From the Irish Times
“Extraneous issues are used opportunistically by our opponents in an effort to garner support for their weaker case, to create confusion about the treaty provisions themselves, to raise fears, worries and concerns needlessly in an effort to win support. Theirs has been, frankly, a dishonest campaign,”
In a sentence, how the f*&k (to use his favourite word) does Cowen know whether these issues are extraneous when he hasn’t even had the decency to read the thing? Let’s leave deciding whether conduct is dishonest to the tribunals, shall we? Of course BIFFOT doesn’t think we’ll be able to renegotiate it. OK, here’s the thing about a referendum. It’s supposed to be the voters’ decision. If the EU is an organisation which coerces us into ratifying agreements that we don’t want to then what does that say for the EU?
The provisions of our constitution prevent the government from agreeing to constitutional changes with external parties (e.g. the EU) on our behalf. A vote is required. In that respect our constitution has been revealed to be a farsighted document. I appreciate this is not uniform and it’s overtly catholic values are problematic but the provisions for agreeing ammendments via referenda are a truly wonderful thing.
Also, it was a bit of a faux pas to let John Gormley know where he stood in the pecking order by not inviting him to their politico love-in. That could end up biting them in the butt in the near future considering the general stability of FF coalitions.