Irish worries over abortion, tax fuel EU 'no' vote

(DUBLIN) - Campaigners for a "no" vote in an EU referendum are playing on unfounded fears, critics say -- but warnings of new abortion laws, tax changes or threats to Ireland's cherished neutrality seem to work.

As Ireland heads for Thursday's crunch vote on the Lisbon Treaty, the pro-treaty government is battling to win over skeptical voters and well-financed opponents.

Defeat could spell chaos for the European Union, as Ireland is the only country holding a vote on a treaty designed to give the bloc a new organisational framework -- and it must be approved by all 27 member states.

Declan Ganley, a multi-millionaire London-born son of Irish emigrants, is one of the most vocal opponents, as leader of the slickly organised Libertas campaign group.

His claim in a recent TV debate that the Lisbon Treaty "will allow the detention of children above three years of age for educational purposes" was condemned as dangerous scaremongering by supporters of the text.

Eamon Gilmore, the leader of the opposition Labour Party, said it was "a claim that was clearly an attempt to frighten people into voting 'no'."

He added: "Mr Ganley's comments are part of the increasingly hysterical chorus of baseless claims... that the Lisbon Reform Treaty will bring abortion, euthanasia, homosexual marriage" to Ireland.

Libertas did not include Ganley's threat of children being detained among its "Eight Reasons to Vote No" to Lisbon.

But the list does include issues designed to capitalise on Irish fears of losing influence in an expanded European Union -- Libertas said the treaty "abolishes Ireland's commissioner for five years at a time."

In other words, the current system of every EU nation having a commissioner will change under the new treaty.

The Libertas charter also focused on the issue guaranteed to strike fear into the hearts of Irish businesspeople -- that the treaty "opens the door to interference in tax and other key economic interests."

That is a major concern in a country that has attracted a host of blue-chip companies from the United States thanks to a generous corporate tax rate of just 12.5 percent.

Adding urgency to the tax issue is the fact that France will take over the presidency of the bloc on July 1. Its government has made no secret of its desire to bring Europe's tax systems into line.

Ireland remains a deeply Catholic country where abortion is against the law and a highly sensitive political issue.

The Coir group, a hardline opponent of the treaty, is trying to convince the Irish that Dublin would lose legal control of terminations if people vote "yes".

A Coir spokeswoman, Niamh Ui Bhriain, said: "The Lisbon Treaty gives the European Court of Justice the right to make a future ruling on Ireland's abortion laws."

Although even the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, has condemned those claims, the seed of fear has been sown.

Other groups are trying to make political capital from Ireland's struggle for independence from its British rulers, with one poster proclaiming: "People died for your freedom. Don't throw it away. Vote no."

Ireland's neutrality in military conflicts -- a principle enshrined in its laws since it won independence from Britain in 1922 -- preoccupies other campaigners, who fear being enmeshed in a joint European army.

"Ireland could be opposed to a war and have no say in the vote" on whether to go to war, said Carol Fox, from the Peace and Neutrality Alliance.

Sinn Fein, the only Irish parliamentary party to oppose the treaty, believes the EU is seeking to become a genuine military power.

"We don't want the EU to turn into a elaborate militarised entity to act either in competition or in concert with NATO or the USA," the party's Mary Lou McDonald told AFP.