Donal Ó Fallúin, Coláiste Cois Life, Lucan, Co Dublin.

IT WASN'T A thousand miles from Killinaskully. Irish people were told in 2001 that they had gone and voted "the wrong way". Some 529,478 of us voted down the Nice Treaty, with just below 39 per cent of us going out to vote on the treaty.

So how terribly undemocratic the whole scene was. The people who were due to pass the treaty, and indeed do so with a considerable margin, never got out of bed and the "No crowd", who couldn't sleep with the thought of threatened neutrality, or being marginalised or pushed about by the big boys of Europe, came out in force to rattle our new friends in Brussels.

We voted again, in 2002. Less than half of us came out again, but we voted the right way. Our neutrality was safe (as we've seen demonstrated so well) and we were back on the wagon. We hadn't embarrassed any of our European friends and, needless to say, there was no reason to vote a third time.

Of course criticism of the EU comes from all kinds of angles, from the left and right. Jean-Marie Le Pen, a far-right French politician and leader of an organisation titled Front National, is just one such right-wing personality opposed to the treaty. It's unlikely any sane individual on the "No" side of the fence would ask Le Pen for the time, never mind assistance in campaigning, but he has openly stated that he would be more than willing to come over here to assist those opposed to the Treaty.

So what exactly happens if we do pass the Lisbon Treaty? Perhaps most worrying is the transition of power from national parliaments in a number of areas. Likewise, the number of European Commissioners would fall to 18. A greater amount of power would be handed to the president of the European Commission.

Now, rather than a rotating president every six months, we would have an elected president, who would serve for a nice old term of two and a half years.

Ultimately, many see the EU as the accumulation of power for a minority of those it represents. Of course, from Le Pen to countless communist parties, and even the odd church group, you'll find many people with many reasons to distrust actions taken by the European Union. The failure to deliver the right to vote on something as major as the

Lisbon Treaty to so many citizens suggests our leaders are very much aware of such scepticism.

Still, terms like European Rapid Reaction Force and the very worrying idea of a centralised United States of Europe-type powerhouse have led many to remain cautious of aspects of the EU.

There is a huge onus on the citizens of this state to vote in any arising referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, as being the only people with power to do so, we hold a huge level of power on the issue. Maybe this time, one vote will suffice!