The main political parties are using the current economic crisis to scare people into supporting the treaty, Sinn Féin’s Dáil leader Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin has told the Joint Committee on European Affairs.
Mr Ó Caoláin said today Fianna Fáil, Labour and Fine Gael were deliberately playing on voters’ fears by telling them the country would lose investment, jobs, and support from other EU member states if the electorate voted No again.
“The truth is very different. The cause of this recession is the failed economic policies of this Government and their counterparts across Europe,” he told the joint committee.
He claimed many of these “failed right-wing politicians” were responsible for negotiating the treaty and many of their “failed right-wing policies” underpin its provisions.
Mr Ó Caoláin said last year almost 900,000 people in the State rejected the treaty because they believed that it was a “bad treaty and because they wanted a better deal for Ireland and for Europe”.
Since then the Government has “prevaricated, sat on their hands and failed to act appropriately” or secure a single change to the text of the treaty, he claimed.
The Government was now returning to the people with the exact same proposition, he said.
“If it wasn’t good enough for the electorate then why on earth should it be good enough for us now?”
Mr Ó Caoláin urged voters to reject the treaty, saying “it is the same treaty and so people should give the same answer, a resounding No.”