POLITICAL REACTION
Áine Ryan
POLITICIANS, at home and abroad, must respect the fact that ‘the people have spoken’ and now accept that last week’s No to Lisbon is a glaring indictment of ‘the disconnection between Europe and the people’. That’s the view of Fine Gael’s Deputy Michael Ring who also told The Mayo News yesterday (Monday) that if he decides to run for the European Parliament his primary agenda would be to rid it of its mammoth ‘eurocracy’.
Deputy Ring, who will announce his decision in the coming weeks, confirmed that he did not go out and canvass in the same style as for an election but that he was still very active and available to the public.
“This wasn’t a general election and nobody canvassed in the same way. I knew well the people were going to reject this. At the end of the day it was up to the Government to get this over the bar. But they were too concerned with replacing the Taoiseach, the tribunal and creating new ministerial positions,” said Deputy Ring.
He also defended his party’s role in promoting the Treaty. With a resounding 61.7 per cent No vote, Mayo returned the third largest negative in a rural constituency ((Donegal North-East: 64.7 per cent; Donegal South-West: 63.4 per cent) and the sixth largest in the entire country (Dublin South-West: 65.1 per cent; Cork North-Central: 64.4 per cent; Dublin North-West: 63.3 per cent).
“To be fair to Fine Gael, it has always been a pro-Europe party. And Enda Kenny put the referendum before politics and led a very visible campaign. He also put on a lot of pressure within the party to campaign,” he continued.
Deputy Ring was unequivocal about the urgency of addressing a system which is dominated by ‘non-elected EU commissioners’ and ‘non-elected civil servants’. He observed that this was, increasingly, a problem at national level as well, with the HSE and the country’s public service being prime examples.
“People want the power given back to national and local politicians. They are sick and tired of this hierarchy in Europe imposing all these diktats. If I decide to go to Europe it will be to make the system more accountable,” he added.
Meanwhile, Fianna Fáil’s Deputy Dara Calleary defended his party’s campaign and argued that the country must now move forward. He also told The Mayo News that many people were confused about the Treaty right up until they voted in the polling stations.
“We have to move on now.
Brian Cowen is going to Brussels on Thursday and will be able to outline our path forward after that meeting,” added Deputy Calleary.
Deputy Beverley Flynn defended the decision made by the major parties not to canvass door-to-door looking for a Yes vote.
“The reality is it is not possible to do a two-minute, door-to-door canvass on an issue like the Lisbon Treaty. If you start to engage on many of the issues, a conversation can run to a half an hour or even longer. In order to familiarise myself with the Treaty, I had to take six hours out of a Sunday afternoon and it took me six hours, it was like studying for a Leaving Cert examination.”
Deputy Flynn did, howeve,r accept that the Fianna Fáil campaign had been mobilised too late.
“Libertas had a long time to get some theories out into the public domain which were left unchallenged and perhaps the positives of the Yes side should have been got out earlier. However, the public did not engage until very late in the day, I was at public information meetings and you could count the number of people who attended on one hand.
“There is huge uncertainly prevailing at present but we must respect the decision of the people for now. However, I remain convinced that the Irish people are committed to Europe and there is a way forward.”
