Libertas.org

Treaty is a “Referendum on the political class”

Libertas has today challenged the Government to “name the date” for the Lisbon Treaty Referendum, saying it wasn’t prepared to wait much longer before launching a full-scale national campaign.

Adding its voice to that of other groups, the organisation said that the Irish People were overdue a full debate on the treaty, and that it looked forward to a full and frank debate on the contents of the Treaty.

Libertas Campaign Director David Cochrane said that the organisation was committed to forcing an “honest debate” from the Government:

“Fianna Fail and their lapdogs in Fine Gael will do everything in their power to talk about everything but the Treaty. They will try and present this as a referendum on the past, and will avoid talking about the future, preferring to tell the electorate just to “trust” them.

They will tell us that Europe will somehow fall into oblivion if we say no, when the truth is the EU became more efficient after the French and Dutch said no.

They will tell us that we will be left behind if we say no, and they will try and get their friends in Europe to say the same, when the truth is that by saying No we will be providing leadership to Europe.

Finally, they will try and make this treaty a referendum on opposition groups, when the truth is that it is a referendum on the political class themselves.

People can send a message with a no vote, - they can show those who came up with this treaty all by themselves without any request by the people that we are tired of closed-door politics and Treaties deliberately written to confuse us. We are sick of regulations foisted on us by an unelected elite, and we are sick of cynical manipulation of the truth.

We are ready to wage a national campaign tomorrow if needs be, - Bertie should show some guts and fire the starting gun”.