This article is from page 14 of the 2012-05-29 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 14 JPG
FIANNA Fáil Director of Elections took the treaty campaign to his home county this week supported by party leader Michéal Martin.
Deputy Timmy Dooley walked the street of Ennis on one of the sunniest days of the year campaigning for a yes vote at Thursday’s Stability Referendum.
Deputy Martin was still confident that the treaty would be passed as he met the public.
“People are very concerned at the moment about the future of the country about their own futures as families, individuals, mothers are very concerned about prospects for their children, so they are looking at everything through that prism. Many people’s lives have been changed as a result of this recession which is the worst since the 20s,” he said.
“Up to last week or so there were more definite yeses than nos because people see it as a step that is safer than no, because they are not sure where no leads you to, and because of the crisis there is a fear about go ing down that road.
“On balance they feel that yes is a better than option than no,” he told The Clare People .
Asked if the shadow of Éamonn Ó Cuiv still hung over the party’s campaign he said, “I think Éamonn’s position is well known it has been well articulated on a number of occasions and I suppose that brought a degree of authenticity to the debate.”
He was also in the unusual position of campaigning with the Government as an opposition party leader.
“I think people do appreciate the fact that as an opposition party we are not playing games with the treaty. We are not trying to undermine the Government through the treaty. We have taken up the fact that we are taking an honest broker approach on the issue,” he said.
“I suppose there is less pressure in some respects in the terms of the nature of the campaign. What we have found is that there has been plenty of engagement.”
Through that engagement on the streets of Ennis he said, “The big lie from the beginning of the campaign has been labelling this treaty as the austerity treaty because the actual reality is that the rules contained in the treaty are there anyway under the stability and growth pact and the regulations the Government agreed to last year.
“Our reasoning is that actually if you vote for the treaty then you are giving yourself as a country a better chance to access money at a cheaper rate over the year.
If you vote no you could end up with more cut faster because you are not sure where you are going to get your money from and at what cost,” he said.