Gay Mitchell
Question:29 Mr. G. Mitchell asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the Government's intentions regarding informing the electorate of the contents of the Amsterdam Treaty. [14622/97]
Priority Questions. - Amsterdam Treaty.
The Government attaches importance to keeping the public and the Oireachtas informed and to encouraging public debate on the Amsterdam Treaty. The Taoiseach and I briefed the Dáil on 10 July on the outcome of the meeting of the European Council in Amsterdam. This included a comprehensive presentation of the content of the treaty, the terms of which had been agreed by the European Council. As the Deputy will be aware, the treaty has yet to be signed. I will be signing the treaty, subject to ratification, on behalf of Ireland at a ceremony in Amsterdam on Thursday, 2 October.
A White Paper is in preparation within my Department. This will outline the contents of the treaty and will be one of the main instruments for informing the wider public of its provisions and their implications. The Government has yet to decide the precise date of publication of the White Paper but it is likely to take place in the autumn.
I asked the Minister the Government's intentions regarding informing the electorate of the contents of the Amsterdam Treaty. While I welcome the fact that a White Paper is in preparation, the problem is that White Papers are often read only by those who are well informed about the issues involved. Does the Minister intend to look at the possibility of providing freefone information lines to make the public aware of the arguments for and against ratification of the treaty? As this is the first highly contentious issue to be put to the public in a referendum since the McKenna judgment, is it not time to be more creative and proactive in how we inform the public? Does the Minister agree a page of terse almost unreadable print in a newspaper advertisement is not the best way to inform the public?
The White Paper will be a comprehensive and detailed factual document. It is designed to be as reader friendly as possible to cover the point the Deputy has made. I do not disagree with him in saying most people who read White Papers already have a detailed knowledge of them but in this case it will be as accessible as possible to the public and will brief the public on the background and context in which the negotiations took place. The Minister of State will be familiar with that. It will lay out the changes brought about by the provisions agreed at the European Council in Amsterdam.
The Deputy raised the problem of the McKenna and Hanafin judgments. This is one of the problems we have in drafting the White Paper and the information we make available to the public. Subject to the views of the Attorney General given in the light of the McKenna and Hanafin judgments, the White Paper will offer the Government's views on the outcome of the treaty negotiations.
As regards other information, literature on the "yes" and "no" side of the campaign, I do not accept it will be as highly contentious as the Deputy suggested. A good job was done in the negotiations; the Government of the day listened to many of the concerns expressed and negotiated a reasonable deal. We should not talk it up as being a highly contentious treaty because that would not help the national interest. However, in the light of the McKenna and Hanafin judgments we have to make decisions about the type of information that can be given. On that matter I have already requested the advice of the Attorney General. I note the Deputy's point that one way of tackling it would be via a free telephone information service. I will take that on board depending on the type of legal advice I receive.
The Minister will be aware that during the term of the last Government, a Communicating Europe task force was located at the Department of the Taoiseach. As Minister of State at both that Department and at the Department of Foreign Affairs, I chaired the task force. I understand it has now been transferred to the Department of Foreign Affairs. Will the Minister say who is chairing the task force and how many times it has met since it was transferred? Will he also say what preparations the task force has made for communicating the outcome of the Amsterdam Treaty so the public will be aware of the issues and can make a decision on a factual and informed basis when the question is put to them in the referendum.
The Deputy is correct in saying the Communicating Europe task force has been transferred to the Department of Foreign Affairs. It will meet on 9 October. The membership of the task force is the same. On this occasion it will be chaired by an Assistant Secretary within the Department rather than by a Minister of State. The important question of how Communicating Europe will get across the views and contents of the treaty to the general public will be on the task force's agenda. At that initial meeting it will also take stock of exactly where it stands in financial and other areas to the end of the year.
As the Deputy knows, the task force worked on the basis of mail shots, by subsidising radio programmes and through other methods. This will all be reviewed in the context of the upcoming referendum as well as in the context of the McKenna and Hanafin judgments.