ITT Bests UL Debaters 2008

ON Wednesday April 2, the Millstream Common Room became

the venue for the much anticipated Lisbon Treaty debate

hosted by UL Debating Union and featuring speakers both

from UL and also speakers from Institute of Technology

Tralee.The ITT speakers were arguing in favour of the Treaty

and the purportedly more difficult task of opposing the
new Reform Treaty was left to the Limerick speakers.Adjudicators

for the debate were Mr John Shanahan and Dr Patricia Conlon.

In what was an information rich debate,the speakers from Tralee were extremely well prepared,putting forward both deep analysis and intelligent

rhetoric to make the case for the Lisbon Treaty.

Their first speaker, Liam Moran used the example of heart surgery,

and the confidence people place in their doctors to

make the right decision, comparing this with the majority

of the Irish political scene backing the Lisbon Treaty.

The case for Lisbon was furthered by James Barry,whose

primary focus was on how this was a requirement for the EU

to remain efficient and to continue giving benefits to all

member states. Emily Cane,the final speaker for ITT

focused on economics in part and how Ireland's objection to

the Reform treaty could jeopardise foreign direct investment

and damage the nation's prosperity.

In refuting these arguments, the team from UL took

the line that while the EU has been good to Ireland,the Lisbon

Treaty would not. In opening for UL, Eamon Quinlan

stated that the Reform Treaty was a case of 'smoke

and mirrors' with most of the content being the same as the

EU Constitution which was rejected previously by other

nations. He went on to discuss the harms to Ireland under the

Treaty, including the democratic deficit. Continuing this

line of argument, Aoife Finnerty spoke about how it

was a bigger loss to a small country such as Ireland to be

without a EU Commissioner for any period of time.Final

speaker in the debate Oisín Collins spoke about how the

Reform treaty was a future for Europe, but not the best future

for Ireland.

After the debate, the adjudicators departed to deliberate the outcome. During this interval, refreshments were served and the audience had a

chance to speak with the debaters. The adjudicators returned shortly and the verdict was announced with IT Tralee winning the debate and Ms Finnerty of UL taking the best speaker award.