Seanad Report: The Minister of State with responsibility for European Affairs, Mr Dick Roche, said he believed that the final report of the European Convention, due to be presented this week, would have the broad support of that body as a whole and that there would be solid foundations on which to base the work of the Inter-Governmental Conference (IGC) later this year.
The agenda for the IGC would in large part determine its length. "It cannot be ruled out that it will extend into Ireland's EU presidency. If that is the case the Government would be honoured to take its work forward and, if necessary, to conclude it."
Mr Roche said he thought that the convention had been a tremendous success. It had made substantial progress in a wide range of areas that might have been deemed unthinkable.
Mr Roche made clear his regret that there was no reference to God in the proposed EU constitution. He said that one commentator had made the point that it was not the devil that was in the detail, but it was God that was in the detail, even if he had not made his appearance so far in the preamble. He agreed with that observation.
Dr Maurice Hayes (Ind) said he was not sure what the form of the incorporation of the charter of fundamental rights would be. As he understood it, there were horizontal provisions which related the operation of the charter to the agencies and instruments of the Union rather than to what was done domestically.
"I must say I was rather shaken by the very last clause - I think it is No. 54 - which purports to say that none of these rights can be used to question the rights that are already there or to secure any limitation of those.
"I know where these people are coming from, but it is a long, long way from the language of the first amendment in the American constitution. This is one of those cases where I would rather be closer to Philadelphia, if you like, than to Berlin."
He hoped that the Minister would examine whether there was not a danger of a truncation of the right to free speech that was in the Irish Constitution.
"I know why it is there, but I think robust democracy should be strong enough to take very robust criticism as well," added Dr Hayes.
Mr Feargal Quinn (Ind) called for the introduction of a tax on salt for health reasons. He said that figures published in Britain last Monday showed that a major cause of strokes and heart attacks was the amount of salt in food.
There had been such a tax in this country and in Britain hundreds of years ago and its reintroduction should be considered.
Mr David Norris (Ind) intervened to say that a tax on salt had caused the French Revolution. "The peasants will be revolting again if we are not careful," he observed to some laughter.