THE GOVERNMENT'S plan to establish a parliamentary commission to examine the outcome of the Lisbon Treaty referendum has been rejected by Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny.
The Government had offered to recall the Dáil early in September to establish the commission, but its rejection by Fine Gael means the proposal is now likely to be dropped.
In a letter to Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin yesterday, Mr Kenny said the proper place to conduct an analysis of the referendum result was through the existing Committee on European Affairs.
"Having considered the Government's proposals for the establishment of a parliamentary commission, Fine Gael believes that the role envisaged for such a body falls within the remit of the present Oireachtas Joint Committee on European Affairs," said Mr Kenny in his response to a letter from Mr Martin to him on July 28th.
"Consequently, I do not see any necessity to set up a new committee to deal with these important issues. Rather, the existing European Affairs Committee should be asked to priorities these issues for the coming months," said Mr Kenny.
He added that he was open to the possibility that the European Affairs Committee might establish a sub-committee to focus on the tasks outlined by the Government in its original proposal.
"I am also open to discussing the expansion of the membership of the committee (as has occurred with some other committees) so that it includes representation from both sides of the Lisbon Treaty debate," concluded the letter.
The Fine Gael response has effectively scuppered the Government's plan as it was based on having an all-party consensus on how to proceed. The Labour Party is also cool on the parliamentary commission idea.
Mr Martin's original idea was that the commission would be chaired by an individual who was independent of the main parties. It was designed so that the work of the commission would dovetail with the assessment that the Government intends to carry out in the autumn into the reasons for the defeat of the Lisbon Treaty.
Opinion poll and focus group research into the reasons for the No vote has been under way for some time and Ministers hope to be able to have a full picture of the motivation behind the No vote when they come back to work later this month.
The failure to agree on an all-party approach in the Oireachtas will come as a setback to the Government's plans to have a clear strategy to deal with the referendum result in place by the time of the European Council meeting in December.
Both Fine Gael and Labour have indicated that they believe that a special sub-committee of the European affairs committee should be established to examine the referendum issue. Such a committee would be chaired by a prominent member of the Opposition and would report back quickly to the Oireachtas.
There is no indication whether the Government will be prepared to accept the Opposition's counter proposal to its plan for a commission.