SDLP Leader Urges 'Yes' On Lisbon

Mark Durkan is heading back across the border today.

Just days after taking part in a Dublin meeting to support a 'Yes' vote in the coming Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, the SDLP Leader is to join Brendan Smith, a local TD, in Cavan town to canvass support in Friday's referendum.

This is just one of a number of events in which SDLP representatives are turning out to support parties and organisations campaigning for a positive response in the Lisbon referendum.

Last week, he led a party delegation to a meeting attended by other pro-Lisbon supporters including Irish government ministers in the Irish capital.

Mr Durkan said: "The Lisbon Treaty will make Europe more effectively democratic, more responsive to economic needs, better able to defend its interests and also to promote its values.

"With Lisbon we can deal more effectively with some of the new key issues of this century: such as climate change, energy security, public health, clean air and organised crime.

"It is a dangerous delusion for the 'No' campaign to pretend that a second rejection will be followed by negotiations for "more improvements" to meet Irish concerns," he insisted.

Meanwhile, the party has also been speaking out on the Irish Republic's bid to ease the current recession.

SDLP Finance spokesperson Declan O'Loan MLA said it was necessary for the Irish government to intervene in order to fix a 'broken banking system' and ensure a flow of credit to business.

Speaking in the Assembly against a Sinn Féin motion opposing the National Assets Management Agency (NAMA), he said: "There is broad agreement that the banking system needs to be fixed in order to ensure credit is made available at a time when the banks find it difficult to borrow in international markets.

"Sinn Féin has called for a referendum on NAMA and were involved in organising an anti-NAMA protest last week in Dublin at which only 1,500 turned up. It is clear that people have moved on.

"The NAMA model was not chosen by chance, but was carefully designed by independent experts and has backing from the IMF and the European Central Bank." he insisted, yesterday.

See: SDLP Leader Wades Into Lisbon Debate

(BMcC/KMcA)