Labour’s Joan Burton says she is “extremely angry and offended” at the decision of the United Kingdom Independence Party to use her name in an anti-Lisbon leaflet to be circulated to homes in Ireland.
Ms Burton said the party had deliberately misused a quotation by her regarding National Asset Management Agency (Nama), to suggest she had cast doubt on the reliability of the guarantees secured by the Government in relation to the Lisbon Treaty.
She described Ukip as “a particularly unpleasant bunch of extreme right-wingers” who held anti-Irish and anti-European views.
Ukip leader Nigel Farage is in Dublin today to launch the party’s leaflet which calls on Irish voters to reject the Treaty.
The party confirmed earlier this week it had begun posting some 1.5 million leaflets to homes in Ireland.
The controversial leaflet, which has elicited angry criticism from a number of pro-Lisbon campaigners, alleges the treaty will hand over full control of immigration to the EU and warns that Turkey’s entry to the EU will lead to more mass migration of cheap labour.
It also displays an image of a turkey with a medallion around its neck with the message: “Free movement for 75 million people.”
Ms Burton said: “I have many political differences with [Minster for Finance] Brian Lenihan on the banking crisis and other economic policy and I will continue to vigorously oppose Fianna Fáil policies in this area.
“But I acknowledge that Brian Lenihan is a committed democrat unlike some of those in the Ukip and in their unsavoury allies in the European Parliament.”
The Labour finance spokeswoman said she was committed to the Lisbon Treaty, and has been campaigning Yes vote.
“I believe that the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty is strongly in the interests of the Irish people and that the treaty can bring further advances for Irish women,” she said.