THE GERMAN ambassador to Ireland has defended remarks he made at a cultural event in Tralee, Co Kerry, in which he warned of the consequences of a second rejection of the Lisbon Treaty.
Christian Pauls was reported to have told an audience gathered for the official launch of a partnership between Tralee and the Frankfurt- Höchst Schlossfest that Ireland would “throw away its future” if it voted No in a second referendum on the treaty.
Ireland could not have an a la carte approach to Europe and simply pick and choose what it liked, he said, according to local media reports of the event which took place on Monday.
The ambassador was also said to have noted that rural regions such as Kerry returned a much higher No vote than urban areas in last year’s referendum.
He reportedly made pointed references to those who “complain about other nations fishing in their waters. . . and forget who pays their milk subsidies”.
Informed of the reports yesterday, Mr Pauls told The Irish Timesthat while he could not recall using "those exact words", he admitted that he had said "something along those lines" at the event.
“The reports make it sound like I was lecturing Ireland and the Irish but it was not meant to be aggressive or demeaning,” he said.
“A second No would have horrific consequences for Ireland and I am not the first to say it. I don’t think there is anything particularly new in that.”
The ambassador rejected suggestions his remarks could be considered undiplomatic. “They are not. I am simply conveying what my government thinks. That is my job.”
Mr Pauls said that in the run-up to the first referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, foreign diplomats based in Ireland had “stayed quiet” on the issue because they did not want to be seen as interfering in the Irish vote. The ambassador said he no longer considered this necessary.
“We are in a different stage in the ballgame now. . . Everybody seems to be forgetting that this is a family issue involving 27 family members. I find the prospect of a second No frightening and I am going to continue making that case.”
Anti-Lisbon Treaty group Libertas criticised the ambassador’s remarks, describing them as “unacceptable” and “insulting” to Irish voters.
“Ambassador Pauls’s statement is utterly false, and is a disgusting attempt to bully ordinary people down a course that he has chosen for them,” said Libertas founder Declan Ganley. “It is absolutely extraordinary for a foreign diplomat to try to tell the Irish people what way to vote.”
It is not the first time Mr Pauls has provoked controversy. In September 2007, he was reprimanded by the Government for comments he made during an unscripted speech to a group of visiting German industrialists. The ambassador later claimed parts of the speech, which the Department of Foreign Affairs described as “inaccurate, misinformed and inappropriate”, had been mistranslated. He admitted describing Irish history as “sadder than Poland’s” but denied using the word “coarse” to describe Ireland.