Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-06-18-Speech-3-035"
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"en.20080618.2.3-035"2
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"Mr President, if you are looking to me to make sense of the Irish vote on the Lisbon Treaty, look away: I cannot. But while I am deeply disappointed with the result, of one thing I am sure: we must accept it as the democratic will of the people and respect it.
A measured response to the genuine concerns of the Irish electorate is called for, but we must not appease the extremists. When the dust settles, I hope colleagues will agree with me that a two-speed Europe is not the answer but the beginning of the end of our Union, the most successful democratic peace project of our time.
It has always been easier to peddle fear than hope. A famous Irish politician, one of our own – James Dillon – once said: ‘a lie well told and told often enough, I am damned if the truth would ever catch up with it’. It did not. We failed to distinguish fact from fiction in the minds of a sufficient number of our electorate, despite the valiant efforts of our Director of Elections, Gay Mitchell, and my colleagues. It is now up to our new Taoiseach, who has had an inauspicious start, to come up with a solution.
What a turn-up for the history books, as I look behind me here today to see a motley collection of extreme right-wing British colleagues, including Jim Allister and the odd British jailbird thrown in for good measure, all donning the green jersey, demanding respect for the Irish vote.
How the history books could have been written differently if respect for the Irish vote from British colleagues was always there! How things could have been different! How many lives could have been saved! I welcome it – albeit very late. We must all respect the Irish vote.
He had a lot of time practising behind bars; maybe he could shut up now for a moment...
One of the Irish Members in this House, who has already spoken this morning, distributed leaflets during the campaign with a syringe on them. Perhaps she could tell this House where in the Lisbon Treaty euthanasia is provided for, where in the Lisbon Treaty abortion, prostitution, corporate tax decision, risks to the Irish neutrality lie. I await the truth.
The Irish Government must analyse the outcome calmly, to establish exactly what happened within the Treaty text that our electorate voted against, and they must provide answers acceptable not just to naysayers in Ireland but also to all other Member State governments and their citizens who, in my opinion, are also entitled to have their say and express their position, and we must respect that also."@en1
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"(Protests from certain members of the IND/DEM Group)"1
"(Protests in the background)"1
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