MINISTER FOR Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin has been accused by a leading Lisbon treaty opponent of promoting false fears in the last referendum over the conscription of Irish citizens into a European army.
The accusation, made by secretary of the National Platform lobby group Anthony Coughlan at a hearing of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Constitution, was strongly disputed by Fianna Fáil TD Michael Woods, who accused him of misrepresenting the Minister.
Mr Coughlan told the committee at Leinster House yesterday that the Minister had made "wild statements" to the effect that the anti-Lisbon side believed conscription would follow ratification of the treaty.
This was aimed at discrediting the No side but there was "nothing more calculated to give this issue legs".
Mr Coughlan continued: "There is no European army at the present time." The Lisbon treaty referred to a "common defence" which was understood to be a European army.
Challenged by Fine Gael TD Jim O'Keeffe to reject the conscription theory, Mr Coughlan said: "There's no such suggestion, I can tell you that."
Mr Coughlan also sharply criticised the Referendum Commission, which he said had "signally failed to inform citizens of the meaning and significance of the constitutional amendment they were being asked to decide in the 2008 Lisbon treaty referendum".
The best way to improve the effectiveness of the commission, he suggested, was "to restore to it the function of setting out objectively the main arguments for and against any particular referendum proposition".
He added that this function was removed by an amendment to the 1998 Referendum Act in December 2001 which was put through all its stages, "on the last day of Oireachtas sittings coming up to Christmas that year, when the public and the media were concentrating on the holiday".
Director of the European Commission representation in Ireland Martin Territt told the committee that a series of advertisements providing general information on the EU, organised by his office on local radio in 2006, was adjudged by the Broadcasting Complaints Commission (BCC) to contravene the legislation against political advertising.
"I consider that this matter is one that should prompt consideration of the legislation governing broadcasting," he said.
"If all governments of the member states agree that citizens should be informed on EU issues, it seems somewhat at variance with that objective that legislation should be interpreted actually to exclude the EU from delivering information in the most efficient and effective ways available."
He continued: "I consider that the wide-ranging interpretation of the BCC as to the role and remit of the European Commission is at variance with our remit under the treaties establishing the European Union.
"I also believe that the decision potentially impedes the general public from receiving information about the union."