LEGAL STANDING:GUARANTEES SECURED by the Government on the Lisbon Treaty have the same legal standing as the British-Irish agreement, Minister of State Dick Roche has said.
Defending the legal status of the commitments negotiated by the Government following the defeat of the first Lisbon Treaty referendum last year, the Minister for European Affairs said the guarantees would be lodged with the United Nations if the referendum is passed on October 2nd.
After the last referendum, the Government negotiated a series of “guarantees” on issues including neutrality, abortion and the right to a commissioner for each member state.
Mr Roche said No campaigners were attempting to undermine the guarantees but their legal status was “clear and beyond any doubt”.
“The guarantees will be lodged with the United Nations and because they will be lodged with the United Nations they will have the full force of international law.”
No one had ever questioned the validity of the Good Friday Agreement, which had been lodged with the UN, he said.
Minister for Social and Family Affairs Mary Hanafin defended the minimum wage, which No campaigners had said could drop if the Lisbon Treaty is ratified.
“Because different countries take a different approach to ensuring a basic income for all it has long been agreed that the minimum wage is decided at a national level,” she said.
“This is the case today and will be the case if Lisbon is ratified.”
Speaking at the National Ploughing Championship in Co Kildare, Taoiseach Brian Cowen rejected the contention that the Yes side is using fear about the economy to pressurise people to pass the referendum.
Mr Cowen said there was no basis for that claim and that the “fear factor” was in fact coming from the other side. “We are setting out the facts as they are and are making a very positive case as to why there should be a Yes vote.”
He said that in the case of agribusiness it was important to note that three-quarters of the food and drink sector depended on the European Union for its markets.
He also said the issues affecting agriculture were an indication of how important it is for Ireland to be “shaping the issues” at the heart of the EU.
“There is no doubt that the political consequences of a No vote would see us reducing our ability and lessening the strength of our hand in relation to negotiations coming up. That’s a political fact of life,” he said.
Earlier, Mr Cowen was heckled by a group advocating a No vote as he walked through the enclosure. Some of the group were members of Sinn Féin. They shouted slogans at the Taoiseach, and jostled gardaí who surrounded him.
Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith had been subjected to some jeering when he visited the venue the previous day.
Mr Cowen later said that those protesting should do so in a civilised manner.