Referendum is not about jobs – Kelly

Cllr Anthony Kelly has criticised Fine Gael, Labour and Fianna Fail for urging people to support the European Austerity Treaty. The Sinn Féin rep said that people wouldn’t be fooled by the government telling them that a yes vote would lead to job creation and that they would remember only too well the same lies that were told by the Fianna Fail government prior to the Lisbon Treaty.

Cllr Kelly said;

“Prior to the rerun of the Lisbon Treaty a few years ago, Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Labour all urged people to vote yes, saying that another no vote would result in mass unemployment and economic ruin. The people voted yes and what did we get? Mass unemployment and economic ruin. It’s no coincidence that the same parties are now pushing for a yes vote to this treaty and are prepared to peddle the same falsehoods to get their desired outcome.”

“This treaty will not help the economy grow or result in the creation of any jobs. It’s an austerity treaty and, if passed, will remove whatever limited fiscal control that Fianna Fail didn’t manage to squander away while they were in power and put it into the hands of faceless eurocrats in Brussels. It will condemn the Irish people to live under a decade of harsh austerity. It will in fact enshrine that austerity in law, making it a lot easier for our government to introduce the cruellest cuts and most unjust taxes.”

“The debate that will play out before referendum day must be informative and not dominated by government bullying or spin doctoring. The people must be one hundred percent certain of what this treaty represents and where it will lead us if passed. No amount of protests afterwards will be able to rectify the situation if this treaty is successful. It’s not right for Fine Gael, Labour and Fianna Fail TDs to once again dangle nonexistent jobs in front of the electorate in an attempt to buy their consent. That simply will not work anymore.”

“Sinn Féin is opposed to this treaty. We’re opposed to austerity. We’re opposed to a treaty that would legitimise forcing the hard worked people of Ireland to pay for the mistakes and greed of the golden circle, rotten banks and hungry developers. We will be making a firm stand against this treaty right across County Wexford.”