'Costas arrangement of the EU flag' image by Dr Konstantinos Drakakis
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Micheál Martin, TD, has announced the publication of an additional report by Professor Richard Sinnott and a team from the UCD Geary Institute on voting behaviour in the Lisbon Treaty referendum.
The report sheds further light on the reasons behind last year’s referendum result. It highlights public concern at the time that Ireland would lose its right to a European Commissioner.
Commenting on the report, Minister Martin said that "Ireland has now secured an important agreement which responds directly to various public concerns that are highlighted in Professor Sinnott’s study.
We now have a clear choice to make regarding Irish membership of the European Commission. If the Lisbon Treaty enters into force, the Commission to be appointed later this year and all future Commissions will have an Irish member. This concession to Ireland deals with a key reservation that Irish people had about the Lisbon Treaty last year.
In addition, we are to receive legally-binding guarantees in the areas of taxation, defence and neutrality and on certain provisions of our Constitution relating to the right to life, education and the family.
Our European partners are ready to give us the legal guarantees we require. This amounts to a very significant European response to the verdict of the Irish people last June. When these legal guarantees are finalised, they will provide a highly positive basis for a referendum later in the year," Minister Martin said.
The report, prepared by Richard Sinnott, Professor of Political Science at UCD School of Politics and International Relations and a team from UCD’s Geary Institute, indicates that a prime concern was that there should always be an Irish member of the European Commission, with 80% of Irish people believing this to be an important issue.
The report also points to the impact of fears about conscription, Ireland’s control over its corporation tax and interference with our policy on abortion. It also indicates that the positive Irish attitude to the EU was the strongest single factor affecting those who voted Yes. Prof Sinnott’s report also shows that a low level of knowledge about Europe and about the Treaty made people more likely to abstain or to vote No.
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