Referendum re-run 'not an option'
Minister of State for Europe Dick Roche’s comments that the Government may re-run the Lisbon Treaty referendum, is “another example of a Government without a plan”, it was claimed today.
Roche said earlier that "[his]personal view is that a referendum is ultimately the appropriate response to the position in which we find ourselves".
Speaking from Leinster House, Sinn Féin Dublin MEP Mary Lou McDonald said: “Minister Roche’s comments are yet another example of a Government without a plan to tackle the political reality that the Lisbon Treaty is finished.
“There is no political crisis as Minister Roche has suggested. There is simply a political task to be dealt with. The Irish people, like the French and Dutch before them, have rejected this Treaty. A new deal now needs to be negotiated.
“But rather than step up to the job at hand the Irish Government has repeatedly tried to connive and convince a re-running the Lisbon Treaty. Minister Roche’s comments are just the latest in a string of silly season kite-flying exercises.
“It is time the Irish Government stopped trying to circumvent the Irish people and instead knuckled down to the job at hand. The Lisbon Treaty is finished and rerunning the proposition for a second time is simply not an option.”
