The Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms Sile de Valera, said yesterday she remained seriously concerned about the future direction of the European Union.
Her personal reading of how people voted in the Nice Treaty referendum was that they were sending a "warning sign", not only to the Government but to all political parties, that they were not in favour of further European integration.
"That's something that we have to take on board and consider very, very carefully," she said. She had voted for the treaty because that was Government policy, and urged others to do so, but her opinions had not changed since her speech given in Boston last September.
"I had expressed serious concerns and those concerns I still very much share, they weren't in fact concerns that were expressed in the Nice Treaty," she explained.
The Minister said there were a number of reasons why people voted against the Nice Treaty, including opposition to a united Europe, and concern about tax harmonisation or military alliances. "What we need to do now is to look very carefully at the decision of the Irish people, who have made a very definite decision on this."
Afterwards, the Green Party TD Mr John Gormley asked why Ms de Valera had not spo ken out before the referendum vote. Meanwhile, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said that under international treaty agreement law the EU enlargement process could not be finalised until everybody was in agreement. "At this stage it looks as if we would be the only one in a position not to do so. That would be, I think, not really what the Irish people wanted to do."
He said this would be "hugely damaging" to Ireland. "So I think we have to work out, taking account fully of the democratic views of the Irish people and what concerns they had and at the same time not put the EU enlargement process on hold by the end of next year."
Mr Ahern said the Government would be having discussions this week and listening to the views of the other parties who supported the Nice Treaty in the Dail.
"We have to reflect on what the democratic view of the Irish people was last week. We also have to look at the concerns that they have expressed and analyse those to the best of our ability, and to try and plot a way forward for enlargement, which was what the Nice Treaty was." He said he did not believe the Irish people "want to knock the enlargement process off course".