Hands up if you love Lisbon!

By Ruth Feeley

Time is running out and decisions need to be made. This time last year, every Irish conversation couldn’t but touch on the big L-word, i.e. Lisbon. This year, Lisbon seems to have taken a back seat, mores the pity as it should play a big role as to whom we choose to represent us on the European platform.

Last year, leading Irish political parties took a major blow in a European context when the people of Ireland rejected the treaty. Ireland was regarded as an embarrassment to Europe as well as ungrateful and foolish. MEPs were supposedly given the cold shoulder in the aftermath of what many regarded as a misinformed Irish decision. While surveys would show that the no campaign has taken a knock in the last year with people realising that we are in a royal mess and we may very well have to return to Europe with our tails between our legs for help, the jury is still out on whither a yes vote will be returned next time around.

Now is the time to make up our minds for once and for all because it might be worth taking your stance on Lisbon into account when choosing an MEP on Friday.

Green Party MEP candidate Senator Deirdre De Burca today urged voters to choose their third European Parliament representative with great care. She advised voters to choose someone committed to a properly re-negotiated Lisbon Treaty and sensible economics aimed at growth and jobs. De Burca went on to voice her predictions based on the feedback she has received while out canvassing. She feels that two of the three seats are practically secure for Labour candidate Proinsias De Rossa and Fine Gael candidate Gay Mitchell. Seeing as the Dublin constituency are having their seats reduced from four to three, she feels that only one seat is up for grabs and people should make that all important choice with a pro–Lisbon idea in mind.

She argues that it both Joe Higgins and Mary-Lou Mc Donald shouldn’t be given consideration as they are still insisting on a no vote to Lisbon, which brings it down to herself and Fianna Fáil candidate Eoin Ryan. She says, “He (Eoin Ryan) is a decent man and a good politician. But he's also a long-time part of the political system, which over the last decade created the mess we are now in.”

Either way, we would be selling ourselves short to vote on anything again without knowing some background information. We can’t accuse politicians this time of not making their stance clear. If the Irish people bothered to actually read up on the Lisbon Treaty rather than waiting to be spoon fed, we might garner a more profitable result this time round. We had no one to really blame last time but ourselves. We have more control than we think, so rather than sitting around complaining about our government and European representation, we should get up off our backsides, inform ourselves and choose accordingly.