Earlier this week, Brian Cowen, the prime minister, showed he didn't know enough about the treaty to answer a straightforward question on how the treaty would affect employment policy in Ireland. Now Enda Kenny, the leader of the main opposition party, Fine Gael, has stumbled over the contents of the treaty. Yesterday he was launching his campaign for a Yes vote. Asked about the proposed switch to 'double majority voting' under Lisbon, Kenny tried to claim that it would boost Ireland's ability to block new EU laws that could hurt Irish business and industry. Wrong. Under Lisbon, Ireland will lose 40 percent of its power to block legislation. What is scary for Ireland is that Kenny is set to head the next government -- another opinion poll this week shows that 85 percent of the Irish do not approve of how the present Fianna Fail-Green coalition is running the country. So the man who will soon be leading his country's negotiations in Brussels imagines he is going to increase his bargaining muscle if he persuades his countrymen to vote Yes, when in fact his muscle will be sliced almost in half. I may owe the Three Stooges an apology for this headline. I doubt even they would tolerate as big a knucklehead as Kenny. Yesterday the Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, launched his party's campaign for a Yes vote, and insisted again that he had read all 306 pages of the treaty. But when an Irish Daily Mail reporter asked him how Lisbon would affect employment policy in Ireland, Mr Cowen could only give a rambling reply that never answered the question. Here is the best the head of the Irish government could come up with on Lisbon and employment policy: 'Clearly, the way it's going to affect employment in Ireland is that by having a Lisbon Treaty passed we'll have more effective decision making in all aspects of both Council, Parliament and Commission in terms of their right of initiative.' Then he wandered into something he called 'social protection area' and so-called 'workers' rights.' In fact, the crisp answer to the question,- and Mr Cowen clearly doesn't have what it takes to give a crisp answer on Lisbon: 23 pages in on the 306, and he must have dozed off -- is: 'The Union shall take measures to ensure co-ordination of the employment policies of the Member States, in particular by defining guidelines for these policies.' In other words, Lisbon means that employment policies will be taken out of the hands of Irish business, Irish trade unions, and the Irish government and placed into the hands of the EU institutions. Irish voters have a right to expect their head of government would know that. Either he doesn't know, or he does know but he won't admit this further surrender of power to Brussels before the referendum on October 2nd.
04 September 2009 2:21 PM
Larry, Curley and Enda
The latest opinion poll in Ireland shows a swing away from a Yes vote in the Lisbon referendum -- hardly surprising given that the political leaders campaigning in favour of Lisbon are showing the intellectual finesse of the Three Stooges.
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03 September 2009 1:48 PM
Irish prime minister still confused on Lisbon
Twenty-nine days until the Irish are forced to vote again on Lisbon, and the Irish prime minister still can't give more than muddled answers about what is in the treaty.
Saturday 5 September 2009
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