Kenny: Governor right to air views on treaty

The Taoiseach has defended the right of the governor of the Central Bank to make his views known on the stability treaty.

Speaking in Shanakiel in Cork City where he met up with a local postman charged with distributing the Government’s leaflets on the treaty, Enda Kenny said as an Irish person and an important Irish person, Mr Honohan was entitled to make his opinion public.

In a speech to the Irish Economic Association last night, the governor said a yes vote in the May 31 referendum would be the “safer alternative” for the State’s economic future.

European co-operation, he said, had been at the heart of Ireland’s considerable economic progress over the last four decades.

Denying that Mr Honohan had been campaigning for the Government, Mr Kenny described the Central Bank and its governor as “entirely independent”.

“This is a matter for the Irish people, all of the Irish people, the governor of the Central Bank is one of those. He is a very important personality and he makes his statement completely independently and this speaks loudly and clearly for itself,” he said.

The Taoiseach said the Referendum Order is due to be signed on Monday and only then will the McKenna judgment come into force as the official campaign will begin. Under the McKenna judgment, public funds cannot be used to advocate one side in a referendum.

Mr Kenny described this poll as “one of the most important decisions the Irish electorate will ever make”.

“It even goes beyond the normal general election because this is about the future about the entire country and all our people... Clearly people need to be fully informed about this and the Irish electorate will have the best information made available to them about this referendum, of any referendum that we have ever held here. We want the people to know what exactly it is that is in the treaty and why should they vote for it,” he said.

The Taoiseach had a cut off Sinn Féin saying if the party “want to campaign on the basis of the distortion of the truth, that’s their business — it’s not the first time that they’ve done that”.

“In so far as the Government is concerned, it’s strictly factual, strictly explaining what’s in this treaty — from a Fine Gael and Labour point of view and from a Fianna Fáil point of view.

“We will explain the reasons why people should vote yes and that’s to keep the very strong level of investment in our country alive. I was up to visit Apple this morning who made an announcement recently about 500 extra jobs and that is replicated all over the country. We want to keep that stream of investment in our country alive.

“Why should we cut off the future of our country by denying ourselves access to the ESM if we ever need it in the future?” he said.