'European issue' needs further referendum

Labour leader Eamon Gilmore talks to Senator Alex White at Labour's parliamentary party meeting in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, yesterday. Mr Gilmore said Irish people needed to stop being "fixated" on the Lisbon Treaty. Photograph: Seán Curtin

LABOUR LEADER Eamon Gilmore said yesterday a further referendum on the "European issue" would be needed, but he said that the issue was "what question is going to be put to people in that referendum?"

In the aftermath of the rejection of the Lisbon Treaty in June, Mr Gilmore categorically ruled out a second referendum, saying that the treaty was dead.

Yesterday, he qualified his remarks by saying that the Irish debate on Europe needed to be much wider than it had been until now. He also said Irish people needed to stop being "fixated" on the treaty.

Mr Gilmore, speaking at the conclusion of his parliamentary party's special two-day meeting in Clonmel, said that it was incumbent on voters to hold a wider discussion about Ireland's relationship with Europe, as well as the future of the EU itself.

However, when asked if the people would need to be consulted again about the treaty, he replied: "Of course . . . any change in an EU treaty requires a referendum here. There is obviously going to be another referendum at some point on a European issue. The question is what question is going to be put to people in that referendum?

"We would be more productively engaged if we addressed the general question of where the EU is going [and] what our relationship with Europe is.

"The Labour Party has a strong view that Ireland's place is in Europe, and we have a very strong view [that] we want a social and democratic Europe," he said.

Speaking after the meeting, Mr Gilmore called on Taoiseach Brian Cowen and the Government to move the writ on the Dublin South byelection, following the death of Séamus Brennan.

"The people of Dublin South are entitled to have their full representation in Dáil Éireann. There is a constitutional requirement that [all Dáil seats be filled]," he said.

. We were all saddened by the death of Séamus Brennan. There has now been a period of time since his sad death.

"The Government should now hold that byelection to give the people of Dublin South an opportunity of electing a new TD and having full representation."

Mr Gilmore also said that he would like to see an early general election to hold the Government to account for the sharp deterioration in the economic situation.

"I believe that the people deserve an early general election. However, I am enough of a political realist to acknowledge that there is little prospect of a general election in the immediate future," he said.

The two-day meeting - one of a series of meeting being held by all parties before the resumption of the Dáil - was attended by its 20 TDs and six Senators.

The party announced this week that it is holding a special conference at the end of November to consider the report drawn up by the party's 21st century commission.

Chaired by accountant Greg Sparks, the commission of some 20 members has been asked to make recommendations about modernisation and reform.

It is understood that a re-evaluation of Labour's strong traditional links with the trade union movement will form an important part of the Sparks' Report, which is currently in draft form.

© 2008 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times