Welcome to the new cold war. Unless the Irish people get a grip and recant their democratic rejection of the Lisbon treaty, Ireland will be forced to leave the European Union.

The country will then be exiled to the European Economic Area, a tiny EU annexe that currently comprises Norway, Liechtenstein and bankrupt Iceland. Alongside our new partners, we will form the world’s puniest international alliance: the axis of frostbite.

The prospect of Ireland being forced to join this undesirably exclusive club is presented as a real possibility in the report of the Oireachtas subcommittee on Ireland’s future in the European Union, a cross-party group ostensibly created to provide calm, objective analysis of the nation’s options in the wake of the defeated Lisbon referendum.

As the report’s shameless bias in favour of the treaty illustrates, however, the subcommittee was never anything other than a charade: a peevish attempt by the pro-Lisbon establishment to chastise and frighten an electorate it had failed to convince during the campaign. The report essentially comprises a restatement of the Yes case, framed in alarmist terms clearly designed to soften up voters for an inevitable second referendum. But blended in with the old wine in new bottles is another variety of plonk vinted entirely from sour grapes.

The resentment of the parties that advocated a Yes vote is understandable. Nothing irritates politicians more than being beaten at their own game, and Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Labour have long regarded the manipulation of Irish attitudes towards the European project as their preserve. Yet, having lost the argument and the vote last June, the main political parties promised to start taking seriously the reservations that the majority of Irish people evidently have about the increasingly federalist, undemocratic and unaccountable direction in which the EU appears to be headed by stealth.

The sub-committee’s work was supposed to be part of that engagement, contributing to “an open, comprehensive and sincere debate”. Far from doing so, however, its report portrays every option other than ratification of the treaty in another referendum as an appalling vista. Ireland’s banishment from the EU is repeatedly depicted as a possibility, even though EU treaties stipulate that this couldn’t happen without the acquiescence of Irish voters.

Many of us who voted against Lisbon are nowhere near as exercised about the treaty as the zealots on either the Yes or No side. We understand it contains positive proposals for reform of an enlarged EU. But we also wonder why its wording is so impenetrable, and have reason to suspect there is much casuistry hidden between the lines. Some EU mandarins, after all, boast of their prowess at pulling the wool over the eyes of the European electorate about their true plans for the union.

Since Ireland was the only country to hold a referendum on Lisbon, and since we were told it wouldn’t be implemented without our say-so, we attempted to treat the debate as seriously as possible. It was easy to dismiss the objections of extremists on the No side, such as the Chicken- Lickens who claimed ratification would result in conscription to a European army.

However, something interesting happened when more reasonable queries were raised about the treaty: its most ardent champions had no answers. They resorted instead to waffle and scare stories about the apocalyptic doom awaiting poor auld Ireland if we dared defy their wishes.

The Oireachtas sub-committee’s report provides more of the same. It will do little to change the minds of voters who are suspicious of — rather than implacably opposed to — the Lisbon treaty.

Moreover, amid the relentless lip service about addressing the democratic deficit between Irish people and EU institutions, a nagging question refuses to go away: if Irish and European politicians are so interested in democracy, why don’t they just respect the decision of the voters?

Harney's pride, Reilly's prejudice

Times Recommends

• Michael Jackson: Not the final chapter
• Indian Army spends10m rupees on golf buggies
• Brüno toned down for 15 rating