Constitution may need amendment to protect human rights, says expert

EUROPEAN LAW:THE "OPEN door policy" towards European law has become more and more dangerous, not just because of the Lisbon Treaty, but also because of the "dynamic progression of jurisprudence" in the European Court of Justice, a Dáil committee was told yesterday.

Trinity law professor William Binchy told the sub-committee on Ireland's Future in the European Union that a constitutional amendment should be considered by Ireland to protect the country's values on human rights and dignity.

Committee chairman Senator Paschal Donohoe also confirmed yesterday that the committee had invited anti-Lisbon Treaty group Libertas to appear before it and that it was in discussions with the organisation.

Prof Binchy told the committee he believed that within EU law there were dangers to human dignity, partly due to the respect for "service and rights to access service".

"There are serious concerns within the EU venture with respect to abortion," he said.

Mr Donohoe asked Prof Binchy if he could give an example of a case that undermined human rights.

Prof Binchy said one case had dealt with abortion information and though its ruling was not of concern, its manner of analysis in "treating abortion as a service" was of concern.

If Irish values around human dignity were compromised by a development in Europe, it would seem prudent to address that before rather than after, he said. An amendment to the Constitution could achieve that.

Maureen Junker Kenny, ethicist at TCD, said embryo protection was an Irish matter first of all and there was currently less protection for the unborn in Ireland than elsewhere.

She said the lack of debate and decisions in Ireland about biomedical conventions had been striking.

"Unlike other democracies, the Dáil has not debated or voted on matters such as . . . the use of embryonic stem cells, pre-implantation genetic diagnosis or end-of- life care," she said.

She said Ireland's former allies in the EU deplored the country's decision to change sides from being part of the blocking minority of countries opposing the use of embryonic cells to supporting it, and this had not been communicated to the Irish public.

Appearing yesterday morning before the committee, Prof John Fitzgerald, head of research at the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), said the Government would not have been required to guarantee foreign banks in Ireland if the country had ratified the Lisbon Treaty.

When the Government gave a €460 billion guarantee for the banks, the EU Commission raised questions on the grounds of competition law, the committee was told. As a result, Ireland offered a further guarantee to non-Irish banks within the country.

"The Irish solution to the banks' problem was probably not the best, but the commission's response was wholly inappropriate and not justified," Prof Fitzgerald said.

"The reason they took it was because Ireland had no friends."

He said the UK had already interfered with competition by guaranteeing Northern Rock, but no one had raised that.

"It might have been better if we had warned them ahead of making the move, but even though we didn't, the response was over the top," he said.

He said Ireland was now perceived as rich and selfish and we had few friends in the EU.

He also said that he believed that the Government would have to go down the route of recapitalisation of the banks in the longer term.