Seanad report:European Affairs Minister Dick Roche expressed disappointment "to put it mildly" at the decision of Eugene Regan (FG) to accuse the Taoiseach of perjury, within the chamber .
Mr Roche, who was promoting the adoption of the EU reform treaty, said he believed the Mahon tribunal should be allowed to pursue its work in peace and calm. It was not right for any member of the House to attempt to influence that work in a partisan or prejudicial way.
Mr Regan, Fine Gael spokesman on Justice, said that his party fully supported the treaty and the holding of a referendum, though he wondered if there was a legal requirement to hold one.
He said there had been a failure since the adoption of the Nice Treaty to fulfil the promise of having the Oireachtas intimately involved in the scrutiny of EU legislation. In addition, the Government decision to opt out on criminal law matters left it unable to benefit from what he believed would have been the real selling point of the treaty.
Mr Regan said he felt that something the Irish voters would find difficult to ignore was that the main proponent of the treaty, the Taoiseach, could not be trusted to tell the truth even when he was giving evidence on oath.
"The issue here is you have a cover-up in payments received by him in '94 '95, and the entire Fianna Fáil parliamentary party and this government are complicit in that . . . it's an issue that will emerge on the doorsteps."
Mr Roche said the Government would challenge the treaty's opponents to spell out why the balance of the treaty was against this country's interests.
A challenge would also be mounted against those who had consistently opposed the EU to explain how Ireland would be better off without it.
He also stressed that nothing in the treaty could change our neutrality, which remained a matter for the Irish people - "and only the Irish people".
Feargal Quinn (Ind) said that the referendum would confront the Irish people with some of the most important and fundamental questions that had ever been put to them.
In preparing for the referendum, politicians must treat the issue with the seriousness it deserved. "The Irish people will not be bullied or blackmailed into giving one particular answer or the other."
Pearse Doherty (SF) said that the Lisbon Treaty was not in Ireland's interest. "It involves a massive transfer of power to the EU. It significantly accelerates the militarisation of the EU and it advances an economic agenda based on a race to the bottom for wages and workers' rights."
Alex White (Lab) said that while his party would be enthusiastically campaigning for a Yes vote, he had to warn against an approach of telling people that they had no choice but to vote in favour.
A little humility and a willingness to listen to the genuine concern of people could help to produce a positive outcome. There was a danger of confusion from different arguments being made in various EU countries for adoption of the treaty.
David Norris (Ind) called for an inquiry into "the whole area of the Refugee Appeals Tribunal, which is a shame to the citizens of this country".
It was absolutely outrageous that a person who had heard the most appeals and who had apparently boasted openly that he had never allowed one person into the country, had been allowed to withdraw, on health grounds, in the middle of an action taken by someone who had said they would not want their case to be heard in front of him.
Mr Norris said there would have to be an inquiry into the whole refugee system. He wanted to know what rights had the dozens or hundreds of people who had been denied by this man who had been clearly been unfit. Would their cases be re-opened? How were people selected to serve in the appeals system and what were their qualifications?
"Why are they not accountable when they behave in this way? That whole system is rotten."
Mr Norris said he had previously raised the case of an absolutely blameless man whom he knew personally and who had been blackguarded by "some little squirt in the police service".
A black mark had been put on the record of this individual and he had been denied citizenship of this country.
House leader Donie Cassidy said he would bring the strong views of Mr Norris to the attention of the Minister.