Catherine Reilly (Dublin, Metro Eireann): The shadow boxing is winding down. The gloves are off. Use whatever lazy boxing metaphor you want. The Irish debate on the Lisbon Treaty is about to get real (or perhaps just a little more real than it has been).
Thus far, observing the build-up to this strange contest has evoked a sensation vaguely similar to the feeling of anticipation prior to a big match involving teams you don't support: curiosity about the team line-ups, a mild sense of childish excitement ('this one could go either way'), confusion at team selections ('why's he out on the left wing') and the cathartic relief when the ref blows the whistle.
In Lisbon Treaty terms the ref's whistle is poised.
This week, the Referendum Commission (an independent body tasked with providing information to the Irish public on the Lisbon Treaty) announced that a major public information and advertising campaign is about to get underway.
From early May, it will send two million copies of a 14-page explanation of the treaty to every home in Ireland. But some wonder if it's not a little late in the day, with information and misinformation having already entered the public domain via the 'all-knowing' agenda-setters.
A poll conducted by Red C and published in the Sunday Business Post last week showed that support for the treaty is at 35 per cent, with 31 per cent opposed. Some 34 per cent remain undecided.
Information is currently available on the Referendum Commission's website, and the public can telephone a lo-call number - 1890-270970 - for more information (or rather, a degree of information - it closes as 5pm and doesn't operate at weekends).
Yesterday afternoon, I decided to give it a whirl. A pleasant Indian chap took my call, during the course of which I enquired how I might obtain some "simple" information on the Lisbon Treaty (voting day: six weeks and counting). He kindly informed me that information packs will be popping through letterboxes in "early May," but in the meantime the aforementioned website is "very handy."
Changing tack, I suggested that "perhaps you might be able to answer some of my questions", trying not to sound like a spinster surrounded by thirteen cats and suffering late afternoon ennui. "To be honest," he replied, "we have to be completely impartial," and directed me back to the website which was still "very handy."
Is it handy? Might be too strong a word. The information in the 'what would change?' section is relatively easy to follow, but there is a lingering impression that there are quite a few loose ends. For example, it explains that if the treaty comes into force then two-thirds of the Member States will nominate a Commissioner in 2014. "There are 27 Member States at present," it explains. "So, if the number of Member States remains the same, there will be 18 Commissioners in the period 2014 - 2019." It continues, "The right to nominate a Commissioner will rotate among the Member States on an equal basis. This means that each Member State will nominate a member of the Commission for two out of every three Commissions (that is, 10 of every 15 year cycle)." This information is followed by the tagline: "The precise details of how this will operate in practice have yet to be decided." Wow, confidence inspiring.
Information on the proposed Citizens' Initiative - whereby at least one million citizens from "a significant number" of Member States could ask the Commission to bring forward proposals on a particular issue, is similarly vague. The Commission would be obliged to "consider" the proposal, but "the details of how this would operate have yet to be decided".
Meanwhile, this week, Ireland's Referendum Commission moved to clear up ongoing confusion over whether the Irish Government will be able to veto demands by Member States over changes to business taxes. This veto will exist, the Referendum Commission's chairman Mr Justice Iarfhlaith O'Neill has said.
But other sub-plots look set to continue. Speaking at the National Forum on Europe in Dublin during the recent visit of President of the European Commission (José Manuel Barroso), Seumas O'Brien of the Irish Farmers' Association repeated Irish farmers' fears that EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson's proposals for "very serious reductions in tariffs" would "wipe out the European beef industry."
O'Brien accepted that the WTO negotiations do not affect the Lisbon Treaty but contended that the two issues were linked in the minds of farmers. Referring to the date when WTO negotiations are set to finish, he warned: "I fear that the 20th of May will be our referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, not the 12th of June."
Ireland's Agriculture Minister Mary Coughlan has said she's received assurances from Commissioner Mandelson that any deal reached at the WTO talks would be fair to Irish farmers.
All in all, however, a more representative reaction to the Lisbon Treaty will only be possible when the Irish public is better informed, making the success or otherwise of the forthcoming information campaign absolutely decisive.
Yes, the ref's whistle is poised.
Catherine Reilly is deputy editor at Metro Eireann, Ireland's multicultural weekly.
