The Irish Mail reports that Enda Kenny, leader of the main opposition party Fine Gael, launched his party’s Yes campaign yesterday claiming that the Lisbon Treaty would boost Ireland’s ability to block new EU laws that would hurt Irish business and industry. In fact, according to academics at the London School of Economics, Ireland will lose 40 percent of its power to block legislation it disagrees with.

The Irish Mail also notes that Irish High Court judge Mr Justice Frank Clarke, Chairman of the Referendum Commission, the independent body set up to explain the Lisbon Treaty, has confirmed the public is being asked to vote on exactly the same Treaty they rejected last year. He added that the ‘assurances’ granted by EU leaders last December to address Irish concerns were irrelevant to the vote, as the issues concerned - abortion, tax and defence - had never been part of the Treaty.

On her Mail blog, Mary Ellen Synon notes that when asked how Lisbon would affect employment policy in Ireland, Irish PM Brian Cowen “could only give a rambling reply that never answered the question.” He said, “Clearly, the way it’s going to affect employment in Ireland is that by having a Lisbon Treaty passed we’ll have more effective decision making in all aspects of both Council, Parliament and Commission in terms of their right of initiative.”

Synon notes that the Treaty says, “The Union shall take measures to ensure co-ordination of the employment policies of the Member States, in particular by defining guidelines for these policies,” effectively reducing the Irish government’s influence over domestic employment policies.

The Irish Independent notes that Ireland’s largest trade union, Siptu, has announced that it is in favour of the Lisbon Treaty. Meanwhile, the Peace and Neutrality Alliance has said that it aims to “expose the Irish Government lie that legally binding EU guarantees on the Lisbon Treaty will not affect Ireland’s traditional policy of military neutrality.”

links and more at Open Europe