February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
With a budget of euro 500,000, the campaign has attacked “no” campaigners as “Little Irelanders” and as people who had never “created a single job.”
IBEC director general Turlough O’Sullivan said that he had watched in amazement during the first referendum, which resulted in a “no” vote, as “anonymous and undeclared” forces “blitzed” the streets with misleading claims.
“Obviously, we are gravely concerned that the referendum might go down again and that is why we have decided to enter the campaign with such enthusiasm,” O’Sullivan said.
“We see one overwhelming reason for a yes. A larger Europe will give us a single internal market of 500 million people, boosting trade and, therefore, promoting employment. The history of the last 50 years has shown us that every time we get onto a bigger pitch, we succeed. Free trade suits us. Isolation did not.”
Details, www.ibec.ie and www.nicetreaty.ie.