Fair point, but the people of Europe deserve the opportunity to vote on this. Given that most of the Irish political parties were in favour, had this been ratified in parliament, it would have pasesd - clearly against the wishes of the population.
Is it reasonable to assume that the parliaments of the other 26 member states may not represent the views of their people? We know this is the case in France and the Netherlands. Not holding referendums this time around was an act of cowardice on the part of these and the other 6 countries who held or planned to hold referendums on the original constitution.