Lisbon guarantees for the Irish

Q&A

Is there a possibility that Ireland will hold an early referendum on the Lisbon treaty, prior to the autumn?
“The formal position is the government has not made a decision on this.”
What stage are you at with the legal guarantees?
“I would be confident that we would have them resolved before June... We're sticking very closely to what was agreed in December; we're not looking for anything more than that.”
Does the possibility of a delay to the Croatian accession treaty present any problem for Ireland since the legal guarantees will be included in it?
“What we're saying is that [we will seek] the first available opportunity. The important issue is that there is a commitment to attach the legal guarantees to a treaty... If something comes before that, then that's an opportunity.”
Are there any other issues you are working on?
“We're working on other issues outside the domain of the European college, in some recommendations from the Oireachtas [Irish parliament] committee in relation to parliamentary scrutiny... My own preference is that there should be far more briefings of Oireachtas committees prior to ministers going to Brussels. It happens in a number of cases but not as a general norm.”
How will you run this referendum campaign differently?
“The clear message from the research is that the more knowledge people had of the EU, the more knowledge they had of the Lisbon treaty and the more inclined they were to vote ‘Yes'. The less knowledge people had of the treaty and the EU, the more likely they were to vote ‘No'. So we are already working on plans to communicate more about Europe generally, not just on Lisbon. I am developing a European communications plan next week...There will be people outside the main established political parties, they will be young people, women's organisations and individual women generally, business groups and trade union activists who are pro-Europe and upset at the outcome and anxious to work on a civil society forum in favour of Lisbon...The way the issue will have to be presented the next time is that it is in your interest to vote ‘Yes', it's in your interest and your family's interest to vote ‘Yes', not in Fianna Fáil's interest per se, not in Fine Gael's, not in Labour's. That presentation is important.”
Will the financial crisis help or hinder the campaign?
“Evidence would seem to suggest that the financial crisis has focused people's minds on the necessity of belonging to a group, that there's a better chance of surviving the economic crisis when you are an active member of a group as opposed to being on the margins.”
How will you answer charges from the ‘No' camp that the proposed regulation of the financial sector could hurt an open-system like Ireland's?
“I don't think we'd oppose such regulation. I think the idea of regulation of financial services has been well made by the behaviour of the financial services sector itself. We're talking about smart regulation.”