MEP condemns Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s dismissal of referendum

Socialist Party and United Left Alliance MEP, Paul Murphy, has condemned Taoiseach Enda Kenny for comments he made yesterday on potential changes to the Lisbon Treaty and the possibility of a referendum.

“The sheer arrogance with which Taoiseach Kenny dismissed the democratic right of the Irish people to have a say in their own future was shocking.

“He rubbished the idea of a referendum on the important changes to the Lisbon Treaty because he cannot ‘guarantee the outcome’. I would like to take this opportunity to remind the Taoiseach that we live in a democratic society. It is right that people get the opportunity to vote on these important decisions which are being taken without their consent, behind closed doors, by an increasingly out-of-touch and isolated European political elite in the interests of bailing-out the banking sector and big business at the expense of the mass of ordinary people.

“Let us be clear about the reasons why Enda Kenny and his co-horts in the Irish Labour party, do not want to face a referendum. It is because they fear the attitudes of working people who could reject a treaty change to bail-out the tiny banking elite through austerity for the majority across Europe.

“If any further changes are made to the Lisbon Treaty, the people have a right to a referendum. Not only that, the changes that have already been made in order to facilitate the European Financial Stability Facility, should be put to a referendum.”