My Irish experience

I had barely arrived in Dublin when I realised what an uphill struggle the 'No' campaigners had to convince voters to say 'No' once again in the re-run of the referendum on the Nice Treaty.

Switching on the radio or TV and reading the newspapers, the message was heavily biased in favour of a 'Yes' vote. Together with my colleagues, Jesmar Baldacchino and Sharon Ellul Bonnici, I joined the volunteers of the 'No 2 Nice Campaign' in Ireland to get first-hand experience of the referendum campaign.

After a frugal early experience we used to board a 'RoadShow' coach and head for various towns and villages where we would find local volunteers waiting for us with their warm Irish welcome. Our group included volunteers from Finland, Slovenia, Estonia, Czech Republic, Poland, Denmark and Sweden.

Wherever we went we always found a very warm welcome. Talking to the Irish I could somehow feel that many were against giving up Ireland's right of veto in 30 areas of competence, and feared having Ireland's neutrality undermined by the ratification of the Nice Treaty. But the government's enormous propaganda campaign, which was ten times better financed than that of the 'No' side, and aided by all top officials of the European Union as well as by most of the Irish bishops, the unions (except one), business organisations and most of the media, could not but leave an effect on Irish voters.

The main weapon used by the 'Yes' campaign was the argument that Ireland should not block enlargement to the poor East European states. That would be an unChristian thing to do. Quite a number of people I spoke to admitted to me that while they wished to vote 'No' once again, they were being made to feel guilty of not allowing other peoples to join the EU if they wanted to.

Although the Irish Bishops' Conference had argued for a 'Yes' vote, many Catholic priests spoke openly against the Nice Treaty. At times, priests used to come up to us while we were addressing people who gathered around us, and bless us for the work we were doing for the Irish people!

An episode which left me disgusted at the way the 'Yes' campaign were conducting their campaign, was an erotic poster showing a couple obviously making love, with the words: "It's good 2 B in". A general comment I heard about this poster was that while the Irish Bishops' Conference had recommended a 'Yes' vote publicly, they did not publicly condemn such a disgusting poster!

I was astounded at the very high cost of living which is making the life of ordinary Irish citizens and particularly those on the bottom rung of society extremely hard. For example, a chicken weighing 1.5 kg from a butcher shop cost me f9 (Lm3.60). In Malta I bought 12 kg of chicken for Lm12.60 or Lm1.57 for 1.5 kg! A round of 10 pints of Guinness beer cost me the equivalent of Lm16! And this from what the Irish consider 'a cheap pub'!

Rents and property prices are frightening. And yet, the 'Yes' campaigners in Malta tell us that Ireland is the model EU country we should strive to emulate!

I have no doubt that the Irish will live to regret the 'Yes' vote. Unfortunately for them, even though the turnout was again a low one (just over 48%), once the result was a majority for 'Yes', both the Irish government and the EU hailed it as an acceptable one, when only 32% of all eligible voters have actually said 'Yes'!

To make matters worse, the vast majority of Irish voters had no clue that when voting 'Yes' they were also signing away their right to vote in a future referendum, since they have also assented to a 26th amendment to the Irish Constitution which gives the Irish government the power to ratify future EU treaties simply by a majority in parliament, without the need for further referenda!

I returned to Malta on October 13, more or less convinced that the 'Yes' vote this time will prevail. The saying "If you do not want to be asked again, vote yes" said it all! This is the kind of democracy the EU practises. It's the "heads I win, tails you lose" kind.

May we not repeat the same mistake of the Irish people.