Ireland faces a possible future as second-class citizens in an Federal Super State warned the No to Nice Campaign today.
At the launch of their pre-referendum strategy, spokesman Mr Justin Barrett denied claims the No to Nice Campaign was against enlargement or the free movement of migrant workers. He said the organisation had been misrepresented.
He said what they objected to was that Ireland was one of only three countries which will allow free movement of workers following enlargement and the Dutch and Danish governments were re-thinking the issue.
The other EU member states have imposed seven-year barriers on such movement, and Mr Barrett insisted the campaign wanted to either "allow free movement from day one or we all hold the seven-year rule".
Mr Barrett accused the Government of being reckless and irresponsible in making this commitment and any talk of xenophobia was merely ‘spin’ from the Yes side. The Campaign said it objected to the enhanced co-operation provisions of the Treaty which it claimed make a two-tier Union inevitable.
It also raised concerns over Ireland ceding its right to veto in areas such as structural and cohesion funding when we are set to become net contributors to the EU budget, just as Ireland "moves into recession", according to Mr Barrett.
Mr Barrett accepted the Campaign was facing into a tough encounter with a Yes side stung by criticisms of being caught on the hop for the first referendum, but was confident of repeating their success.
He said people "were genuinely horrified by the fact that the Government was insisting on running the referendum twice." He quoted the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Mr Dick Walsh, as saying last year that any attempt to rerun a referendum on the same issue "would be regarded as an affront".
As part of the pre-referendum campaign a series of 20 public meetings will be held throughout the country over the next three weeks beginning in Letterkenny on Saturday. The meetings will be addressed by a number of speakers including Mr Barrett, Mr Anthony Coughlan of the National Platform and Ms Dana Rosemary Scallon MEP.