CAMPAIGN LAUNCH:THE GOVERNMENT can renegotiate the Lisbon Treaty if the people vote No in next month's referendum, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams said yesterday.
Speaking at the launch of the party's campaign for a No vote, Mr Adams accused the Yes camp of scaremongering by its warnings that Ireland would face consequences if it rejected the treaty.
"They are trying to say that the world will end for Ireland if the people vote No," charged Mr Adams, who said the treaty was not "rocket science" and could be understood by voters.
Sinn Féin Dublin MEP Mary Lou McDonald rejected the arguments of some anti-abortion campaigners that the treaty would lead to abortion's introduction here. "I do not believe that it will have any effect. That is the short answer," said Ms McDonald, who is leading the party's referendum campaign.
Questioned about his lack of visibility in the campaign to date, Mr Adams insisted: "I think we are as heavily involved in southern politics as I have ever been." But he said the No camp must get its vote out: "What people are saying on the doorstep is not what they are saying in the polls. Whether they will come out and vote is another matter. Our biggest challenge will be to get people out to vote."
Insisting that a treaty renegotiation is possible, Ms McDonald identified a number of issues: the retention of a permanent Irish place at the European Commission; a revision of voting weights to increase Ireland's share; a legal guarantee that Irish tax rates will not fall under Brussels' control; a positive declaration of the right of the EU's neutral states to maintain their own foreign and defence policy; and stronger workers' rights.
Accepting that Ireland would retain a veto on taxation if the treaty was ratified, she said the European Council would be able to make changes in this area in future - though only by unanimity.
Sinn Féin supported Ireland's defence of its corporation tax rates because it believed that no element of tax policy should fall to Brussels, lest all of it should fall. "The EU already has control of monetary policy, interest rates. Why would we imagine that the EU would shy away from taxation policy? It is the next logical step," Ms McDonald said.
Even though Sinn Féin's argument is dismissed by numerous quarters, she said Ireland could bow to demands from other countries to increase corporation tax.
She said that during the last election, then minister for finance Brian Cowen had argued that Fine Gael and Labour would not be as committed to protecting Ireland's corporation tax as Fianna Fáil. That, she said, was evidence that its protection depended on the Government's will to defend it, and not on any legal protection.
The Government, she said, had failed to make a case for why the EU needed a common foreign and security policy or an EU diplomatic service. The treaty, she said, allowed "for the emergence of mini-military alliances of member states and for the first time the EU will have its own foreign minister with a diplomatic corps who will oversee such policies".
Rejecting the Government's argument that a renegotiation was impossible, she said: "There are those who argue that there is no Plan B. This is nonsense."
Sinn Féin Cavan/Monaghan TD, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, said supporters of the bigger political parties backed Sinn Féin's call for a No vote. "There is a lot of anger from a lot of people that their party of choice is not representing their views and concerns about Lisbon," he said.
SF opposition: main points
Sinn Féin opposes the loss of an EU
commissioner for five out of 15 years after 2014.
It argues that Ireland's representation at EU table will be
cut.
It says future changes can be made without a referendum.
It claims the treaty threatens public health and education
services.
The party wants a legal guarantee of Irish freedom to set tax
rates.
