Forum on Europe rejects scapegoating over Lisbon defeat

CHAIRMAN OF the Forum on Europe Maurice Hayes has staunchly defended the body against attempts to "scapegoat" it in the wake of the defeat of the Lisbon Treaty.

"I wasn't aware we were supposed to make up for the deficiencies of the education system," or for the failure of political parties to get their vote out, he said, appearing before the Oireachtas European Affairs committee.

Mr Hayes said the forum did not wish to be scapegoated, "in the same way we wouldn't have taken credit if there had been a Yes vote".

Earlier, former government minister Mary O'Rourke said it would be a "very foolish route we're going if we think we can have another referendum".

She believed that if the Lisbon Treaty was to be accepted, it would have to be "passed in some other fashion because a referendum won't work".

She fully understood the "chagrin" of Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin at a Eurosceptic English group carrying out a survey on Irish attitudes to the treaty, but she noted there had been "no comment on what Irish people actually said" in the survey, and the majority opposed the treaty.

Fine Gael MEP Gay Mitchell claimed the forum was "only speaking to elites", and it was time for the Oireachtas to "take back power" rather than giving it to some further commission outside the Oireachtas.

He said: "TDs and senators have ended up with all the responsibility, and none of the power."

The party's European Affairs spokeswoman Lucinda Creighton said "the format and concept of the forum is completely wrong", and said that there were Leaving Certificate students achieving 600 points who "don't have a clue" of the difference between the European Commission and the European Council.

Mr Hayes pointed out that when the forum was established in the wake of the first Nice treaty, the turnout went from 34 per cent to 50 per cent for the second referendum.

With the Lisbon vote it went up to 53 per cent, and "suddenly that's wrong because it's 'No' ", he added.

Mr Hayes agreed that it was "absolutely proper" to have the debate, and that there was "very little point in putting in a lot of effort if that effort was wrongly directed".

But "the Irish political system doesn't handle referendums well. Political parties are very good at selling themselves, but not referendums."

He wondered how it was that political parties could capture up to 85 per cent of the vote in a Dáil election, "but can't get 50 per cent" in a vote on Europe.

He pointed out that the Yes campaign was 10 per cent ahead at one point. "Then the three political party leaders came out together and instinctively you would think it would go up, and the opposite happened."

Independent Senator Feargal Quinn expressed serious concern that the Tories could be elected sooner rather than later in Britain and would call a referendum on Europe, and there was a "real danger" of Ireland being back in a UK scenario and isolated from Europe.