RATIFYING THE Lisbon Treaty would be an “important step” towards resolving Ireland’s current economic difficulties, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Micheál Martin told the MacGill Summer School at Glenties, Co Donegal last night.
But anti-treaty campaigner Patricia McKenna rejected this as “scaremongering”.
The Minister said a resounding Yes vote in the referendum on October 2nd would send a “strong political message” to foreign investors that Ireland was fully committed to the European Union.
“The Single European Market has helped indigenous Irish companies to develop their export performance. Equally, it has helped Ireland to attract a vastly disproportionate share of foreign direct investment, particularly from US companies.
“Multinational companies view access to European markets as a key factor in their investment decisions. With only 1 per cent of the union’s population, Ireland attracted 25 per cent of all new US investment in Europe in the decade up to 2005. Our capacity to continue bringing in investment will be crucial to our future prospects also.
“Since the establishment of the Single European Market in 1993, the stock of foreign investment in Ireland has increased by more than 400 per cent. The companies involved spend approximately €16 billion per annum in Ireland, have a payroll of approximately €6.7 billion, and paid about €3 billion to the exchequer in corporation tax in 2007”.
Listing numerous firms from abroad who had set up in Ireland he said: “These companies did not come here because they like our climate, but because we are seen as a country that is fully plugged into the European Union. It would be unwise to give them any reason to think otherwise.”
Former MEP Patricia McKenna of the People’s Movement said the notion that rejection of Lisbon would damage inward investment prospects was “yet another scare tactic that has no basis in reality”.
“The fact that Britain is recognised as the most Eurosceptic member state has not stopped investors [from coming] there,” she said. Norway and Switzerland were not even in the EU and yet they were “two of Europe’s wealthiest nations”.
She said the Yes side was relying solely on a false economic argument: “It is clear that the very deregulated economic model upon which Lisbon is based is responsible for the international financial collapse.
“So why adopt a treaty that is founded on a failed economic approach and enshrine that failed approach into the treaties of the new EU established by the Lisbon Treaty?” she asked.
Chief executive of the Rehab Group Angela Kerins said the news and current affairs media were incorrectly interpreting guidelines for fair and balanced coverage of referendum campaigns.
“By interpreting media guidelines for coverage of a referendum as requiring equal airtime for the Yes and No sides rather than a more qualitative measure, the media, while striving to, does not always achieve this equity.
“If we do not address this, referendum campaigns could continue to be hijacked by unconnected issues just because they are being opportunistically linked to one side or the other of the referendum, leaving the general public confused and misguided.
“This will not serve our democracy well and thought needs to be given to how this can be addressed,” Ms Kerins said.
Labour education spokesman Ruairí Quinn said: “The economic consequences for Ireland of a rejection of the Lisbon Treaty would be enormous.
“Ireland would no longer be seen as a reliable or enthusiastic supporter of the European project.”
