Europe's largest low-cost airline Ryanair is to spend half a million euros trying to convince the Irish people to say “yes” to the Lisbon Treaty in the referendum to be held on October 2nd, reports Gazeta Wyborcza. Last June, the Irish voted down the document, mostly due to a vigorous campaign against the treaty financed by the controversial millionaire Declan Ganley. According to recent polls, nearly 54 percent of the voters now support the Lisbon Treaty. Michael O’Leary, Ryanair’s CEO states “I don’t trust our politicians. They are incompetent and won’t win the voting without help, in which case Ireland’s future will be doomed”. He not only plans to pay for the “yes” posters, but also wants to spend 300,000 euros offering special discounts for passengers, thus showing ordinary people that they may also benefit from being part of the EU. “So far European companies have provided politicians with discreet financial support but none of them openly demonstrated its support for the EU. It is very good thing that Ryanair reminds people about the benefits of EU membership” – concludes Cornelius Ochmann, expert at the German Bartelsmann Foundation.
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