Big week for Ireland

This week Irish voters will head to the polls to vote on ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, a system of charters which provisionally grants the EU greater rights over the State, plus other reforms primarily centered on human rights. But the lack of clarity just what the entire Treaty is, what's in it and not, and how much control Ireland would have in veto power, has made voters skittish. This has national politicians in an all-out PR campaign, either pro or con.

This article from this weekend's Irish Times describes the campaign intensity appropriately.

The voting is on the back of a report by the US State Department that was critical of Irish efforts to curb human trafficking. An article (subscription required) in this weekend's Times outlines how Ireland has fallen to the 'second' of three tiers for trafficking and monitoring.