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Ireland’s reputation damaged by Lisbon no

Many of us will be packing our bags and heading for drier and sunnier parts of the European Union this summer. Don’t be surprised if a local or fellow tourist gives you an ear full when you tell them you are Irish. The fact is the national reputation, (the vast majority of our continental cousins are not for distinguishing between North and South), is in the gutter. Ireland, once everyone’s favourite member state is now the problem spoilt child, rich thanks to Europe, yet now turning its back on it.

We can trace the ‘yes’ campaign’s failure to poor communications and above all a fractured and unconvincing messaging. The ‘no’ campaign may have been an eclectic coalition of right wing libertarians, highly nationalistic republicans and a small number of very conservative and committed religious types, but they did succeed in casting enough doubt in the electorate’s mind to turn very many ‘don’t know’ voters into ‘no’ voters.

The second communications lesson is that reputation matters to a country and what goes on inside its borders can damage standing beyond them.

Eurobarometer, the European research body, carried out exit polls which found support for the no campaign highest amongst non-skilled workers, those out of work and students. Women also rejected the treaty by a much higher margin then men. These were the very same people who returned Bertie Ahern to power at the last election.

The tragedy of the outcome is that the Lisbon Treaty strengthens the opportunities for small member states to exercise real influence and it allows for member states to protect key areas of national importance, particularly those laws based on a national moral consensus, like abortion for example. The other irony is that it improves the business opportunities in the EU and does not threaten Ireland’s fiscal regime – a message which some in the business community (which voted yes) appears to have accepted during the campaign.

Andy Pollak, the Director of the Centre for Cross Border Studies, pointed out last week that the result is bad for the island of Ireland as a whole. He points to the 446,000 people in Northern Ireland and the Irish Border Region who have benefited from EU funded projects in the past decade, with nearly 90,000 gaining qualifications and over 22,000 engaging in reconciliation activities. Yet these constituencies returned some of the largest no votes.

Invest Northern Ireland chairman, Stephen Kingon, told a conference recently of the plethora of North/South business bodies and initiatives that have sprung up to help make the island of Ireland more competitive internationally. These include InterTradeIreland, the IBEC-CBI Joint Business Council (funded by the EU), the North/South Roundtable Group, the North/South Business Enterprise Group, joint North-South trade missions and the cross-border financial services initiative announced in April by Peter Robinson and Brian Cowen. All operating within a framework for cross border cooperation made possible by the EU.

Where to from here then?

I think there is little doubt the Irish government will be asked to hold another referendum, probably before the European elections next June. The question is how do they ensure they set the agenda?

The answer is simple – they need to ask a question that allows the electorate to focus on the big picture. In other words does Ireland want to be a full partner or a semi detached member of the EU?

In Northern Ireland we need the EU more than we may realise. On this island we can little afford to remove ourselves from a project which has been so good for us. Globally the need for a strong European voice on issues like human rights, the environment and security has never been greater.

Fearghal O’Boyle, a friend of mine from Donegal left an incisive comment on my blog when I posted on this issue last week. I’ll give him the last word:

“Down in my local on Sunday watching Armagh and Cavan, the usual loudmouth was going on about how great a result the No vote was, a usually quieter denzien looked up from his paper and said he had voted Yes. ‘Why?’ roared the loudmouthed patriot, The Quiet Man looked him cooly in the eye, with perhaps a hint of pity for his neighbour, ‘Because this is no time to be messing about.’

How right he was.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 24th, 2008 at 11:04 am and is filed under Business, Corporate Responsibility, Current Affairs, Good Friday Agreement 10 years on, Politics, Public Affairs, Public Relations, Weber Shandwick. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.