Michael O’Leary accused of grubby deal as Irish prepare for Lisbon vote
The gloves came off yesterday in the final round of the Irish referendum campaign on the Lisbon treaty as the opposing camps traded insults and sought to land the knockout punch.
With only one full day left to make their arguments — tomorrow is a day of reflection before Friday’s vote — the “no” camp focused its anger on Michael O’Leary, the Ryanair chief.
Mr O’Leary had said that it would be undemocratic to make the Irish vote again on the treaty after it was rejected last June. Yet during the second attempt to secure approval for the treaty, which is a repackaging of the rejected European constitution, the Ryanair boss has spent €500,000 (£460,000) on advertisements and free flights to support the “yes” camp.
His admission this week that his motives for backing the “yes”vote included a desire to buy the partly state-owned airline Aer Lingus was seized upon yesterday as evidence of a “grubby deal”.
In a television interview, Mr O’Leary, the Irish Republic’s most successful businessman, revealed: “One of the reasons that I am campaigning for a ‘yes’ vote is that our Government is incompetent, yet I need to persuade them to sell me Aer Lingus.”
Declan Ganley, the English-born Irish multimillionaire, whose Libertas campaign last year was credited with persuading the country to vote “no” said that Mr O’Leary’s admission raised serious questions.
Mr Ganley said: “We know our Government will say anything to get a ‘yes’. Now it appears they will sell anything to get a ‘yes’ as well.”
He called on Brian Cowen, the Taoiseach, to clarify “any agreement made with Michael O’Leary and Ryanair in order to secure their support for the Lisbon revote”.
Mr Ganley added: “In light of these comments I am calling on the Taoiseach to rule out any sale of Aer Lingus to Mr O’Leary’s company for the remainder of their term in office. Failure to do so will serve only to further the appearance of impropriety.”
The “no” camp, meanwhile, has been accused of running a dirty tricks campaign. Frank Kelly, the actor who played the foul-mouthed, dyspeptic priest in Father Ted, said that his TV comedy character had been hijacked by opponents of the treaty. Posters of the “Arse! Drink!”-bellowing Father Jack have appeared in Dublin with the slogan “Feck off!”, urging that the message should be sent to Brussels for a second time in 15 months.
The “yes” camp hit back with a flurry of personal insults. Ryanair took out full-page newspaper advertisements yesterday that proclaimed “Only losers say no to Europe”, featuring a photograph of Mr Ganley alongside other prominent “no” campaigners.
Big international corporations are piling in. Intel, the American microchip manufacturer, is spending several hundred thousand euros on supporting the “yes” side, along with Pfizer, the pharmaceuticals company, which has warned of a flight of capital from the Republic if it votes “no” again.
Brian Lenihan, the Finance Minister, said this week that it was disturbing that “one of the main backers of Mr Ganley . . . is a London-based hedge fund which could hardly be described as being interested in the economic wellbeing of this country”.
Mr Lenihan added that “quite a number of these hedge funds have taken out specific bets” on the Irish Republic’s insolvency.
Mr Ganley rejected that allegation as “a smear and a lie”. He said that Crispin Odey, the City grandee, had donated £3,000 in a private capacity to the Libertas European parliamentary election campaign in Britain.
The “no” campaigners have also hit out at the European Commission, accusing it of an “illegal” intrusion into the referendum by inserting its guide to the treaty into more than a million Irish newspapers. The Commission, which spent ¤150,000 on the exercise, said the 16-page guide was not targeted specifically at the Republic but was for the citizens of all EU states.
In what he promised would be his last campaign, Mr O’Leary said that it was time for Irish people to wake up to the fact that the country was bankrupt and needed Europe.
He accused Mr Cowen of hurting the “yes” side’s case every time the Taoiseach spoke. “I got involved because I genuinely believe that this time if you left it to a government which is so deeply unpopular they’d lose this thing,” he said. “I want a strong economy and preferably not one run by this feckless Government we presently have.”
Ryanair owns nearly 30 per cent of Aer Lingus, while the Irish Government owns just over a quarter of the ailing former flag carrier. The European Commission blocked the first of Mr O’Leary’s two takeover bids, citing competition rules.
Rival campaigners met yesterday when RTE, the state broadcaster, staged a live radio debate in a Dublin department store. Spectators bucked national opinion polls — which give the “yes” campaign a comfortable lead — by supporting the “no” camp with a show of hands.
Milestones on the road to Lisbon
December 2001 EU leaders meet in Brussels and start pushing for a European constitution. Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, the former French President, is put in charge of drafting it
October 2004 A constitution is agreed by EU leaders in Rome
May-June 2005 The French and then the Dutch give the constitution the thumbs-down in referendums
January 2007 The document is revived as a treaty but is no longer described as a constitution
October-December 2007 A new deal is finalised and signed as the Lisbon treaty — a drawn-out series of amendments to previous treaties
June 2008 26 of 27 countries opt for parliamentary ratification of the treaty but Ireland is constitutionally bound to stage a referendum — and votes no, by 53.4 per cent to 46.6 per cent
October 2, 2009 Ireland votes again on the treaty, after securing guarantees that there will always be an Irish commissioner in Brussels
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