Padraig Mannion, Anti-Lisbon Treaty campaign director of the Workers Party has declared that the result of the rerun of the Lisbon Treaty referendum is "a victory of the powerful over the people".

"The Yes side" stated Padraig Mannion "never accepted the democratic decision of the Irish people as delivered on June 12th 2008. From the day and date that the referendum result was declared they have plotted and planned their strategy to ensure that decision was overturned. Now they have their victory, but it is a victory achieved at a terrible price. It is a victory achieved at the price of democracy, at the price of truth in public debate, and at the price of public faith in our public institutions."

"In this referendum campaign the Yes side had three huge advantages. They had 90% of the money; 95% of the media; and 100% of the establishment. This combination proved an impossible combination to overcome. However, the very fact that there was still a very active No campaign and a substantial No vote throughout the entire country shows the deep hostility and fear amongst hundreds of thousands of people, and amongst the working class communities of this country about the present state and the projected direction of the European Union."

"One of the predictable, but sad, aspects of the referendum debate was the complete refusal of the yes side to engage in any debate as to the actual provisions of the Lisbon Treaty itself. Instead they stuck to a well choreographed litany of diversionary tactics to frighten people to vote Yes and dissuade them from voting No. Amongst the many red herrings raised by the Yes side was the threat of a No vote to our continued membership of the EU, the benefits of a Yes vote to job creation and ecomonic recovery, and the even sicker lie that a Yes vote would copperfasten the rights of workers and trade unions. It will be interesting to see how, in the next few years, the Yes side will try to explain the failure of the Lisbon Treaty to deliver on any of the promises that they made".

"The EU, representing a pan-European capitalist enterprise, has reached another milestone in its goal of establishing the EU as a super-state on the international stage. The Irish capitalist  establishment, with the active collaboration of Irish social democracy, has delivered that victory via the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty.  The gap between the people and the institutions of the EU; and the gap in the credibility of the EU in the eyes of the people, has again been widened. The democratic deficit, so evident in the recent EU elections, will increase as will the alienation of increasing sections of the population. In forcing through the Lisbon Treaty the powerful elite have over-ridden the basic principle that democracy is government of the people, by the people, for the people, and this will have serious consequences in the long run".

Issued 3rd October 2009