SEANAD:SINN FÉIN Senator Pearse Doherty has accused the Government of using "scare tactics" in the Lisbon debate because it could not sell a "bad deal" to the people.
In a press conference at Leinster House yesterday, Senator Doherty set out six items which he claimed the Government could achieve in a renegotiated treaty. He claimed that, in renewed talks after the referendum, the Government could:
• secure a permanent Irish EU commissioner;
• copperfasten key strategic vetoes on public services, taxation and international trade;
• stop Irish rates of pay and conditions being "undercut";
• secure a specific article "protecting Irish neutrality" and oppose the "imposition" of increased military spending;
• stop the use of Irish taxpayers' money to "fund the nuclear industry", and
• maintain the "absolute right" of Irish citizens to have the final say in any significant change to EU treaties.
"The reason the Government is falling back on scare tactics is because it has proved impossible for them to sell a bad deal to the Irish people, just as it was impossible to sell the same deal to the French and Dutch in 2005," he said.
In a separate press conference, Independent Senators Shane Ross and Ronan Mullen jointly announced they would be voting No on Thursday.
Senator Ross said he would be voting No because the poll offered Ireland's last chance to defend its 12.5 per cent corporation tax rate and its fragile economy.
"The French presidency [ of the European Council] opens on July 1st. The first item on their agenda will be a hike in European tax rates to French levels," he said.
"Evidence of this is everywhere. Far from coincidentally, it is all being kept under wraps during the referendum to aid the Yes campaigners and to hide the true designs of most of the big powers in Europe," he said.
Although he acknowledged that, in principle, Ireland had a veto in this matter, Senator Ross added: "The French and the Germans will get together, and other countries, and they will say, 'Yes, you can certainly use your veto but we will put pressure on you in other places'."
He claimed one way of doing that would be a threat to withhold EU funding for Ireland's National Development Plan.
Senator Mullen said a No vote represented "the best and most prudent response on Thursday at the ballot-box".
His main concern had to do with the Charter of Fundamental Rights "which is given full legal status by the Lisbon Treaty and, in particular, the way that that charter will be interpreted, going forward, by the European courts".
