THE ECONOMY:IRELAND'S YES vote in the Lisbon Treaty referendum "will improve our economic position", Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan stressed as the result showed a national swing of 20.5 per cent to the Yes side.
In Citywest where six Dublin counts were completed, Mr Lenihan said the result “sends out a very positive message to the other European countries that Ireland sees her destiny with these other countries”.
The “other European countries will be thrilled at the results. It’s a statement of confidence in ourselves and our capacity to address our problems,” he said.
His own Dublin West constituency returned a 68.5 per cent vote for the treaty, compared to a 52 per cent No in 2008.
Dublin Mid-West was 61 per cent in favour and 39 per cent opposed, compared to 60 per cent against the in 2008.
Mr Lenihan said there was a “lot of discussion within families and households. You don’t have a 20 per cent swing unless people have discussion among themselves about how they should vote.
“I think there was far more of that type of discussion taking place in every household in the State in this election”.
He added: “People don’t see a future for Ireland if we don’t have European markets and goodwill in them. They saw that goodwill to Ireland is vital for a small nation that depends on its trade.”
His constituency rival, Labour finance spokeswoman Joan Burton, said “young couples in new areas have come out in massive numbers to vote Yes”, and many could have been in situations where one or both partners had lost jobs.
Sinn Féin was the only Dáil party to oppose Lisbon and Cllr Seán Crowe said: “People who had more to lose voted Yes. Many who stayed No voters haven’t benefited from the Celtic tiger economy.
“They’ve been promised jobs before and they weren’t delivered. It’s up to the authorities now to deliver those jobs they kept saying were so vital even though there was nothing to do with jobs in the treaty.”
