Voting No in the Lisbon referendum is a “valid way” of driving the Government from office, an anti-treaty group has claimed.
The voteno.ie group said today there was a ground swell of public anger at the Government's economic strategy which was "translating into a No vote".
It said many people saw voting No as a way to remove the Coalition from power and a canvass by its supporters in North Dublin on Wednesday night found "the sentiment for No" was stronger than during the last Lisbon referendum capmaign.
The group said this sentiment was well-founded as the Government's economic policies were being underwritten by the European Commission.
Launching the voteno.ie referendum campaign in Dublin today, Kieran Allen of the Socialist Workers Party, who manages the voteno.ie website, said: "Each of the bank bailouts that have occurred has received the express permission of the EU Commission."
Mr Allen said: "This same body prohibits the Irish State providing aid to save jobs - but it gives full support to bank bailouts. The Lisbon Treaty gives the EU Commission greater oversight role on state budgets - and this is reason enough to vote No."
He claimed the Government was planning to implement a series of stringent cutbacks following the Lisbon vote, which he said were designed to return the public finances to the limits set out in EU's Growth and Stability Pact.
"In our view, the Government should not be constrained by such neoliberal measures when they involve great hardship for the people," Mr Allen said.
Mr Allen claimed the Government had lost "the consent of the governed" and had received no mandate at an election for its programme of bank bailouts and cutbacks.
But a spokesman for the European Commission representation in Ireland described Mr Allen's remarks as "simplistic".
He said there has been a policy of disincentivising state aid across the EU as it distorts fair competition, often to the detriment of small economies like Ireland.
Nevertheless he said the Commission had been working with individual governments to put in place measures to help sustain and protect industry which had been adversely hit by the credit crunch.
Contrary to Mr Allen's assertions, he said the measures contained in the EU's stability pact were in place to avoid "the very serious repercussions" of overborrowing, such as inflation.
