IRELAND: Ryanair chief Michael O'Leary taunts opponents to the EU's Lisbon Treaty ahead of Friday's Irish referendum on its adoption

Record ID: 345247

  • Title: IRELAND: Ryanair chief Michael O'Leary taunts opponents to the EU's Lisbon Treaty ahead of Friday's Irish referendum on its adoption
  • Date: 1st October 2009
  • Summary: DUBLIN, IRELAND (SEPTEMBER 29, 2009) (REUTERS) RYANAIR CHIEF EXECUTIVE MICHAEL O'LEARY CAMPAIGNING FOR 'YES' VOTE IN REFERENDUM ON LISBON TREATY; HOLDING UP PLACARD DESCRIBING 'NO' CAMPAIGNERS AS 'LOSERS' O'LEARY HOLDING PLACARD SCREEN; 'RYANAIR VOTES "YES" TO EUROPE!' O'LEARY SEATED FOR FINAL NEWS CONFERENCE OF HIS CAMPAIGN (SOUNDBITE) (English) RYANAIR CHIEF EXECUT
  • Embargoed: 16th October 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Ireland
  • Country: Ireland
  • Topics: European Union
  • Reuters ID: LVAAH3OXFLZ131G9AL08LALQC94I
  • Story Text: Campaigners for and against the European Union's Lisbon Treaty made their final appeals to the Irish electorate on Tuesday (September 29), ahead of a vote being described as "a date with destiny".
    Ryanair chief Michael O'Leary wrapped up a campaign that has cost his airline just under half a million euros, insisting the money had been well spent given what was at stake. He urged voters to act in Ireland's interest, and not to take the opportunity to punish an unpopular government during an economic crisis.
    "I have, I think, more credibility in this campaign simply because everybody knows I dislike the Irish government, I think they're a bunch of incompetent, feckless wasters. Everybody knows that I have fought repeatedly with the European Commission, and will continue to do so. And despite the fact that I'd love to see the Irish government get a kicking, and I'd love to see the European Commission get a kicking, I still think Ireland should vote 'yes' on Friday, because that's how we keep a commissioner, and it's how we keep a veto on taxation, and that's what good for the Irish economy," said O'Leary.
    The outspoken airline executive also had some parting shots for opponents of the EU's reform treaty saying people should vote 'yes' so as not to be allied with "a bunch of losers'.
    Campaigners against the treaty warned that it threatened the status of Irish workers, and did nothing to address the economic crisis.
    "It's really a disgrace that we're being told, and unemployed people are being told, having lost their jobs, their houses being threatened by not being able to repay mortgages, all the self-esteem that goes with a job, now being told that there's going to be further unemployment visited on this country, if we have the cheek to vote 'no'. And I don't think we should succumb to those threats. We should stand up proudly for what we stood for, and that is a workers' protocol, a protocol on workers' rights that's needed to do what's needed in Lisbon 2," said Jim Kelly, of UNITE.
    Richard Boyd Barrett, of People Before Profit, said O'Leary's intervention "really sort of sums up in many ways what the 'yes' campaign is about; a multi-millionaire businessman, who's viciously anti-union, who has a lot of money at his disposal, who sees the world in terms of 'winners' and 'losers'." He added: "The reality of Lisbon is it's not those who are campaigning against the Lisbon Treaty who are losers, it is all Irish citizens, and all European citizens will be losers if Lisbon is ratified."
    The Lisbon treaty, which Irish voters rejected in a referendum last year, would revamp and simplify the EU voting system, extend the powers of the European Parliament and create posts for a foreign policy chief and a president of the European Council.
    Foreign Affairs Minister Michael Martin played down suggestions that voter dissatisfaction with the Irish government could yet threaten to determine the result of Friday's vote.
    "Clearly people are very concerned about the economic situation, that they've lost their jobs. How is that feeding into Lisbon? Well, the actual overwhelming consequence of that is a sense that we need to be with Europe, actually, to help us get out of the crisis that we're in," Martin told reporters.
    Pat Cox, a former president of the European Parliament, and campaigner in favour of the treaty, described Friday's vote as "a date with destiny" for the people of Ireland.
    "The choice we make," he said, "will mark us for a generation, whether that choice is positive or negative."
    "There is anger on the streets of Ireland, and we have met it; about the state of our economy, and about our politics. That will have its hour of expression. But that time is not next Friday."
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