Pro-Lisbon claims on jobs 'ridiculous'

MARY FITZGERALD

Government claims that a No vote in next month's Lisbon Treaty referendum would cost jobs are "ridiculous", the leader of anti-Lisbon group Libertas said today.

Declan Ganley said he welcomed a statement issued by Referendum Commission chairman Mr Justice Frank Clarke at the weekend, in which Mr Justice Clarke said claims that ratifying the Treaty will affect job levels are "political claims about which people may have different views".

The Treaty itself contains no provisions on this, the Referendum Commission chairman added.

"Claims about jobs and the economy are ridiculous. [The Government] bedded themselves in on this argument and it is on this argument that they are falling down because it is just not true," Mr Ganley said this afternoon.

"Their arguments don't stand up to even the most simple scrutiny...There is not one single thing in [the Lisbon Treaty] that creates a single job in Ireland. The only job that the Lisbon Treaty will save is Brian Cowen's. There is nothing good in here for the Irish economy, there is nothing good for job creation,"

The Libertas founder questioned the motives of companies such as Intel and Ryanair which had decided to campaign for a Yes vote. "I don't think the constitutional interests of this country are coming first," he said.

Mr Ganley also referred to articles on the Lisbon Treaty which had appeared in the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times in recent weeks.

"Our economic circumstances in this country have now deteriorated to a point where we need flexibility to be able to get out of this mess. This formula is a pre-crisis treaty for a post-crisis world, as the Financial Times described it," he said. "It is not good enough, it will not do the job for us."