Failure to hold a second vote on the Nice Treaty would be "undemocratic because the majority of the members of this House were elected on a clear mandate to do just that" the Minister for Justice said today.
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Minister for Justice, Mr Michael McDowell
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On the second day of a special Dáil debate on the upcoming referendum, Mr McDowell called for an endorsement of the Treaty, saying: "Nice is the negotiated plan for enlargement. It is the only plan for enlargement".
He said to reject the treaty is to imply there is some better treaty needed for enlargement; "But no one in this House or outside has ever hinted at any alternative treaty that has a hope of obtaining consensus status".
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He said the Government had responded to the outcome of the last referendum and set up a process of debate and explanation. "We have put in place the Seville declarations to counter the claimed threat to Irish neutrality which we failed to do adequately on the last occasion".
"Nice does not involve a military pact for Ireland," the Minister said.
But Socialist Party leader Mr Joe Higgins protested at what he described as the "wholly unsatisfactory arrangements" made by the Government for adequate speaking time for those opposed to the treaty.
"At the heart of the Nice Treaty is to advance a regime . . . an agenda which suits above all economic interests and the military interests of the armaments industry within the EU," he said.
"What is at the core of the Nice Treaty is a strategy to create a very powerful capitalist economic block within which the major multinational companies will be able to operate freely in pursuit of maximisation of their profits".
He described the information guide which has been sent out to every household in the country as "deliberately minimalist".
The debate on the treaty was delayed as the Fine Gael leader Mr Enda Kenny proposed a vote on whether to hold a debate on the economy. His motion was defeated.
