Roche claims Libertas trying to mislead public

THERE IS “absolutely no question that a referendum could be ruled out by the Lisbon reform treaty or avoided by the Government”, Minister of State for European Affairs Dick Roche has insisted. “Those who suggest otherwise are guilty of trying to mislead the public,” he said in the Dáil.

The Minister was responding to Fine Gael European Affairs spokeswoman Lucinda Creighton who expressed concern at claims on the website of the Libertas organisation “that this will be the last say on Europe for a generation for Irish people”.

She said “Libertas also claims there will be no need for the EU to ever again consult the Irish people”.

Ms Creighton asked the Minister to “address the allegation that Article 48 is a devious, self-amending clause that allows the European political elite to avoid the necessity for further referendums”.

Mr Roche said “the suggestion that this is a self-amending treaty and that if the treaty is to be changed in any significant way in the future, the Irish people could simply be ignored, is not true. It is not based on any fact.”

The Minister of State, referring to Article 48 on which the claims arose, said it “has been the subject of some of the most extraordinary distortions during the public debate on the reform treaty. Any suggestion that the treaty prevents any future referendum on EU issues is a complete misrepresentation”.

He said the treaty provided for ordinary and simplified revision procedures. “Under the ordinary revision procedure, the treaty requires that the constitutional requirements of the member state be completed before entry into force of any amendment to the treaties.”

Mr Roche added that the ordinary procedure “is essentially the procedure currently provided for amending the existing treaties”. In Ireland this “will continue to mean that advice will sought from the Attorney General on each occasion as to the procedures required. As has always been the case, this could mean ratification by referendum, legislation or a Government decision.”

He added that the Referendum Commission, an independent body, “confirms this position on its website”.

Earlier Mr Roche told Pat Breen (FG, Clare) that the Government could use its veto on the World Trade Organisation talks. “I give a clear affirmative on that,” he said.

Mr Breen said it was “obvious that it was only following the march by 10,000 farmers in Dublin two weeks ago that the Government woke up to the problem we face.

“This issue does not only concern the farming lobby, but our national interest is at stake, given that we are the fourth-largest exporter of beef in the world,” he said.

Referring to the WTO talks and concerns about the negotiations by external trade commissioner Peter Mandelson, Mr Breen said the president of Sinn Féin, Gerry Adams, had said during a meeting of the Forum on Europe “that in the event of the treaty being passed by the Irish people that the Irish Government would not be able to use its veto at the WTO talks”.

Insisting that the Lisbon Treaty and the WTO talks were not connected, Mr Roche said that “irrespective of where we are in our internal referendum, under European law, if and when a decision is made at the WTO talks, it must come back to and be unanimously agreed in council.”