Latest 08.06.2008
WHY I CAME BACK FROM JOHANESBURG TO CAMPAIGN FOR NO

Ann Crotty has travelled back from South Africa to campaign for a No vote. It is thanks to her father, Raymond Crotty, that the Irish were the only people in Europe who were given a vote on the Lisbon Treaty. His Supreme Court case forced the Irish political establishment to holding referenda on major EU treaties. Here Ann Crotty outlines her impressions of the campaign.

It is ten weeks since I arrived back in Ireland to take part in the campaign against the Lisbon Treaty. It has been a fascinating time, and well worth taking three months leave from my job as a journalist in Johannesburg. It has been as exhilarating as it has been depressing.

The most depressing parts have been listening to Ireland’s high profile politicians talk of how loved the Irish are in the EU; how Ireland is the EU’s favourite daughter; how we punch above our weight; how we’ve had all these commissioners appointed to such powerful positions - competition, agriculture, internal market, social affairs. (Never mind that latterly they tell us that commissioners have no connection with any individual country.) And then without any sense of irony these same politicians - the Peter Sutherlands, Dick Roches, Alan Dukes - tell the audience that if we are to maintain this ‘privileged’ position we must vote Yes and not only must we just vote Yes but we must vote Yes enthusiastically. According to these craven individuals there must be no doubt in the minds of the powerful elite of the EU that Ireland is suffused with obsequious gratitude. The implicit reasoning, or rather desperate hope, is that this paroxysm of gratitude will ensure that we remain “loved” and continue to be the favourite daughter, that we will continue to be allowed to “punch above our weight”.Then comes the dark side of this rather bizarre argument. If we don’t vote Yes with great enthusiasm, if we don’t reassure an unaccountable, powerful elite that this is a great treaty, the wrath of the EU will be visited upon us, we will be forced to the periphery of the EU, Ireland will be marginalized, it will rapidly be transferred from favourite daughter status to pariah.

That all of the major political parties of this country are desperately keen to cosy up to a European elite that is so evidently vengeful is truly disturbing. The nature of the relationship between Ireland and the EU, as touted and encouraged by the country’s most senior politicians, has all the hallmarks of the sort of abusive, imbalanced relationship that is suffered by the small children in a schoolyard. They expect always to be bullied and believe their only hope of survival is through withering sycophancy. How utterly depressing, for a country that boasts a strong independent republican tradition.

As for the generous transfer payments, estimated to be in the region of Euro 80 billion since 1973, members of the decimated fishing community tell a different story. Every single cent received - by the farmers or for infrastructure - has been more than paid for by the Irish fishing community. Representatives of the Irish fishing community have difficulty understanding precisely what Irish politicians mean when they boast that “Ireland punches above its weight”. During this past week fishermen have been on the streets of Dublin trying desperately to warn the Irish voters and particularly members of the farming community that whatever promises government makes, it is in no position to deliver on them when confronted by the powerful interests of other European countries.

One obvious example that is currently unfolding amidst a cloud of secrecy is Ireland’s corporate tax position. Despite much bleating about how secure the 12.5 percent corporate tax rate is, every day it becomes more evident that the large and powerful members of the EU, led by France, have other plans. As Charlie McCreevy famously told a business lunch in Dublin the Commission has a long term hidden agenda for a common corporation tax base. McCreevy stated that the proposal currently under consideration, and due to become community law this year is “a sinister idea that refuses to die”. He continued that it was clear from 50 years of history “and the reality of the institutional continuity of the Commission and its culture…. that no matter how often certain proposals might be turned down, the officials sneak them out in different guises.”

Ireland’s economic growth since 1996 has largely been the story of a one-trick pony - 12.5 percent corporate tax. In the past 10 weeks of campaigning there has been no indication from our leading politicians what they are planning to replace this particular trick with.

The exhilarating part of the past 10 weeks has been meeting up with so many committed Irish people who, in the face of enormous odds, are determined to ensure that the political elite are reminded that, however much they’d like it otherwise, they are accountable to the citizens of this country. And it is heartening to realize that whatever the outcome of the referendum, which a Yes is backed by over 90 percent of the country’s politicians, these Irish people can take comfort from the fact that sometimes a country doesn’t get the government it deserves.