Ireland votes against Lisbon Treaty - by Tom Peterkin
Even before all the official Ireland referendum results were in, the Irish government conceded that the public had voted against the Treaty. Dermot Ahern, the country’s justice minister, predicted: “It looks like this will be a 'no' vote.” Mr Ahern added: “At the end of the day, for a myriad of reasons, the people have spoken.” Despite benefiting from £32 billion in European Grants in recent years, a low turn-out (45 per cent) of the Irish electorate discarded the Treaty, designed to streamline the EU. The outcome was triumph for a highly-effective No Campaign masterminded by the Libertas group led by the multimillionaire Declan Ganley. For Brian Cowen, the newly-installed Irish Prime Minister, the result was a disaster. All the main political parties, aside from Sinn Fein, had supported the Treaty and made strenuous efforts to win the referendum.
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