THE GOVERNMENT is to make a decision in the coming weeks as to whether or not it will hold a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.
Speaking on RTÉ Television's The Week in Politics last night, Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin said that the Government would decide in advance of the next European summit, which takes place in Brussels on December 11th and 12th.
"We have indicated that by December we will bring the elements of a solution to the December council meeting of all the European states," he said.
"We will be giving them the elements of a solution, and we are working on that at the moment in terms of a range of issues pertaining to neutrality and defence. . . ethical issues. . . social issues. . . economic issues and tax and so on like that." When asked if the Government would hold another referendum if it got the necessary assurances, he said: "The Government will make that decision in advance of the December meeting. We haven't made that decision as of now . . . We have looked at a variety of alternatives and we've also consulted with our political parties here at home. We do want to genuinely make it a societal effort here, it is not just the Government."
Asked if there was a case for doing nothing, the Minister replied: "Absolutely not, that would leave us at the margins in terms of Europe. We want to be at the heart of European decision- making. We want to restore the goodwill that we have built over many, many years. That would enable us to have some impact on decisions into the future and that would strengthen our hand in negotiations on agriculture and budgets and so forth."
