Donegal Sinn Féin -- Building an Ireland of Equals

There will be no discrimination against Irish people if there is a No vote next Friday: President Barroso.

Published: 24 September, 2009

There will be no discrimination against Irish people if there is a No vote next Friday: President Barroso.



Sinn Fein Town Councilor Daren Lalor asks the public not to be fooled by scaremongering when they cast their vote on the Lisbon Treaty this Friday.

Cllr Lalor said, At a meeting in Brussels earlier this month my Sinn Féin colleague MEP Bairbre de Brún asked Jose Manuel Barroso whether the Commission will treat Ireland differently to other EU member states if Irish people again reject the Lisbon Treaty on 2 October.

In reply President Barroso said: 'There will be no discrimination against Irish people if there is a No vote. You will not hear from me any threat to Ireland.'


However, the Commission Presidents message to the Irish people has been very different.

Commissioner Barroso knows perfectly well that Ireland has no intention of leaving the EU.

He also knows that rejecting the Lisbon Treaty will have no negative impact on inward investment or job creation. Despite this fact he repeated many of the scaremongering claims of the Yes side.

These same claims were made by Treaty supporters in 2008. They were wrong then and they are wrong now. In July of this year the IDA confirmed that 2008 saw a 14 percent increase in foreign direct investment (FDI) on the previous year.

Indeed speaking to the Oireachtas sub-committee on the Future of Europe on 21 October 2008 Paul Rellis, Managing Director of Microsoft Ireland said, 'I have not seen any material impact on jobs, market access or sales in recent months attributable to ther ejection of the Lisbon Treaty'.

The Referendum Commission chairman Mr. Justice Frank Clarke has also confirmed that the Lisbon Treaty 'contains no provisions' relating to investment or employment.


The biggest threat to investment and job creation is the current Fianna Fáil government and their failed economic policies. These same failed policies, undermining workers rights, family farms and public services are also contained in the Lisbon Treaty.

Daren Lalor