The decision of the Taoiseach and the Government to hold a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty and to reject the result of last June’s referendum was strongly criticised by speakers at a Public Meeting on the Treaty organised by the People’s Movement in Sligo this week.
Mr Kevin McCorry, a member of the National Executive of the People’s Movement said “In last years Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, the No majority represented a greater percentage of voters (53.4%) than voted for Barack Obama (52.9%) in the US Presidential elections. Yet the Irish Government has given a commitment that it will still ratify the Treaty. To do that it must overturn the clear and unequivocal decision of the 862,415 Irish voters who voted against ratification in the June 2008 referendum.
“The Irish Government must hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty because the Irish Supreme Court laid down in a landmark 1987 case that as sovereignty rests with the people in our Republic, only they can surrender it to the EU by referendum or else refuse to surrender it as occurred with the Lisbon referendum. The purpose of last June’s referendum was to change the Irish constitution so as to make EU law superior to Irish law in the areas set out in the Lisbon Treaty.
"By voting No to Lisbon, Ireland is refusing to allow a profoundly undemocratic EU in the form of a Federation to be foisted on the peoples of Europe when opinion polls show that the peoples of most Member States do not want this and would reject it if given the opportunity to vote on it. That is the reason why the Prime Ministers of the EU Member States gave a commitment to one another when they signed the Lisbon Constitution to avoid referendums at all costs.” said Mr McCorry.
Cllr. Declan Bree told the meeting “All of us are now aware that the policies of deregulation, where the market and greed rule the economy, have caused the present economic crisis. These policies are an intrinsic part of Lisbon. The Lisbon Treaty was cut from the very same cloth that caused this economic catastrophe
“Within hours of the referendum result being announced last June the European elite in Brussels, Berlin and Paris, and the Irish establishment, bankers and speculators, were insisting that the Treaty was still alive and that Ireland must vote again. These are the same people who were telling us that the Lisbon Treaty would enhance democracy in the European Union and these are the same people who are largely responsible for the chaos this county finds itself in today.
“At the end of the referendum count last June, the Taoiseach Brian Cowen said ‘The will of the people as expressed at the ballot box is sovereign. The Government accepts and respects the verdict of the Irish people’. However, within a very short period he and the leadership of Fianna Fail reneged on that commitment and said that the ratification process must continue.
“The fact is that a second Lisbon referendum will be on exactly the same Treaty which we rejected last June. Not one single word will be changed in the Treaty. Not one legal obligation will be changed. The same Lisbon Treaty will again be presented to the people of Ireland for ratification.” said Cllr Bree.
Mr Brian Scanlon, who presided at the meeting, said the Lisbon Treaty was a bad deal for Ireland. “It gives the EU too much power and reduces our ability to stop decisions that are not in Ireland’s interests”.