote on the Lisbon Treaty was skilfully shelved until after the summer break.

It was done on the basis that politically it was better to separate the vote on the treaty from the June elections to the European Parliament.

And this was achieved by saying the lawyers needed time to put into legal language the agreements and guarantees conceded to the Irish in December.

This of course is eyewash. Lawyers and diplomats are not that slow when it comes to ensuring their national interests are not impinged by any clauses for the Irish.

Now any fear that holding the referendum in June would give oxygen to the “no” camp not just in Ireland but also throughout the EU has been knocked on the head by last week’s events in Strasbourg.

On Monday the Parliament rubber-stamped the application by Libertas to qualify as a pan-European party, entitling them to a flat €100,000 grant and another €120,000 since they had three MEPs signed up as members.

But almost immediately it became apparent that in their zeal to show they were fair and unbiased, the parliament failed to check the signatories to the Libertas application.

Two of their members, one from Estonia and one from Bulgaria, insisted they did not intend to give their support to Declan Ganley’s party and so deprived him of the seven nationalities he required.

This immediately led to the parliament withdrawing funds and beginning its investigation of the group’s application. It also destroyed the credibility of Libertas, despite its lavish offices and burgeoning staff.

The increasingly hysterical reactions from Libertas did little to help. And publishing photos of documents containing the personal details of their Estonian member, including his signature, email address and mobile number on Flickr.com suggested they had little regard for private data.

Added to this was the Fine Gael poll that showed Mr Ganley coming last in a field of eight if he ran for election to the European Parliament in June, with less than 5% of the vote.

The recession seems to have ended much of the fun among Irish voters who enjoyed thinking they were omnipotent, and voting without even checking out the details of what they were deciding.

So if the people are getting back to basics perhaps it’s time the Government found time to do the same and hold the Lisbon Treaty re-run vote in June. This time perhaps both the politicians and the people might be prepared to take their responsibility seriously.

Bringing forward the vote won’t win us any kudos with the rest of the EU for whom we will remain a strange, ungrateful ignorant bunch closely linked with Libertas, but it would help the country and the rest of the union move on to saving the fragile economic system from collapse.

And if the Fianna Fáil government could cross party lines and nominate the former Fine Gael taoiseach John Bruton, it would show they do not regard the commission as a convenient place to park people and it would lead to Ireland getting a serious portfolio.