Lisbon Watch »

• O’Leary labels No groups ‘unemployable headbangers’

  September 15, 2009 @ 11:21 am | by Eoin Burke Kennedy

  

  Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has set out just why he thinks Ireland should vote Yes to Lisbon in an expletive-laden rant on YouTube.

  In his five-minute tirade, O’Leary describes those on the No side as “unemployable f****ing headbangers”, and claims if it weren’t for the European Union the country would be destroyed by an “incompetent public sector”, “inept politicians” and trade union bosses who were “milking the system” through social partnership.

  Never one to mix his words, O’Leary said “our incompetent political elite” had shattered the country’s competitiveness and created “an explosion of expensive, useless, self-sustaining quangos”.

  He said his foray into political campaigning was a one-off, and he intended to retire from the political scene immediately the referendum campaign.

  “Will I be running at some future date for the presidency? No! sadly, I am the wrong gender, and I couldn’t hack speaking in the normal platitudinous shite that you have to talk in to get elected,” he said.

  Mysteriously, he also felt called upon to dispel “the myth” that his airline’s cabin crew were “large Russian shot putters or Latvians that can’t speak any English”, saying most cabin crew were Irish or English girls.

• Ganley derides pro-Lisbon stance of Intel and Microsoft

  September 14, 2009 @ 3:35 pm | by Eoin Burke Kennedy

  Libertas leader Declan Ganley has criticised the public shows of support for the Lisbon Treaty by technology giants Intel and Microsoft, claiming they were motivated solely to keep the European Commission “sweet” and avoid further fines for anti-competitive practices.

  Speaking on the RTE’s Today with Pat Kenny show, Ganley claimed the Commission has become so powerful that businesses like Intel and Microsoft were now behaving like lowly “courtiers…looking for favours and begging for the scraps” so as not to be hit with another billion euro fine.

  Intel was stung with a record €1.06 billion anti-trust fine earlier this year by the EU executive, more than double the €497 million fine levied against Microsoft in 2004.

  In Intel’s case, Ganley said the company remained in “mitigation and litigation” with the Commission in an attempt to reduce its fine.

  “These companies need to build goodwill because they have figured out that they have to keep the Commission sweet…because the Commission has so much power and will be given so much greater power under this Treaty without ever having to face an electorate.”

  He said the companies should not be interfering in the constitutional processes of the country by entering the debate on Lisbon, and claimed they were dispensing poor economic advice.

  “I understand they need to curry favour with the Commission but their advice is very bad for the Irish economy.

  It is not in our interest to give away exclusive competence in commercial, industrial, foreign direct investment policy and to enshrine European law as supreme,” he said.

  Last week the managing director of Microsoft Ireland, Paul Rellis, warned Ireland would almost certainly lose investment to other EU countries if the Lisbon Treaty is not ratified.

  In August, Intel Ireland launched a pro-Lisbon campaign with general manager Jim O’Hara claiming a Yes vote would be “hugely important” for the future of foreign investment in Ireland.

• Yes groups deny responsibility for anti-Cóir posters

  September 13, 2009 @ 7:29 pm | by Eoin Burke Kennedy

  Nobody appears to know just who is behind a series of anti-Cóir posters which were erected along several of capital’s busiest thoroughfares last week.

  The posters displayed a monkey holding a placard emblazoned with the words “No to Nuts”, and contained the message “Are Cóir driving you nuts, Vote Yes to Lisbon.

  Several prominent Yes groups and campaigners contacted by The Irish Times denied responsibility and pleaded to be clueless as to who was behind the posters.

  Cóir’s Richard Greene claimed the posters, which have been taken down by the Dublin City Council, represented “a huge own goal for the Yes side”, as they were deeply offensive to people who suffered from psychiatric illness.

  Cóir is planning to blitz the capital and several other cities in the coming days with another controversial poster campaign warning of dire consequences if the Treaty is passed.

  The group has produced a series of four pink, heart-shaped posters, containing provocative slogans such as “the EU loves low wages” and “Kiss your freedom goodbye”.

  One of the posters contains the message “We love our Constitution, Vote No” while another claims “Politicians love the gravy train”.

  A fifth poster shows a picture of a giraffe with the message “Another vote? They’ve got some neck”.

  Greene told LisbonWatch: “We’ve got a huge response to our first series of posters and it is now accepted by all sides that we’re winning the poster campaign”.

• Does Ganley sense a No vote or was his return planned all along?

