So Michael Noonan has decided to "break with consensus" and boycott the proposed Forum for Europe. Mr Noonan correctly points out this Taoiseach's penchant for consensus.

He suggests, and there is more than a grain of truth in his allegation, that this Taoiseach will do anything to avoid making a definitive decision.

Mr Noonan points out, too, the extent of Government division on the issue of Ireland's place in Europe and in that he is surely right. But whether this justifies the decision taken by Fine Gael is another question.

It must be said that Mr Noonan's support for "breaking the consensus" is somewhat new. He was quite prepared to sit in a committee with the Taoiseach to discuss the issue of political funding although he knew the Taoiseach was resolutely opposed to the banning of corporate donations, Mr Noonan's stated goal. He was happy, too, to sit down with the Government to limit the rights of smaller parties to a fair hearing in the Dail. On the issue of abortion, Mr Noonan's opposition to another divisive referendum is less than clear-cut.

Notwithstanding Mr Noonan's and Fine Gael's position, Labour remains prepared to participate in a forum on the future of Europe and Ireland's place in it.

But we reject absolutely Mr Noonan's suggestion that any such forum be confined to spending three months discussing a further referendum on the Nice Treaty. I cannot think of a surer way of bringing about defeat of any possible second referendum.

Ideally, I believe the optimum outcome for Ireland would be that the Nice Treaty be bypassed and that the IGC planned for 2004 be fast-tracked. The Commission President, Romano Prodi, has suggested as much. That is a decision that will have to be taken by all the member-states together.

Fine Gael has correctly pointed out that Labour's original proposal for a Forum on Europe was designed precisely to deal with the critical questions thrown up by the 2004 IGC - designated under Nice to resolve some of the fundamental issues around Europe's constitutional framework.

It is no threat, merely a statement of reality, that if Ireland cannot sign up to what is agreed there, then the implications for our EU membership are quite profound. At best, we will be putting ourselves very clearly in the second tier of Union membership.

All the more reason to prepare properly to debate the issues involved. We must avoid at our peril another debate, like that on Nice, that took place too quickly, primarily among political and intellectual elites and where the public felt excluded.

Mr Noonan highlights the centrality of the Dail in public life and on that we are agreed also. But it would be foolhardy not to acknowledge that much of the opposition to Nice arose outside the Dail. Indeed, it was probably given momentum by the failure of the Dail to adequately debate the treaty. At one stage the Government wanted to debate all stages of the Referendum Bill in one day. It is Labour, not Fine Gael, whose European Union Bill on accountability seeks to remedy that problem.

Labour's submission to the Government on the make-up of the forum highlights the significance of the European summit in Belgium at the end of the year. That summit will decide on the structure of the debate about the "future of Europe" IGC.

Ireland's preparations for that summit and this debate have been woefully inadequate. A quick glance at the EU website proves that. Other leaders have been discussing their visions for Europe while typically our Taoiseach has been silent. Fine Gael has hardly been vocal either. Nonetheless, we need to start taking positions on this and we will need to take them soon.

Before the referendum on the Nice Treaty, Labour argued not just for a forum but a much longer debate on the issues. We suggested that the Oireachtas Committee on European Affairs hold public sessions on attitudes to Nice, with submissions from lobby groups and NGOs.

We made this case not because we ever believed that the European Movement and the National Platform would see eye to eye, but that the electorate be given an opportunity to reflect on their respective positions. Likewise with the Forum on Europe.

There will be no consensus on Ireland's role in Europe. Like Michael Noonan I have no time for the vision of Europe held by the triumvirate of Harney, McDowell and McCreevy, who have dictated the direction of this Government. That said, I doubt Michael Noonan's and his party's commitment to a social Europe also.

I have argued that from a social democratic perspective, the European Union is a forum in which a traditional left-right battle can take place more effectively in the context of a globalised economy. On that front, Fine Gael and this Government are on the conservative side.

Fine Gael seems to perceive that the role of the forum should be to seek consensus, at least a three-month consensus on Nice. Yet at the same time it is eschewing what it describes as "consensus politics". I confess to being perplexed.

But what I find most disturbing is Fine Gael's lack of ambition. This is a party that says it is determined to be in government after the next election.

The Forum for Europe is a vehicle for a debate that has to be had in the context of the 2004 IGC. Any party aspiring to be in government, and hopefully proposing acceptance of negotiations it has participated in and signed off on, will regard it as critical to avoid the same mistakes as were made on Nice. Being seen to have engaged properly with the public will be an essential component of any successful strategy. What suits Fine Gael's short-term tactics now may rebound on it later.

I believe our membership of the European Union is in our national interest. I believe our recent prosperity is dependent upon that membership. I believe that working people and the environment have been the beneficiaries of EU initiatives that would never have been advanced by conservative-dominated Irish governments.

But I have argued for years that our relationship with Europe was changing. I have argued that going from being a financial recipient of EU aid to being a net contributor required a substantial rethink of our relationship with Europe.

I believe that that reassessment needed to go far deeper than the usual pro-European lobby and interests and that it required vision and promotion that this Taoiseach has failed to provide.

If Nice shows us anything it is that the European debate needs to move outside its present narrow confines if its impetus and ideas are to survive.

And that is why Labour's commitment to debating these issues in the national interest remains intact, irrespective of the politicking of Fine Gael or any other parties.