Ryanair backs yes vote

Ryanair has said it will spend “more than €500,000” campaigning for a Yes vote in the October 2nd referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.

The move comes a week after the general manager of the multinational company Intel in Ireland said voting Yes to the treaty was hugely important for the future of foreign investment in Ireland.

In a statement, Ryanair said it believed it was “vital” that the Irish electorate give a “resounding ‘Yes to Europe’” in the referendum.

The treaty was rejected by 53.4 per cent of those who voted in a referendum in June last year.

Chief executive of Ryanair Michael O’Leary said: “I believe it is vital that every Irish voter on 2nd October next votes in the referendum and votes ‘Yes to Europe’. Ireland’s membership of the European Union and the euro has transformed our economy and the lives of millions of Irish people today.”

“Ireland’s future success depends on being at the heart of Europe and our membership of the Euro. The European Central Bank came to Ireland’s rescue last year when the combination of appalling mismanagement by Bertie Ahern’s government over the past decade left Ireland hopelessly unprepared for the effect of the property/banking crisis and the recession which would, if it were not for Europe’s help, have caused a collapse of the Irish economy.

"The difference between Iceland and Ireland was not one letter, but rather Ireland’s membership of the European Union and the euro," he said.

“Without Europe and the euro, the Irish economy would be run by our incompetent politicians, our inept civil service and the greedy public sector trade union bosses, who through social partnership have in recent years destroyed Ireland’s competitiveness, created an epidemic of useless quangos and feathered the nests of the public sector at the expense of ordinary consumers in Ireland."

Mr O'Leary said he believed the Irish electorate must vote Yes to the treaty in October or "our economic future will be destroyed by Government and Civil Service mismanagement and the narrow vested interests of the public sector trade unions".

Chairman of the Peace and Neutrality Alliance (Pana) Roger Cole said the Ryanair announcement was not a surprise to him but he said limits must be placed on the amount that private companies could spend in a referendum or election campaign.

Mr Cole said it was "not reasonable that the corporate media can jump up and down" when money was being spent by bodies such as Libertas on a No campaign, and that the media not have anything to say about similar sums of money being spent by companies such as Ryanair and Intel to promote a Yes vote.

The Standards In Public Office Commission, the independent body which oversees spending in elections and referendums, confirmed yesterday there was no spending limit for individuals and companies.

“It is only when they start receiving donations that the legislation kicks in,” a spokeswoman said.

She said the commission, in its annual report, had called for a redefinition of what constituted a “third party”, subject to limits on spending in a referendum campaign.

It argued that the definition should not be determined on the basis of whether an individual or group had received a donation, but should focus instead on how much they spent.

They should be regarded as “third parties” if they intend spending over a certain threshold.

Mr Cole said the Irish people had rejected the Lisbon Treaty last year in a democratic vote.

“Now they are being forced to vote again on exactly the same treaty. One the key reasons why the EU political/media elite support the treaty is because it accelerates the process of the militarisation of the EU via the European Defence Agency and the ‘revitalises Nato’.

“Now these same firms that are part of the military-industrial complex and have a vested interest in war can spend billions of euro bullying the Irish people into submission.”