"Anyone who reads the Lisbon Treaty - or even a third of it - would vote No," according to Declan Ganley, founder and president of the Libertas organisation, who is campaigning for a No vote in the forthcoming referendum.
Mr Ganley, a London-born, Irish multimillionaire businessman based in Tuam, was speaking in Kilkenny last night in his first appearance at a public meeting about the treaty, which he believes is "bad for Europe, bad for democracy and bad for Ireland".
But Senator Deirdre de Burca of the Green Party, who will campaign for a Yes vote, said the treaty is "in our interests as a small island nation" as it would help to give Ireland "a strong voice in global affairs".
Both were guest speakers at the third in a nationwide series of public meetings about the treaty organised by the National Forum on Europe in advance of the referendum, which is expected to be held on May 29th.
About 60 people attended the meeting at the River Court Hotel, including three local TDs - Fianna Fáil's John McGuinness and Bobby Aylward, and the Green Party's Mary White. Forum staff were please by the turnout, following last week's meeting in Waterford which none of the local TDs attended.
Mr Ganley said the treaty would make Ireland's economy "less competitive" and give control over commercial policy, including foreign direct investment, to the "fools and idiots of the Brussels bureaucracy".
Senator de Burca said the treaty would allow the EU "for the first time" to develop policies "to combat climate change and enhance energy security". She said people who "are concerned about environmental protection" should vote Yes.
The Senator accepted that Ireland "has to pool sovereignty and share decision-making" but said the State would retain its veto in relation to taxation and defence.
Mr Ganley told the audience he was "a businessman, not a politician" and had "built businesses across 10 countries in the EU" but there was "nothing good for Irish business in this treaty". He said Libertas staff had been "threatened that they would never work in this town [Dublin] again".
Holding up a copy of the treaty, he described it as a "pathetic and appalling proposition" and "an insult to the intelligence of the Irish people".
Mr Ganley claims the treaty is essentially the same document France and the Netherlands rejected in earlier referendums.
However, Kathleen Maher, from Clonmel, said she would be voting Yes.
"We got our second independence when we joined the EU", which is "the greatest democracy in the modern world".
The forum will hold another public meeting, tonight, at the Bridge House Hotel in Tullamore at 6.30pm.