The Minister for Foreign Affairs has insisted that the Amsterdam Treaty will not affect Irish neutrality, but will improve EU decision-making and allow the Union to tackle crime and unemployment more effectively.
Launching the Government's White Paper on the treaty in Dublin yesterday, Mr Andrews said the document gave an objective, factual account of what the treaty intended to do. He called for the debate on the treaty to be "based on fact and not on fantasy".
The treaty was agreed at the EU Summit meeting in Amsterdam last June after 15 months of negotiation. It is designed to streamline EU decision-making to prepare it for the accession of applicants from eastern and central Europe and Cyprus.
The Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, is expected to give details later today of the Government's plans for the referendum on the treaty. These are expected to include the establishment of a statutory commission to conduct future referendums in the light of the McKenna Supreme Court judgment which prevents the Government from funding just one side in a referendum campaign. A fund of £2.5 million is to be provided to conduct the Amsterdam referendum.
The Bill giving the wording of the referendum proposal, and the date of the poll, are expected to be published later this week or early next week.
Yesterday Mr Andrews confirmed that the wording under consideration would, if passed, authorise the State "to take every option and every discretion provided by the European Communities, European Union and Amsterdam Treaties".
This wording, reported in The Irish Times last week, had been drawn up by the Attorney General's office, he said, because there were a number of aspects of the treaty, such as the Schengen agreement on travel, that the State was not part of at the moment.
He rejected suggestions that the provision could be used to make future defence or security commitments without a referendum. "Any government of which Fianna Fail might be a part would not be a party to that particular proposition," he said.
Mr Andrews was unequivocal in his interpretation of the treaty provisions on defence and security. "Ireland's policy of military neutrality remains unaffected by the provisions of the Amsterdam Treaty," he declared. "If the issue of an EU common defence, which would involve a mutual defence commitment by Ireland, were to arise for decision in the future, it would be put to the Irish people for their decision in a referendum."
While the treaty did talk of the possibility of a common EU defence, "that will remain a possibility for a very long time". Neutrality, he said, was "a principle, and as long as Fianna Fail are in government in this country they are going to retain it".
He highlighted the more populist aspects of the treaty, such as the provisions for greater co-ordination on policies on unemployment, drug trafficking, public health, consumer protection and the environment.
Much of what Ireland had sought in the treaty negotiations had been enshrined in it, he told reporters. In particular he mentioned an Irish proposal which will provide "an explicit basis for action in respect of social exclusion".
He pointed out that Ireland will retain the right to nominate a full member of the EU Commission, a right that appeared under threat early in the negotiations.
"It is natural in any democratic society that different views should be held. I hope, however, that the views expressed, of whatever colour, will be based on fact and not on fantasy."
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