Ireland 'can only gain by rejecting treaty'

Ireland has nothing to lose and everything to gain by voting no to the Lisbon Treaty, Libertas leader Declan Ganley said today.

Ireland has nothing to lose and everything to gain by voting no to the Lisbon Treaty, Libertas leader Declan Ganley said today.

The millionaire businessman said the EU reform package had not changed at all since the Irish people rejected it last year during the first ballot.

Legal guarantees hammered out with the leaders of other member states earlier this year on neutrality, tax and family issues were meaningless, he added.

“They put a gun to our heads, the gun is empty, there’s nothing harmful that can come from a no vote,” he declared during his final salvo in a second anti-Lisbon campaign, which he had said he wouldn’t get involved in.

“We cannot possibly get a worse deal than what is in the Lisbon Treaty. We can definitely get a better deal.”

Mr Ganley said if the EU deal is backed by the Irish electorate it would see the transfer of power in more than 60 key decision areas away from Dublin to Brussels.

It would result in an unelected president of Europe and would do nothing to help job creation or help economic recovery in Ireland, he claimed.

The controversial campaigner, who failed to get elected to the European parliament in June, also said the only way to keep an Irish EU commissioner is by voting no on Friday.

Mr Ganley argued that only under the existing Nice Treaty can Ireland nominate its own commissioner.

Accusing the Government of refusing to accept the country’s “sovereign decision” last time around, he said voters could now choose whether they wanted three more years of Taoiseach Brian Cowen or three more days.

“They’ve tried to hoodwink us, they wouldn’t listen to us, they wouldn’t respect our democratic decision,” he said.

“Millions of people across Europe have voted no to this same formula and have been ignored.

“Democracy is at question here.”

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