Treaty vote may be ‘used’ politically

SOME leading organisations could urge a “No” vote on the Lisbon Treaty for reasons unrelated to the document, an Oireachtas committee has indicated.

The cross-party Joint Committee on European Affairs published an interim report on the treaty yesterday, following meetings with the social partners.

The committee said it found a “large measure of agreement” on the importance of the treaty, but said there were differences of opinion between business groups, unions and farmers’ organisations.