POSTER CAMPAIGN:FINE GAEL leader Enda Kenny has said he believes the Yes vote will prevail in the referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, while accepting it will be difficult to generate a high level of interest.
Mr Kenny was speaking outside Leinster House where he was launching a billboard campaign by his party, promoting a Yes. "In any referendum it's very difficult to get a very high level of interest unless it's something like the Good Friday agreement," he said.
However, he went on to say that the vigour of the Fine Gael campaign had created a higher than expected interest among its supporters. In reference to the 30 meetings his party has conducted across the country, he said: "Attendances at our meetings have ranged between 80 to 300.
"Some have been very vigorous where different opinions have been expressed. I think that's very healthy where people feel engaged in the political process."
Mr Kenny said he believed the treaty would be passed. "I believe that at the end of the day when people look at what's in the treaty they will say that this actually is about the bigger picture.
"It's about the opportunities and the challenges that will be faced by our children coming behind us, who will be the drivers of Ireland in the next 25 years."
The Fine Gael leader said that he and the party's director of the campaign, Dublin MEP Gay Mitchell, had demanded a programme of activity from every Senator and TD in the party.
In a criticism which suggested that Fianna Fáil's efforts in the early part of the campaign had been lacklustre, he said: "I'm glad to see that the Government has come out of the traps in terms of joining the Yes campaign."
He said he had just returned from Brussels where he chaired a working group on agriculture for the European People's Party.
In comments designed to allay the concerns of farmers, he said: "We had a special meeting dealing with the complex issue of the world trade talks and the proposals on the table by the EU trade commissioner [Peter Mandelson].
"Arising from that, we have a very strong resolution that the [European] Commission stay within its negotiating mandate given to it in October 2005 - and not accept any deal unless it safeguards the model of European agriculture and protects the food security of Europe which is so important for everybody concerned."
