Speaking at the launch of the Waterford Alliance for a No vote to the Lisbon Treaty in the Granville Hotel tonight (Thursday 24th) Padraig Mannion, Workers' Party campaign director stated "that access to the text of the Lisbon Treaty is a democratic necessity".

"It is very clear that very few Irish people have easy access to the text of the Lisbon Treaty, and even a smaller number have had the opportunity to actually read and study the treaty. The recently leaked government (Mulhall) memo on the Lisbon Treaty  that this is a a direct government strategy”, he said.

 "On June 12th we will have a referendum to change the Irish constitution and allow the government to ratify the Lisbon Treaty. It is vital that every citizen has the opportunity to read the text of the treaty, and furthermore it is vital that citizens have the opportunity to view in its totality the existing EU treaties as they will be amended by Lisbon”.

 "In our campaign against this treaty, the Workers’ Party has proposed, at every public meeting which we have addressed, that a copy of the treaty should be made available to every voter. In view of the deadline imposed by the June 12th voting date the most expeditious way to achieve mass circulation of the treaty text is by CD”,  said Mr. Mannion.

 "We therefore publicly propose that a CD, with both the Lisbon Treaty text and the Consolidated text, be prepared and circulated with the weekend newspapers within the next few weeks. This will allow for maximum circulation over a very concentrated time period at minimal cost. If every week we are deluged with the grteatest hits of Loretta Lynn or Val Doonican - then surely even this government should master this task”.

 "This proposal does not absolve the government from providing a much greater number of printed copies of the treaty than heretofore to facilitate the many people who do not have access to, or may not be comfortable with, computer technology", said Padraig Mannion.