Ireland's Lisbon Crisis

The following is from this morning's Irish Times, linked here:

Prominent anti-Lisbon campaigner Joe Noonan told the school that “attempting or purporting to ratify the Lisbon Treaty by the Oireachtas would be illegitimate and would precipitate a constitutional crisis”.

Holding a second referendum on Lisbon, no matter how many declarations were attached, “would be an unprecedented breach of faith with the citizens of Ireland of a most egregious nature,” Mr Noonan said.

Former senior diplomat Noel Dorr said he did not think a legislative solution was possible, now that the referendum had taken place. “The wording put to the people on the June 12th said, among other things, ‘The State may ratify the Treaty of Lisbon’; the people said no. If they say no and refuse to give permission to ratify, I don’t think the Government could now go ahead and ratify it, or bits of it. So I think that’s out.

“It might have been possible to ratify it without a referendum beforehand, I don’t know. It’s no longer possible once the people, the ultimate repository of sovereignty, have spoken,” Mr Dorr said.