or something…

I have been wondering about how I’m going to write about Lisbon II.  Well while I continue wonder Lucinda Creighton has started the ball rolling on the spurious/less than obvious or sane reasons to vote yes or no to Lisbon. I’m sure between now and October 2 we’ll have many more.

“Deputy Lucinda Creighton, Fine Gael spokesperson on European Affairs, today called for a Yes vote on the Lisbon referendum to enable Ireland to work with our EU partners in the flight against gangland crime.

“Crime is a cross-border issue, and we need to pass the Lisbon Treaty to give EU governments the power to work together to fight crime. I have welcomed much of the Government’s recent legislation to deal with gangland crime but it can only work as part of a wider strategy, and as part of a European strategy. The Government can pass as many laws as it likes, but national legislation is limited by national borders.

Crime is now globalised. Money-laundering, arms-dealing and drug-smuggling don’t recognise borders. The Criminal Assets Bureau has done Trojan work but it can’t touch Spanish bank accounts. The Government has passed legislation to seriously curtail access to handguns within the State, but gangland criminals are free to fly over to practise their shooting in Central European firing ranges without a bother. Much of the cocaine and heroin trade in this country is controlled by Irish gangland criminals operating with impunity from Spain. We cannot tackle these problems alone.

“But because of the current voting arrangements, we cannot tackle these issues at EU level either. We have failed to implement the EU-US extradition and mutual legal assistance agreements. The European evidence warrant has also been stalled. We have failed in our task to step up cross-border co-operation and, in particular, combat terrorism and cross-border crime.

Is Lucinda going to propose sending Dermot Ahern to Brussels to be a commissioner to bring in the directives needed to protest us from non existent blasphemy, spying on emails and take away juries because more juries aren’t being intimidated but he says they are?