Dear Editor,
Declan Ganley, the leader of Libertas, was in Brussels this week addressing a group of Eurosceptic MEPS.

Before the Lisbon treaty referendum in Ireland, he said that the Irish people should vote against this treaty and re-negotiate it.

Declan Ganley has now said in Brussels this week that the Irish Government should re-negotiate this treaty and hold a second referendum in Ireland, but only after a referendum had been held in all other 26 member states of the EU on a re-negotiated treaty.

Does Declan Ganley really believe that Brian Cowen can come out and tell the leaders of France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Britain that they all must have a referendum on a re-negotiated treaty, even though they have already ratified the Lisbon Treaty within their respective countries? If the Taoiseach took this position, what political credibility would he have?

International treaties are by nature a set of political compromises. That is the case too with the Lisbon Treaty, a sovereign international agreement by 27 different Governments.

Was the Good Friday Peace Agreement of 1998 not just a set of political compromises as well?

Libertas has yet to come forward with a specific set of proposals, which should be re-negotiated in the context of the Lisbon Treaty.

Sprouting vague generalisations about the future direction of the European Union is hardly the solution to get Ireland out of the present impasse it faces post the rejection of the Lisbon Treaty.

Seán O Neachtain MEP,
An Spidéal,
Co na Gaillimhe

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