A quote from The Irish Times, 19 September 2008

Rules which mean that opposing sides in a referendum must get equal coverage are a "charter for every awkward squad", a Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) conference heard yesterday. […] The BCI is an independent statutory body whose roles include the licensing of independent broadcasting services and the monitoring of licensed services to ensure they comply with their statutory obligations.
 
Mr O'Reilly said there was a clear discrepancy between the mandate of the Yes side [in the Lisbon Treaty referendum], which included all the major political parties with the exception of Sinn Féin, and the No side, which largely comprised groups that were not elected, citing the example of Libertas founder Declan Ganley.
 
"We need to look at how a charismatic person with funding that was questionable was elevated by default by the media into a position of leading what seemed to be a nationwide campaign, yet that person had no mandate," he said.
 
 
A quote from The Irish Independent, 19 September 2008
 
The [Irish] Government is planning a clampdown on organisations such as Declan Ganley's Libertas to force them to say where they get the money they spend on political campaigns.
 
After months of speculation about the source of Libertas' funding for its estimated spend of over €1m on the 'No to Lisbon' campaign, Mr Ganley admitted for the first time yesterday that he lent his organisation €200,000.
 
Meanwhile, the Government's attacks on Mr Ganley intensified yesterday when a minister branded the wealthy Libertas chief a "class-A hypocrite".
 
The ethics law changes on declaring donations are expected to be in place before any possible second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.
 
Under the current law, Libertas does not have to declare where the money came from or even how much was actually spent. […]
 
[Mr Ganley] rejected suggestions the money might have come from US government sources. "Where Libertas is concerned, the loan that I made is hard-earned money made over many years that my wife and I had saved up, and it is not coming from any of these sources (CIA, US government)," he said.