Treaty our most crucial decision, says Sutherland

IRELAND is facing “the most crucial decision” in international affairs in its history, former EU commissioner, Peter Sutherland, has said.

“If we vote no to this treaty, as the polls seem to indicate, we will have rejected not only the combined will of the parliaments of every other country in Europe, but the combined will of all our economic operators.”

He said business lobby group IBEC and its members, major multinationals such as Microsoft and Intel, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and the farmers’ organisations all believed the treaty was imperative.