  September 12, 2009 @ 8:38 pm | by Eoin Burke Kennedy

  The return of Brussels nemesis Ganley may not be enough a stop a Yes vote if the latest Red C poll, published in the Sunday Business Post, proves an accurate barometer of public opinion.

  With just under three weeks to the referendum, the poll puts support for the Lisbon Treaty at 52 per cent, with the No side on 25 per cent and the undecided at 23 per cent.

  The figures contrast with the last Irish Times / TNS mrbi poll which suggested support for the Treaty had slumped 8 points to 46 per cent since May and that the No vote had risen 1 per cent to 29 per cent, with the Don’t Knows on 25 per cent.

  There’s little doubt Ganley’s return to the fray adds a new dynamic to the campaign.  But was his return planned all along or does he sense a No vote is there for the taking? There’s been a GanleyComeBack persona on Twitter since his European election defeat in June. One LisbonWatch reader suspects astroturfing.

  Nevertheless, Patricia McKenna suggests his return will allay concerns that those on the No side are anti-business. But Paddy Power remains unconvinced, shortening their odds on a Yes vote from 1/10 to 1/12.

  All the speculation this week surrounding Ganley almost overshadowed the entrance of Jim Corr, who launched his own crusade for a No vote, warning that Lisbon would lead to a European superstate run by Tony Blair (see below).

  

• Is Ganley to return?

  September 11, 2009 @ 11:12 am | by Eoin Burke Kennedy

  Several blogs and a number of Twitter users are suggesting Libertas leader Declan Ganley is about make a dramatic and unexpected return to the campaign trail for Lisbon II.

  In an interview with the Wall Street Journal published yesterday, Ganley said it was “profoundly undemocratic” to hold a second vote on the treaty.

  The WSJ described him as the man the Brussels establishment blamed most for the last Lisbon No vote.

  The paper said:”He was one of the driving forces behind the No campaign the last time around, and he’s back to do it again”.

  Ganley was contacted by the Irish Times today but declined to confirm the reports, saying he was in a meeting and would be available to talk on Monday.

  But irishelection.ie says: “Declan Ganley is back 100 per cent” and the Libertas launch will happen between now and Monday.

  The possible re-emergence of Mr Ganley in the Lisbon debate comes after the latest Irish Times /TNS mrbi poll showed a dramatic drop in support for the Treaty.

  The Tuam-based businessman is described by the Wall Street Journal as the man the Brussels establishment blamed most for the last Lisbon No vote. “He was one of the driving forces behind the No campaign the last time around, and he’s back to do it again,” it said.

  In the interview, Mr Ganley said: “The Irish people had a vote on the Lisbon Treaty. They voted no. A higher percentage of the electorate voted no than voted for Barack Obama in the United States of America. No one’s suggesting he should run for re-election next month”.

  He also claimed Ireland was “almost literally being held hostage, with a gun pointed to our head, and being told, if you don’t sign this thing, unspecified bad things will happen. But what they’re asking us to do is to sell out the rest of the people of Europe.”

  When asked about Mr Ganley’s possible return to the Lisbon campaign trail today, Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan said: “Mr Ganley is free to campaign. I have no information about his intentions, that’s a matter for himself.”

  Following his defeat in the North West constituency in the June European Parliament elections, Mr Ganley said he would not be involved in a campaign against a second Lisbon Treaty referendum. “I will not be involved in the second Lisbon campaign, I’ve said that upfront,” he said.

• Commission intervenes on Cóir’s wage claim

  September 3, 2009 @ 4:11 pm | by Eoin Burke Kennedy

  Referendum Commission chairman Justice Frank Clarke has said the Lisbon Treaty has no implications for the minimum wage, contrary to assertions by anti-Lisbon group Cóir.

  The group has been running a controversial poster campaign claiming, among other things, that the minimum pay rate may drop as low as €1.84 if the Treaty is passed.

  “As far as the claim that Lisbon has anything to do with the minimum wage is concerned, there is a simple answer to that. It hasn’t,” Justice Clarke said.

  He said the Commission did not intend to intervene in the debate but would correct errors of fact.

  However, the move suggests he’s likely to be more interventionist than his predecessors.

  Cóir has been to be forefront of the No campaign so far, eliciting a fiery attack last week from Fianna Fáil’s Lisbon chief Micháel Martin who accused the group of cynically distorting the debate .

  See irishelection.com’s Qik video of Cóir’s latest press briefing on Lisbon