McEvaddy claims some FG deputies voted no

FINE Gael refused to be drawn into a row last night over claims that some of the party’s TDs voted against the Lisbon Treaty.

The claim was made by millionaire businessman Ulick McEvaddy who said he had been privately supported by Fine Gael TDs in his no campaign before the referendum.

Mr McEvaddy, who made his money in the aviation industry, created headlines when he rejected the policy both of Fine Gael, of which he has been a long-time supporter, and the wider business community, and urged a no vote.

He joined forces with anti-treaty group Libertas and declared the Lisbon text to be “unintelligible drivel”. But he turned the heat up further at the weekend when he claimed that he had been contacted by Fine Gael deputies who told him they would also be voting no.

Fine Gael headquarters refused to respond to the claims. “We are not going to make any comment on that except to say that the party supported the yes vote and we stand over our campaign,” a spokeswoman said.

However, it is the second time the party has been accused of not putting its full force behind the campaign. Taoiseach Brian Cowen accused Fine Gael of not pulling its weight after an opinion poll showed the yes camp’s lead narrowing and Fine Gael voters divided in their views.

Doubts were also raised about the appetite of grassroots Fine Gael supporters for the treaty when only a skeleton tally crew turned out at some count centres.

Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin referred to the scarcity of tallymen generally on Friday and although his comments were made in the context of refusing to concede defeat early in the count on the basis of incomplete tallies, it was a telling observation.

Meanwhile, Socialist Party leader Joe Higgins accused Mr Cowen’s counterparts in Europe of showing “utter contempt” for the EU’s core values of human rights, democracy and the rule of law in their insistence that Ireland’s no vote should not stop their own plans to ratify the treaty.

“It is quite clear that for the EU elite, their push toward an even more neo-liberal economic policy together with a foreign and military policy that would enable them to strut on the world stage as a new superpower, comes before any genuine respect for the democratic rights they claim to espouse,” he said.

Mr Higgins said it was clear the Irish Government intended to apologise to the EU for the electorate’s views rather than take on board their message.

“They should be warned that to return to the Irish people with a warmed-up version of Lisbon will be met with a determined campaign of opposition,” he said.