UNCERTAINTY OVER the future of the Lisbon Treaty is affecting Ireland's interests, Taoiseach Brian Cowen said yesterday.
Speaking at a business round table in Dublin organised by the Economist, Mr Cowen said Ireland needs to assess where its interests lie. "I would make the point that the empirical evidence is very strongly in favour of Ireland being part of an integrated European economy," he said.
While the Government respects the decision of the people to vote No, if Ireland doesn't proceed with the next stage of the ratification process "there will be consequences".
The Taoiseach was responding to a question from Terence O'Rourke, managing partner of KPMG, who said the Lisbon Treaty needed to be "ratified as soon as possible" because Ireland's decision was being questioned in US boardrooms.
Mr Cowen told the conference: "We need to come back and say to the Irish people honestly, here is what is on offer from the European Union, do we wish to revisit this question or do we not?
"If 26 other partners want to proceed in a certain direction and we . . . are not going to respond in a positive and constructive way to address that issue, then there are consequences," he said.
Other countries had "indicated they can be helpful in some respects . . . but they're also making it very clear they don't have an interest in re-ratifying or amending the treaty in a substantive way".
On the economy, Mr Cowen warned there will be job losses and he set out four challenges for the Government: to manage the economic adjustment process set out in this year's Budget; to develop a credible budgetary strategy; to modernise and reform the public sector; and to deal with the continuing financial crisis.
Mr Cowen criticised the portrayal, in some quarters, of the Irish economy as a "building site", saying it was much more sophisticated than that.
He said we now have to "work within our means", and he called on business leaders to play their role in weathering the economic storm.
"The Government needs allies, and we need business leaders to stand up; trade union leaders need to stand up," he said.
