Sir, - I support the EU and want to see its membership broadened, yet I voted No in the referendum. For a long time I was in the "Don't Know" column. I actively sought to educate myself on this treaty. I had to winkle out this information from many different sources. No objective body was there to help me make up my mind (by the time the disinterested information was available from the Referendum Commission it was much too late for me), the Yes and No sides were appealing, in what has now become the normal political fashion, to my prejudices and not to my intelligence.
My research revealed that I would almost need to become a specialist in EU administrative law to fully understand this treaty. It seemed to me that it was mainly a tidying up operation by the EU bureaucrats and an attempt by them to make their work in the years ahead easier, which seems to be mainly the challenges that expansion presents.
So this to me summarised my reservations: it was an imposition from the "top down" of things that I largely wanted, but where was my voice in this. The Yes campaign, such as it was, did not address basic issues but allowed the No side to use prejudices (neutrality, the Euro, free movement of labour, aspects of social policy, etc). To me, the need for greater democratisation of the EU decision-making and a desire for greater equity in dealing with us, the GIs of the EU process, lies behind why I and many of my fellow voters said No. All we Irish may be able to do (we comprise approximately 1 per cent of the EU population only) is to ensure that in future our Dail will be more active in examining the implications for us of EU decisions, a more pro-active role should not be confined to our maximising our material wellbeing only.
If the EU get a decision in favour of this treaty by offering us "sweets" of the type of a military opt out or guarantees for our views on divorce and abortion, then as the news from France (and I do not think that this will be the only country), indicates, our rejection of the treaty will be seen as the start of a process of reassessment of the EU process, and a subsequent Yes vote by us will not stop the questioning of the current way that this wonderful EU process is being implemented. I personally regret that my No vote will give a boost to the (often reactionary) forces of Eurosceptiscm, as represented locally by our Tanaiste, and ministers McCreevy and de Valera and others. - Yours, etc.,
Patrick Grant, Blessington Place, Phibsborough, Dublin 7.