Ganley says ESM will not have enough 'to bail out everybody'

LIBERTAS:LAUNCHING HIS poster advocating a No vote, businessman Declan Ganley said the European Stability Mechanism will not contain sufficient funds "to bail out everybody in Europe".

Mr Ganley described Libertas, the organisation he founded and which campaigned against the Lisbon treaty and fielded candidates in the 2009 European elections, as a “think tank”. It was registered with the Standards in Public Office Commission.

He said the campaign would have a “shoestring” budget of about €50,000. Volunteers would erect posters in the main population centres around the country.

Mr Ganley said he was campaigning for a No vote in the May 31st referendum because he believed bank debt was “the cancer at the centre of Ireland’s economic problem” and had to be addressed. “This is like being offered a ticket for the Titanic and saying if you don’t get your ticket now you are going to miss the boat,” he said.

“The ESM is not the solution to Europe’s problem. It’s an exacerbation of a Ponzi scheme that is failing.” He said the ESM had not yet been established and would not have enough money “to solve everybody’s problems”.

The markets were the only reliable source of bond funding for the future and the way to ensure “healthy” markets was by “purging the insolvency at the heart” of the banking system.

Mr Ganley said money the sovereign borrowed should be paid back in full, but Ireland was not responsible for bank debts that were private risks. “There has been an unfortunate failure to address the issue of the millstone, the ball-and-chain, of bank debt that Ireland has been saddled with . . . Ireland is carrying a disproportionate share of Europe’s bank debt and that needs to be resolved,” he said.

Asked about the Yes side’s lead in opinion polls, Mr Ganley said: “I love a challenge.”

“The whole future of Europe is on the precipice,” he said.“They are driving this Titanic into an iceberg. We have to say stop.”