CROSS-PARTY CAMPAIGN:A YES VOTE on the Lisbon Treaty is vitally important for Ireland's continued growth and development, the three main political parties said yesterday in their first joint press conference of the referendum campaign.
At the press conference in Dublin, Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin, who heads the Fianna Fáil campaign, accepted the No campaign had generated traction by creating a range of concerns among the electorate.
He said those involved in the Yes campaign had managed to disprove the variety of claims being made by the No side, but it had taken time to "demolish" their arguments.
In response to the "If in doubt, vote No" slogan, the Minister said people should ask themselves a simple question: has Europe been good for us?
"If the answer is yes, then you should vote for the treaty," Mr Martin said.
The director of Fine Gael's referendum campaign, Dublin MEP Gay Mitchell, said it had been hard to get publicity for the good news that was at the heart of the Yes campaign but he was confident that the message was now getting through.
Mr Mitchell said there was a natural reluctance among some of his party's supporters to back a Government that had been in power for so long, but he had no doubt that the majority of Fine Gael voters would vote Yes on June 12th.
Labour's director of elections, Joe Costello, said a lot of scaremongering had gone on and as the No campaign was getting 50 per cent of airtime, "a fair old battle" had been required to counter it.
The Dublin Central TD said a Yes vote was strongly in the interests of working people and he pointed out that the Irish Congress of Trade Unions had voted in favour by three to one.
He added that Siptu had given the treaty a "conditional yes".
In a joint statement, the three directors of elections said the vote on June 12th was vitally important for Ireland's continued growth and development. It was also a key element of ensuring that an enlarged European Union would be better able to take on and address issues of global importance, such as climate change, world hunger and international security.
"That is why the three main political parties are campaigning aggressively for a Yes vote next week.
"The vote next week will send a clear message to our partners of 35 years in Europe that Ireland either wants to remain at the heart of the newly emerging union, or that we want to hold back the improvement and streamlining of a union that has been so important to our development as a nation," the joint statement said.
The statement added that the Yes campaign on all sides had focused on the positive effects EU membership has brought to Ireland and the continued benefits that Ireland could expect from maintaining its central role in an enlarged union.
"Regrettably much of the campaign on the No side has targeted issues that are not dealt with by the treaty.
"The challenge for the Yes side is to use the remaining time left in the campaign to promote the positive benefits to a Yes vote and to blow away the spurious and ill-informed commentary by those on the No side."
As part of that final push for a Yes vote, the three main parties said they would be co-ordinating their efforts to maximise the effectiveness and impact of their campaigns and to try and ensure the largest turnout possible.