Warning on economic downside of No vote

FRANKFURT MEETING: MINISTER FOR Finance Brian Lenihan has portrayed those campaigning against the Lisbon Treaty as "self-indulgent" and indifferent to the economic difficulties being experienced in Ireland and elsewhere.

Speaking from a meeting of European finance ministers in Frankfurt, Mr Lenihan said he was "astonished" at the self-absorption of the treaty debate and its failure to take into account the political realities.

"There's a lot of turbulence in the world monetary system. Tax receipts are down this year. Candidly, any citizen contemplating a No vote would want to think long and hard about the damage that would cause to our international reputation as a positive, forward- looking European country."

Mr Lenihan said serious thought and care would be required for next December's budget in the light of falling tax receipts and the sharp downturn in the global economy.

"Banks have gone under in the US and Britain . . . There is a tightening on credit. That is never good for the world economic system. It feeds through to small countries like Ireland," he said.

As a consequence, he said, he would have to be very careful with budgetary strategy this year. He said that people needed to recognise that there were "certain necessary disciplines" needed.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen also stressed the economic downside of a No vote yesterday.

He said that while individual businessmen were against the treaty, it was clear that the vast majority of people who created jobs in Ireland were calling for a Yes vote. "One of the great successes from the negotiation of this treaty is that these new areas of activity are balanced with clear protection for our national interests in areas like corporation tax. Each attempt to raise a scare story about these matters has been roundly rejected by independent sources," said Mr Cowen.

Ireland's former EU commissioner Ray MacSharry also threw his weight behind the Yes campaign, saying that Ireland in the EU had achieved historic economic and social progress.

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times