SINN FÉIN:THE GOVERNMENT has been given a mandate by the Irish people after last week's rejection of the Lisbon Treaty that it does not want, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams has said.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen, he said, must make it clear to other European Union states that the treaty is finished, and that Ireland's democratic decision must be respected.
"The danger is that unless the Government acts upon what the people have said, then we could end up in a complete nonsense," he said in Dublin.
"The Taoiseach must assert himself in an assertive way. If he doesn't then these other bigger and more powerful states will think that we can be walked over.
"I think the very clear signal from the referendum and this is shared by many of the Yes voters as well is that we won't be walked over, that we are at the heart of Europe and that we continue to be at the heart of Europe and that we want our views about how the EU should be shaped to be taken into account," he said.
Sinn Féin Dublin MEP Mary Lou McDonald said Mr Cowen would travel to Brussels for this week's EU leaders' summit with "a very strong hand to play".
"We want to be constructive," she said, adding that Mr Cowen should consult "widely and thoughtfully" with as broad a range of opinion as possible.
"The Government needs to make clear that we are not looking for clarifications, or minor alterations. They need to make it absolutely clear that the genuine concerns raised by the Irish people must be addressed. "And they need to make it clear that any talk of a two-speed Europe is unacceptable. The Union must act on the basis of partnership and equality," she said. Specific guarantees would have to be given to protect Ireland's neutrality, workers rights and to ensure that public services were not open to the danger of privatisation.
"These came up time and time again. We believe that these issues must be addressed," she said. "The proposals that we will put to the Government will be a combination of measures which, on the one hand, would seek to maintain some Nice Treaty provisions, ie council strength and so on. "Others will be around seeking specific opt-outs and protocols and then other measures will require specific amendments and new text in the treaty."
Rejecting the idea of a second referendum, Ms McDonald said: "There would be no possibility of putting Lisbon again. There can be no question of reheating Lisbon and putting it to the people. "They have spoken definitely. The objective of all this was never to reject the treaty. The objective was to secure a European treaty law base that improves matters."
Insisting every memberstate must have a permanent seat at the commission, she said the Government could block any attempt to cut its size now. "The Government has a veto, and we don't want any funny business being played with the matter," she said.
"This is the moment of truth. This is truth time for Europe. Do you hear the voices of the people, or don't you? Do you respond to the issues, or don't you? Don't presume ill-will on the part of our partners.
" There is a supposition amongst people in politics and in the media that there will be this ill-will, frankly without any firm evidence of it," she said.
