Return to Lisbon fight a waste of time -- Ganley
LIBERTAS leader Declan Ganley has claimed that a return to the Lisbon Treaty campaign trail would be a "waste of time", writes Áine Kerr.
The failed European election candidate insisted he had "no plans" to make a dramatic entrance into the Lisbon Treaty debate ahead of the second referendum in four weeks.
Breaking his silence for the first time since Libertas bombed at the European elections and since an online petition was set up calling on him to return to politics, the businessman firmly ruled out any role in the upcoming campaign.
"No plans, I gave it my best. If there's a 'No', with the cross-party 'leadership' we have in Ireland they'll just make us 'vote' again anyway," he wrote on the online discussion forum Twitter. "In short, no plans to be involved, waste of time."
In response to messages from a Limerick businessman asking if Mr Ganley expected other anti-Lisbon Treaty supporters to "just surrender", the Libertas chief said: "No but in the absence of backbone and vision, be confident our 'leaders' will. They were rolling over before the last vote was counted."
The Libertas supporter then asked Mr Ganley if it was not time to remove these 'leaders'.
"Not up to me, I tried. I'm back in the biz world and enjoying it a lot more," Mr Ganley said in response.
Following Mr Ganley's failure to win a seat in the North West, the 'BringGanleyBack' website, an online petition, was set up by unknown individuals.
The site argues that a large number of people (84,000) voted for the Libertas leader on his first electoral outing.
"He represents a large section of Irish thought," the website states.
