Minister of State for European Affairs Dick Roche has made a vigorous and welcome case that the Government should not opt out of the justice and home affairs clauses of the European Union reform treaty which is expected to be agreed next month.
In doing so he has, unusually, signalled disagreement at Cabinet level with the Department of Justice, which has supported an opt out from proposals to pool sovereignty on issues such as cross-border crime, terrorism and immigration. Mr Roche makes the convincing case that Ireland would lose influence in the European mainstream if it follows this route, since "Britain is seen as Eurosceptic and semi-detached at European level".
Most ordinary people want to see more transnational co-operation on these issues. The matters concerned are daily growing in importance and will make up an increasing part of the EU agenda in coming years. It is important that politicians recognise this, rather than rely on outdated, conservative interpretations of legal sovereignty which impede effective action on cross-border crime and judicial measures to combat it. Ireland's legal position is normally well enough protected to withstand being pooled and if not the political benefits of co-operation outweigh the legal drawbacks.
Mr Roche acknowledges that the Department of Justice traditionally takes a different view, as do many lawyers. It is a political choice at this stage.
When the reform treaty was agreed in Brussels last June Taoiseach Bertie Ahern negotiated a right for Ireland to follow the UK, stressing the common border and similar legal systems. After a flurry of concern in the trade union movement over a similar potential opt out from social provisions in the Charter of Fundamental Rights, Mr Ahern made it clear the Government would not exercise it.
The charter will not be included in the reform treaty but will have legal force through a cross reference from the text. The Green Party, which is also debating the treaty, will have to decide whether it supports Mr Roche.
The June summit gave a strict mandate for drafting the new reform treaty to replace the constitutional treaty which fell after its defeat in the 2005 French and Dutch referendums. It has been stripped of the symbolic trappings but, otherwise, its advocates say that its contents remain much the same. That is a difficult stance to sell to the general public. It will make it all the more important for the whole Government to mount a strong political campaign in its favour. The changing attitude of the Green Party will be interesting in this respect.