I have not read all of the treaty, admits McCreevy
Mr McCreevy, who is in charge of the union’s internal markets, said he has not read the treaty, which will be put to a public vote in a referendum to be held here on June 12.
“I have a document that puts together what it would look like and I have read most of that,” he said in an interview with the EU Observer website.
“I would predict that there won’t be 250 people in the whole of the 4.2 million population of Ireland that have read the treaty cover-to-cover. I further predict that there is not 10% of that 250 that will understand every section and subsection,” said Mr McCreevy.
But he asked if there was anything different between the Lisbon treaty and other legislative documents.
“Does anyone read the finance act?” he asked, referring to the lengthy, yearly documents he drew up when he was Minister for Finance.
Last week, Taoiseach Brian Cowen admitted he had not read the Lisbon treaty “cover to cover” but said it as not an impenetrable document.
David Cochrane of the No campaign group, Libertas, said leading figures must be held to task over their “lack of knowledge of the treaty”.
“Is it too much to expect that the leaders of the yes campaign would familiarise themselves with the treaty before asking us all to accept it? It’s high time that these people, who are well paid by the public, took the time to read the treaty before advising us all to vote for it.”
Mr McCreevy said the document will be hard to sell because it does not bring tangible benefits.
“One of the difficulties this time in getting out the vote is seeing how you can energise voters,” he said.
With almost half of the population still undecided on how to vote, according to the latest polls, Mr McCreevy said he would be concerned there might be a low turnout.
The commissioner suggested that there would not be a second vote if Ireland rejected the referendum and “we would have to live with it”.
He said: “Having debated the issues thoroughly, months of everyone having their say, all types of issues being dragged into it, the Irish people go to the polls and they must say yes or no. After it’s over, you shouldn’t complain about it.”
Mr McCreevy will join the Taoiseach on the Fianna Fáil yes bus today, to campaign for a Yes vote in Newbridge and Kildare town.
