(from Pamphlet: “IRISH CITIZENS, WE MUST EMPOWER OURSELVES!”)
The coalition Government has promised “major constitutional change” and is already putting in place plans for a “Convention” expected to take place during 2012. Already we have had two referendums to amend Bunreacht na hÉireann, many more are expected in the coming few years to give effect to the proposed changes already announced.
This Constitutional Review is being advanced in the guise of ending “crony government” and the “corruption” of the past. But disguised in this so-called reform is another agenda, one that was not set by the Irish people or even in this country, it is an agenda handed down from Europe.
No reform on the agenda of the European or Irish powers-that-be has as its objective the empowerment of the people – in fact the very opposite is true.
The movement towards tighter political integration set in motion by the Maastricht, Nice and the Lisbon treaty changes, known as the ‘European Project’, is marching on. Already about 75% of our laws come directly from the EU and discussions are ongoing to extend this even further into areas previously excluded, such as our taxation and industrial policy – such extension of EU powers is expected to proceed without reference to the people at all.
The proposed ‘reforms’ include: National List Voting, Fewer TD’s, a Petitions system, Unelected Legislators, Enhanced Committee powers etc. More detail on these are available via the internet at http://cppc.ie/constitutional_review – citizens need to discuss these questions with full information.
The notions to abolish or reform the Seanad are proposals being made in a vacuum. They are a distraction to quieten disaffection with the entire corrupt political system – it is no more than ‘a bone to the dog’.
The real danger in these proposals is that they will distance the electorate from the limited mechanics of power that we currently have and concentrate even more power in the hands of the private member clubs in Dublin and Europe.
The plan, stemming from the Lisbon Treaty, is to drive the ever increasing political union of Europe, in other words a United States of Europe, and put an end to the last vestiges of our Sovereignty.
