LIBERTAS:CLAIMS THAT a No vote in next month's treaty referendum will cost jobs are "ridiculous", the leader of anti-Lisbon group Libertas argued yesterday.
Declan Ganley said he welcomed a statement issued at the weekend by the chairman of the Referendum Commission, Mr Justice Frank Clarke, which addressed claims that passing the treaty would have an impact on job levels.
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.”
Mr Ganley said Mr Justice Clarke’s clarification showed that Yes campaign warnings of the threat to jobs if the treaty was rejected were “ridiculous”.
“They bedded themselves in on this argument, and it is on this argument that they are falling down because it is just not true.
“Their arguments don’t stand up to even the most simple scrutiny . . . There is not one single thing in it 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, and there is nothing good for job-creation.”
The Libertas founder was speaking to reporters outside Fine Gael offices in Dublin, where he had delivered a copy of the treaty and a highlighter pen so that the main Opposition party could “point out where the treaty mentions jobs”.
Asked about the fact that companies such as Intel and Ryanair had decided to campaign for a Yes vote, Mr Ganley questioned their motives.
“I don’t think the constitutional interests of this country are coming first,” he said.
Mr Ganley also referred to arguments made in articles on the Lisbon Treaty which had appeared in the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times in recent weeks.
“Don’t listen to me in terms of the fallaciousness of the arguments of the Yes side. The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times have all said the same,” he said.
“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,” Mr Ganley continued. “It is not good enough. It will not do the job for us.”
Meanwhile, the American Chamber of Commerce in Ireland, which represents 600 US companies operating in the State, also issued a response to Mr Justice Clarke’s statement.
Dr Paul Duffy, the chamber’s president, said he had no doubt the future of jobs and investment in Ireland were “inextricably linked” to a Yes vote in next month’s referendum, and he argued that the State could not afford to vote No.
“While it is impossible to calculate the medium or long-term effect of a No vote, we have no doubt that a second rejection of the Lisbon Treaty would inflict a severe injury on the prospects for future foreign direct investment in Ireland,” Dr Duffy said.
He noted that many US multinationals were attracted to Ireland because of the access to European markets it provides them.
“Ireland is seen as an influential player in a marketplace of 500 million people. If we reject this treaty . . . it will cause uncertainty about our commitment to Europe and will weaken our competitive position when trying to win new FDI investment in the future,” Dr Duffy added.
Meanwhile, Fine Gael spokeswoman on European Affairs, Lucinda Creighton, rejected Libertas’s claims.
“A Yes vote will provide Ireland with the economic handrail it needs to recover from the current crisis,” she said.