Ganley keeps bank debt at campaign forefront

No campaigner Declan Ganley called on voters to reject the fiscal compact treaty in order to send out a message to EU leaders about Ireland’s crippling bank debt costs.

The businessman also revealed that he could run for the European elections in 2014.

Ireland should disregard the safety net of a second bailout fund and aim to return to the international markets, he said.

Mr Ganley has kept the issue of bank debt at the forefront of the campaign and again insisted voters needed to send a message to Europe.

“It is entirely reasonable and a calm supposition to presume that we can get a better deal. We can’t possibly get a worse one,” he said.

“The only reliable source of funding for this country and for every other member state of the European Union is a return to bond markets.

“The only way we are going to be able to return to bond markets is by dealing with the issue of insolvent bank debt that is hanging around the necks of this country.”

Asked if he was considering running in 2014’s European elections, he said he would not rule it out. Mr Ganley failed to get an MEP seat for the North West in 2009. He came fourth in the three-seater with 67,000 votes.

Mr Ganley criticised Taoiseach Enda Kenny for not engaging in a TV debate on the treaty and a failure by the Government to negotiate down Ireland’s banking debt ahead of tomorrow’s vote.

“Everybody knows that Enda couldn’t negotiate his way out of a wet paper bag,” he said. “We need to provide some backbone to this Government by sending a message to the people that they’re sitting across the table from.”

Greek-Irish businesswoman Patricia Tsouros, a fellow anti-treaty campaigner, said she had no political agenda but believed people should “give themselves some time”.

Voters should reject the treaty this week and there would be a second opportunity to vote on it if it were defeated, she said.