Engagement with the European Union has helped to create over a million jobs and has improved living standards in Ireland, Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Mary Coughlan said today.
Ms Coughlan said there was strong support from Irish business for a Yes vote in the Lisbon Treaty referendum.
Speaking in Dublin at a Fianna Fáil press conference, Ms Coughlan noted there were “individual businessment” who are against the treaty.
“They are fully entitled to their opinions and to express them,” she said. “However people should be very clear that the great majority of Irish business is in favour of a Yes to the Lisbon reform Treaty.
The Tánaiste noted groups in favour of the treaty included employer representative body Ibec, the Small Firms Association, the American Chamber in Ireland and chambers of commerce throughout the country.
“Together, these organisations represent thousands of companies which employ hundreds of thousands of people.
“Crucially, these companies represent a full cross-section of Irish employers, ranging from multinationals to small indigenous businesses. They know what is best for Irish business and they would never take a stance that would endanger their success,” she said.
Ms Coughlan said the EU must reform and “be able to compete and win in the face of forces such as globalisation”.
“The Lisbon Reform Treaty is specifically designed to make the EU more efficient and effective in the face of global competition and this is why we are hearing such strong support for a Yes from Irish business.
Ms Coughlan said that on a practical level, Ireland needs and EU “which will continue to open markets for our companies and provide them with the opportunity to compete fairly”.
“We also need an EU which steps up its work in vital areas such as research and energy security.”
Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin, who also attended the event along with Minister for European Affairs Dick Roche, said it was through the EU that Ireland can have “the greatest impact in promoting the values which are central to our foreign policy”.
He said an important part of the treaty was “the effort to give the European Union a stronger and clearer voice in the world”.
“Each member state will continue to be free to act in accordance with its own policies, but the Treaty develops the union in important ways," he said.
Mr Martin outlined aspects of the treaty, including its focus on development aid as “a core part of the union’s external policy”.
He said it also gives the EU a new responsibility for the provision of humanitarian aid to those who are victims of natural or man-made disasters.
The Minister rejected what he said were claims by those opposed to the treaty, including Sinn Fein, that it had a “militarisation agenda”.