A roadshow to ascertain the Irish people's views on the future of Europe has successfully begun, but the Government may not like what it is going to hear.
If the opening debate in Waterford on Monday night is a reliable guide, then voters are no more impressed by the Nice Treaty now than they were when they voted against it in last year's referendum.
Speakers at the meeting, organised by the National Forum on Europe, opposed the treaty by a majority of four to one.
And while the forum, established by the Government in October, is not simply about Nice but is intended to facilitate a broad discussion about Ireland's membership of an enlarging EU, many of those present did not see it that way.
"None of us are naïve enough to think that we would be having this meeting had the outcome [of the referendum] been different," said Ms Maureen O'Carroll, an Independent town councillor from Tramore, to applause.
About 150 people filled the Ardmore room in the Tower Hotel to capacity for the event, at which a panel from the forum, including its chairman, Senator Maurice Hayes, listened to views from the floor. A substantial number present were from political parties or lobby groups, but private individuals also came in large numbers.
One of them, Mr William Murphy, read a prepared script in which he lambasted the bureaucrats in Brussels who "dictate the number of peas in a pod" and "the noise level of our lawnmowers".
He was followed by a man describing himself as a "British subject" living in Kilmacthomas, Co Waterford, who thanked the Irish people for voting down the Treaty of Nice. "The treaty is not about enlargement; it's about turning the EU into a two-tier community of first- and second-class states," he claimed.
The EU was simply not democratic enough. The Council of Ministers took decisions in secret, while the European Parliament was not a parliament at all. It could not make laws, could not raise taxes and could not appoint a government. "It can do what Waterford County Council can do, but it's not a parliament," he said.
Three speakers said they were members of Sinn Féin. "The Irish people voted No to Nice. Which part of No don't you understand?" one demanded to know. A member of the Socialist Workers' Party said the Nice Treaty was supported by the 47 biggest corporations in Europe.
By the time Mr Gerry Maguire, a member of both the Irish Farmers' Association and the European Movement, got up to speak, the pro-Nice side was five-nil down. By rejecting Nice, our citizens were denying 12 or 15 of our neighbours in Eastern Europe the chance we had been given when we joined the EEC 30 years ago, he said.
He accused some of the anti-Nice contributors of speaking "a load of drivel", which only fired up his opponents more.
Ms O'Carroll, the Tramore town councillor, said she knew of two people who had voted Yes the first time, but were so insulted by the Government's reaction to the vote that they were voting No the next time.
The result was no more close than that of the divorce referendum, but that was not going to be rerun, she added.
Mr John O'Driscoll, who described himself as a private citizen, said what Irish people feared was a loss of autonomy. Could there be a European constitution, for example, over-riding our own?
