Anti-Lisbon Treaty group Libertas today formally unveiled its campaign for a No vote in the forthcoming referendum on the treaty.
It accused the Government and other supporters of a Yes vote of playing politics over the treaty.
Libertas - whose campaign slogan is 'Facts Not Politics' - pledged to send leaflets to businesses claiming that the treaty is bad for business and will launch a nationwide billboard campaign on March 24 th.
It also plans to send a leaflet outlining the arguments for and against the treaty to every home in the country. Libertas says the reason for doing this is that the since the passing of the Referendum Act 2001, the Referendum Commission no longer has a statutory function in relation to putting the arguments for and against referendum proposals.
The group is headed and funded by millionaire businessman Declan Ganley.
Libertas says that if the electorate were to read the treaty in full "most people would be against it".
Spokesman David Cochrane said that the treaty was made "intentionally difficult to read" and that it contained the same spelling mistakes that were contained in the original EU Constitution which was rejected by France and the Netherlands in 2005.
This afternoon, Fianna Fáil TD Barry Andrews said Libertas "has already exposed their anti-EU agenda by their claim that there is a sinister new provision in the treaty to give the Union 'absolute supremacy over Ireland'."
"The fact is that the provision they are attacking has actually been in our constitution for 36 years and is essential to membership of the union," said Mr Andrews.
The director of the Irish Alliance for Europe Brendan Kiely said the Libertas campaign was nothing more than an expensive, misleading PR exercise.
"During this campaign Libertas will endeavour to mislead the Irish electorate by saying that a Yes vote will be bad for Ireland's economic future. We believe the Irish people will not be fooled by such mistruths.
"The Lisbon Reform Treaty provides that sensitive areas such as taxation, social security, foreign policy and a common defence are still governed by the principle of unanimity which means that all member States must agree to any new proposals in these areas," said Mr Kiely.
Meanwhile Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said a Yes vote would ensure continued economic success. "The Reform Treaty involves change and change can be intimidating, even to the point of stopping us from taking the necessary decisions that will enable us to thrive and prosper," he said, speaking at University College Cork. "Had we listened to the doubters in the mid 1980s, we could easily have missed out on much of the economic advancement we have experienced this past two decades."
The Government has yet to set a date for the treaty referendum, but it is expected that it will be held in mid-June.