Declan Ganley uses every opportunity to say that 80% of Irish law comes from Brussels well it is a lie. Here are some facts about Libertas and Declan ganley's misuse of information and Big Lies.
Fight the Lies
The Irish people deserve an honest debate on this Treaty, we promise that our campaign will base all our arguments on the facts, and will reference all our statements.
We don’t believe in attacking people personally, but we have zero tolerance for anyone who lies to the Irish people in this campaign. When people make false statements, we will respond immediately with the truth
LIE: Unelected Brussels bureaucrats make up to 80% of laws.
THE TRUTH:EU law is democratically agreed by our elected representatives, and represents less than half the laws implemented in Ireland each year
- New research demonstrates definitively that Libertas’ claim that “Unelected Brussels bureaucrats make up to 80% of laws” is completely false.
- Gen Yes’s team of researchers have analysed all legislation from the last 17 years to show that on average, the real proportion of laws that comes from Brussels is less than half of what Libertas claims. In a year-by-year analysis, not once does the amount of legislation coming from Brussels rise even as far as 50%. Furthermore, not one single EU law can be passed without approval from our elected MEPs or our elected politicians in the European Council.
- We analysed the texts of Irish Acts and Statutory Instruments between 1992 and 2009, that period covers 588 Acts and 10,725 Statutory Instruments.
- We analysed the texts of these 11,313 pieces of legislation for any mention whatsoever of European legislation (Directives, Regulations, Council Decisions). If there is a single mention, we have counted that Act or Statutory Instrument as “European” which if anything will overstate the proportion of legislation that is “European”.
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- Results:
- Of the 588 Acts, 114 contain at least one reference to European legislation (19.39%). Of the 10,725 Statutory Instruments, 3,050 contain at least one reference to European legislation (28.44%). Of the total of Irish legislation from 1992 to 2009, then, only 3,164 out of 11,313 Acts and Instruments contain any reference whatsoever to European legislation - 27.97%.
- This is the maximum possible amount of Irish legislation that could possibly be related to “Brussels legislation”. Further analysis would reduce this total, because some Acts/SIs will not in fact be implementing EU legislation, but only making some reference to it, or only part of the legislation text is implementing EU legislation, while the majority of the Act/SI implements purely national legislation.
- Looked at year by year, it can be seen that in no year does the amount of Irish legislation in any sense ‘containing traces of EU’ rise as far as 50%.
- One final point is that the claim may refer to EU regulation which is
directly applicable without requiring an Act/SI. Even if we include
these regulations (3,009), the amount of legislation in any way
“European” only reaches 43%. Nearly half what Libertas claims. - Methodology:
- The advantage to our methodology is that - first and foremost - anyone can repeat the exercise themselves. The Acts and Statutory Instruments for the period are all available online.
LIE: EU laws are made by unelected elites.
THE TRUTH: Every EU law has to be approved by either the people’s directly elected MEPs, or by the elected government representatives of the member states. That means no law can be passed without approval by your elected representatives. The Treaty increases the Parliament’s power further.
LIE: The EU wants to introduce conscription in Ireland.
THE TRUTH: There is no EU army, and there is no move toward conscription. Very few countries have conscription in their national armies, and many of them are phasing it out.Furthermore, close to one fifth of EU countries are neutral states, like Ireland.
