The Government should show "genuine patriotism by admitting that the [Amsterdam] treaty has not been sufficiently examined and is being rushed through with far too much haste", the National Party suggested yesterday.
Presenting the party's campaign for a No vote, its leader, Mrs Nora Bennis, told a press conference in Limerick that they were "joining the voice of the small but growing opposition which is gaining momentum in the country".
She claimed that people were being denied their democratic right to know what was in the treaty as there had not been adequate debate on the matter.
"There is no doubt," said Mrs Bennis, "that the Amsterdam Treaty diminishes our freedom and power of self-determination, and transfers that freedom and power to the Euro-Titanics. It is important to know that there is no provision for going back or for withdrawing."
She said that if the treaty was ratified, Ireland would be locked in permanently to a "monolithic monster".
There was, she said, no commitment to full employment in the treaty. The party was also "very concerned about the inclusion of human rights clauses. All the member-states are already bound by the European Convention on Human Rights".
There were "too many loopholes in this treaty", she added.
Mr Jack Fitzpatrick, the party's chairman, said they had been trying in vain for 12 months to get a debate on the issue. The party, he said, received no public funds for its campaign.