Lawyers debunk lies about Lisbon
Monday July 27 2009
OVER the next two months, groups campaigning for a ‘Yes’ vote to Lisbon will have to endure the wholly false arguments from the ‘No’ side questioning the certainty of the legal guarantees secured by the Government in the areas of abortion, taxation and neutrality.
However, there is a new nonparty campaign group that the likes of Joe Higgins, Patricia McKenna and Mary Lou McDonald will find it very difficult to argue with on the issue of the legal guarantees – that is the recently launched ‘Lawyers for Europe’ group.
At the launch of their campaign this week, the group’s patron, former Supreme Court judge Donal Barrington, said voters had been “deliberately misled” by ‘No’ campaigners last time and that the arguments put forth on abortion and neutrality were “total lies”.
The Lawyers for Europe group will be encouraging a ‘Yes’ vote, as they believe that the treaty will enhance our human rights laws, strengthen workers’ rights, improve access to the European Court of Justice, while also protecting any changes to our laws on abortion, taxation and neutrality.
Joe Higgins’ favourite argument that the EU will create a “race to the bottom” in terms of workers’ rights was dismissed by the group, saying that current EU directives and Irish law strongly protect workers’ rights.
The fact is the EU has had the opposite effect to what Mr Higgins suggests – our current protections on workers’ rights stem from EU law and if we vote to stay at the heart of Europe in October, this will only serve to strengthen workers’ rights, further protecting us against a “race to the bottom”, not the other way around as Mr Higgins would suggest.
Does anyone believe the ‘No to Lisbon’ campaigners know more about the legality of our legal guarantees and the effect of the treaty on workers’ rights than a group of lawyers, barristers and Supreme Court judges?
LIAM HENRY
BONNICONLON, CO MAYO
