Republican SF argues treaty a further erosion of sovereignty

CAMPAIGN LAUNCH:REPUBLICAN SINN Féin has urged people to vote No in the fiscal treaty referendum as a way of showing their determination to live up to the ideals of the 1916 Proclamation.

The party, which has opposed all EU referendums over the past 25 years, yesterday claimed the treaty would further erode Ireland’s sovereignty and “give the bosses in Germany total control of our financial affairs”.

Party president Des Dalton said the treaty was the creation of the same political and financial elites responsible for the current economic collapse.

“During the so-called boom, the profits of the wealthy were privatised to ensure they would not be shared with society, now during the bust they are socialising their losses, forcing people across the EU to pay for them,” he told a press conference in Dublin.

Mr Dalton said the referendum gave Irish people the opportunity to add their voice to a growing European movement of resistance by voting No.

He called for a radical change in thinking through the creation of real economic and political democracy: “This means ensuring that the decisions which affect people and their communities are made by them rather than unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats in Brussels or elsewhere.”

Republican Sinn Féin’s sole political representative, Connemara county councillor Tomás Ó Curraoin, described the treaty as “yet another attempt to enslave the Irish people in order to prop up a failed and undemocratic EU”.

Mr Ó Curraoin said Ireland had paid a heavy price for EU membership, including the decimation of the fishing industry, thousands of families forced off the land and the end of the sugar beet industry.