Libertas.org

The Government’s use of taxpayers’ resources to promote a “yes” vote in the forthcoming referendum on the Lisbon Treaty is a sign that it will stop at nothing to secure the result it wants, Libertas has warned today.

Declan Ganley, President of Libertas, said that the presence of blatantly political messaging on the Government’s “information website” www.reformtreaty.ie, was a total abuse of state resources.

“The role of the Civil Service is to provide impartial advice to government and implement the policies of the Government of the day. It has no role whatsoever in promoting or advocating political messages.

The fact that a website which is funded by the taxpayer and carries the seal of the Irish State has on its front page a press release attacking opponents of the Treaty is absolutely disgraceful, especially as the Government is promoting the website as an impartial source of information for voters who wish to learn more about the treaty and make their minds up.

 

Fianna Fail has its own resources, and its own website. If Junior Minister Roche wishes to launch untrue attacks on Libertas, or anybody else, he should use those resources to do it.

Libertas is today calling for a full explanation from the Junior Minister and his colleagues as to how this blatantly political material came to appear on a state-funded website, and for the material to be immediately removed.

We would also call on opposition parties who support the Treaty to immediately repudiate this misuse of taxpayer’s money.”

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