The referendum on the Lisbon Treaty will be crucial in determining the future of our country. Irish people deserve an honest debate on the real provisions in the Treaty. So it has been extremely disappointing to see organisations like Cóir presenting distortions, mistruths and downright lies as legitimate arguments for a No vote in October.

Cóir’s posters, which have gone up across the country over the weekend, show the cynical willingness of many on the No side to use any tactics to advance their narrow agenda on an issue which will have grave national consequences.

Minimum wage

One poster proclaims, “€1.84 minimum wage after Lisbon?”

This extraordinary statement is so far from the truth that most Irish people would immediately know it has no basis in reality. The EU has not currently, nor will it have under Lisbon, any power over the minimum wages of member states. Ireland’s minimum wage will be completely unaffected.

It is impossible to decipher the process by which Cóir arrived at the figure of €1.84 from the source they quote, but they appear to be referring to an already existing EU law, whereby temporary workers on short-term contracts abroad are subject to the employment laws of their own country (Posted Workers Directive). But this law is already in place, and however much we may disagree with it, Lisbon will do nothing to change it.

In fact, the Lisbon Treaty brings in a whole range of provisions which safeguard workers’ rights and make EU Treaty law far more socially progressive.

• The Charter of Fundamental Rights means that rights such as those of fair and just working conditions (Charter, Article 31), collective bargaining and action (Article 28) and prohibition of child labour (Article 32) are protected as never before.
• Article 152 (TFEU) “recognises and promotes the role of the social partners at its level, taking into account the diversity of national systems. [The EU] shall facilitate dialogue between the social partners, respecting their autonomy.”
• Article 207.4 (TFEU) gives each member state a veto on aspects of the common commercial policy “in the field of trade in social, education and health services, where these agreements risk seriously disturbing the national organisation of such services and prejudicing the responsibility of member states to deliver them.”

Lisbon will not have any impact on our minimum wage. In fact it provides for even greater social protection than is currently guaranteed in EU law.

Voting weights

Another blatant misrepresentation is Cóir’s poster suggesting that our voting strength in the Council of Ministers will be reduced to 0.8% in comparison to Germany’s 17%. This looks solely at the second of two stages in Qualified Majority Voting decision-making, that which requires a law to have the support of countries with 65% of the population of the EU. It deliberately ignores the first stage which is designed to counteract the kinds of concerns Cóir is raising.

• In the first stage, all states have one vote and 55% of countries are needed to approve a draft law (Article 16.4 TEU). Here, Ireland and Germany each have one vote and at least 15 countries need to support a proposal before it can even move on to the next stage.

• The second stage is based on population size – but no proposal can be forced through by a small number of large states if they don’t have wider support, because of the requirement for agreement from 55% of countries.

• Ireland still retains a veto over sensitive areas, including taxation (Article 113 TFEU) and defence (Article 42.4 TEU).

The bottom line is that on the most important issues to Irish people, Ireland has a veto. Where there is voting (which is extremely rare because most decisions are taken by consensus), the two-stage system means large states are counter-balanced by the need to get wide support from over 15 other states.

Farming

Cóir also make the emotive claim that Irish fishermen have been ‘milked dry’ by the EU and that if we vote Yes to Lisbon, farmers will be next.

There can be no doubt that Irish fishermen are having a hard time. However in fact the EU is not their problem: since joining Ireland has increased its catch four-fold. The problems they are facing now will not be resolved by rejecting Lisbon. Unlike Cóir, we are not prepared to simply give up on Irish fishermen, or farmers. These hardworking people are best served by Irish voices raising Irish concerns in Europe.

The Lisbon Treaty makes very few changes in the area of agriculture and fisheries. The only major difference is that the budget for the Common Agricultural Policy will now be subjected to a vote in the European Parliament, meaning that farmers will have a greater chance to influence decisions by lobbying their elected MEPs (Article 43.2 TFEU).

The Irish Farmers’ Association has come out unanimously in support of Lisbon. IFA President Padraig Walshe said, “It is in farmers’ best interests that Ireland remains at the heart of Europe influencing important decisions, particularly the review of CAP payments after 2013… A Yes vote will best position the IFA to defend Irish agriculture’s interests and meet future challenges in Europe.”

Lisbon will be good for Irish farmers, and good for Ireland as a whole.

Cutting off our nose to spite our face

Irish people need to make an informed decision on the Lisbon Treaty. We need to make the right call, for the right reasons. We need to avoid just kicking the government by voting No, when our interests lie in voting Yes. We need to not let ourselves be intimidated by the blatantly false propaganda of groups like Cóir which aren’t looking out for the good of our country but for their own agenda. The Irish people are not easily-tricked and we will make up our minds rationally based on what is actually in the Treaty. Lisbon is good for Ireland and good for Europe, and no amount twisted reasoning by the No side will change that.