The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has returned to work this week with a redoubled determination to carry the Nice Treaty in a second referendum this autumn. He told Ministers to clear their diaries for the campaign at the Cabinet meeting yesterday, warning about the grave implications for Ireland's future prosperity and political well-being if it is rejected.
In a speech to the European Foundation Forum in Dublin he spelled out the positive benefits that have flowed from Ireland's EU membership, enabling this State to catch up with European living standards and providing an indispensable means to build a social model which can withstand the pressures of globalisation.
Nice will be the principal political issue this autumn, but by no means the only one. The Cabinet also wrestled yesterday with financial cuts to bring expenditure back into line with the last Budget's figures. Mr Ahern denied in interviews that these are properly described as cutbacks, given that real expenditure is so substantially up on last year in many areas. He must nevertheless deal with the political reality that the effort to realign spending will be so perceived by the public, who may be tempted to punish the Government by voting No in the referendum.
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That would be a short-sighted protest, which would do more harm than good to the State's economic and social welfare. Mr Ahern once again challenged opponents of the treaty to put the economic case for rejecting Nice, saying that they had greeted his previous such call with a deathly silence. His critics will need to come up with convincing arguments to counter the view of leading business and trade union figures - that rejection of Nice for a second time would marginalise Ireland within the developing Union, including among the candidate states whose political leaderships set such store by the treaty being endorsed. This issue must be a major feature of the campaign and it is not scaremongering to say so. Far too much is potentially at stake for the prosperity and welfare of every family in the country for this aspect of the Nice campaign to be ignored or overlooked.
But if the Government is to convince a sceptical, confused and undecided electorate to support the treaty it will have to demonstrate a resolve and commitment in campaigning for it that were absent from the first referendum. Many voters are demanding more compelling information, debate and engagement from supporters of the treaty if they are to change their minds or be encouraged to vote where they abstained in such large numbers last year. Opponents of the treaty have made an early start with their campaigning and expect to capitalise on a popular feeling that the voters' decision was ignored by a complacent establishment. It is to Mr Ahern's credit that he is determined to argue the case for supporting the treaty across a large canvass of economic, social and political issues. His task now is to carry these arguments convincingly to the public at large.