More diary dates and referendum news in brief.
Today's Events
Noon- Sinn Féin press conference: "Lisbon Treaty is bad for business", with Mary Lou McDonald MEP and Arthur Morgan TD, Sinn Féin head office, 44 Parnell Square, Dublin 1.
Creighton says we've already voted to cut commissioner numbers
It will probably be news to many but apparently we have already voted to reduce the number of commissioners in the EU.
Lucinda Creighton, deputy director of elections for Fine Gael's treaty campaign, points out that Ireland voted in the Nice referendum for the reduction in the commission's size.
"The commitment has already been made. The Lisbon Treaty is about how we reduce the commission. With Lisbon every country loses a commissioner for one term of five years in three," she said yesterday while out canvassing in south Dublin. Big countries such as Germany had two commissioners and there was talk of a cabinet-style commission with seniors and juniors - that Germany and France would keep a permanent commissioner and the smaller countries would rotate, she pointed out.
According to Fine Gael, Lisbon is fairer. The essential decision to cut the numbers has already been made.
So what's the fuss about?
Yes vote supports peace role, says O'Dea
Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea, urging a Yes to Lisbon, maintains that Yes means "taking a leadership role in shaping the EU's humanitarian and peace support operations".
"We have already taken important leadership roles in the missions to Chad and Kosovo, alongside other small, neutral EU countries like Austria, Sweden and Finland," he declared at the weekend.
"Taking this role is not just an EU ambition, it is an EU moral obligation and an obligation for Ireland," he added. "We can be justifiably proud of the fact that Ireland has contributed to all the major EU military operations launched under the common foreign and security policy made possible by our Yes votes on past treaties. Each operation has been firmly grounded on UN mandates."
She was married to a Polish count. That's the European connection- Labour TD Joe Costello on Countess Markievicz, Ireland's first female TD, as the party launched a campaign poster "Europe has been good for women: Vote Yes" at a statue of the Countess on Townsend Street in Dublin.