Sinn Féin MEP Mary Lou McDonald has indicated that the Irish Timespoll which shows that 52 per cent would vote Yes on the Lisbon Treaty is insignificant, as the debate on the second referendum has not yet started.
Ms McDonald said that no real information has been made public about the changes or the ‘legal guarantees’ that the Government said it has received.
“In the absence of real information, how can people make an informed decision,” she said.
“The debate on Lisbon Two has not even begun yet. I think we all learned last time around that the public mood shifted and changed once people engaged with the issues.”
Ms McDonald said that people had voted No in June last year because of concerns they raised over many matters of substance. She said that a poll being conducted in the absence of the Government addressing those issues was “a rather strange way to proceed.”
She said that the Government now wished to portray a situation where defeat of Lisbon Treaty brought about Ireland’s economic woes.
“The fact is that responsibility for our soaring unemployment and our public finances lies squarely with the Government," she said.
“The fact also is that Lisbon Treaty will not get us out of the economic mess."
"Undoubtedly there will be those who use the economic recession and depression to browbeat those people into supporting a bad deal,” she said.
Roger Cole of the Peace and Neutrality Alliance said that the poll showed there would be a Yes vote to the treaty if there was a legal guarantee on neutrality.
He said the Alliance had been campaigning for such a legal guarantee since 1996 and therefore welcomed the result of the poll.
He said that it would now seek a Protocol to the treaty giving this guarantee and added: “There is no evidence whatsoever that Fianna Fáil has the slightest intention of supporting Irish neutrality.”
