Imagine for a moment that Declan Ganley was to call a press conference to announce that he was getting involved in the Lisbon referendum campaign and that his company Rivada Networks would be spending €500,000 to secure a No vote on 2 October. Imagine furthermore that at that press conference, he was unable to answer a question about a particular aspect of the treaty and deflected attention from his ignorance by describing his opponents in the referendum – Fianna Fáil, say, as well as the Greens and Labour – as economically illiterate headbangers.

Imagine the reaction. The Irish Times would dispatch one of its columnists and two of its investigative whizz kids to raise questions about Ganley's finances and the ethics of one businessman being able to spend so much money on influencing a campaign he seemed to know little about; the Irish Independent would do something similar, but would at least allow Bruce Arnold to add some balance by doing one of his Ganley Is God articles; Dick Roche would chunder sadly about how Rivada had lowered the tone of the debate, and some Fianna Fáil backwoodsman would issue a widely ignored press release stopping just short of describing Ganley as a baldy English blow-in.

There has been no such reaction to last week's announcement by Ryanair, the high-tax, low-fares airline, that it will be backing the Yes campaign in the forthcoming referendum and will put its money where its mouthy chief executive is, to the tune of €500,000 in advertising and promotions. Little reaction, either, to Michael O'Leary's inability to answer a question on the single market, or his enthusiastic abuse of some of the No campaigners.

Neither was there any fuss when US computer giant Intel announced the other week that it would be spending €200,000 encouraging us all to vote Yes. No questions were raised in the media or among the political classes about the motivations of both companies in splashing such large amounts; no coverage was given to the giant loophole in our campaign finance laws which allows wealthy foreign companies to spend what they want on referendum campaigns while small Irish organisations with no money have a strict upper limit placed on what they can spend in donations.

There is no mystery as to why this is the case. Intel and Ryanair are calling for a Yes vote, which is the devoutly to be wished outcome of the business, media and political establishment. Why ask awkward questions of people who are so firmly on your side? Why engage in serious analysis of the kind of blather Michael O'Leary came out with at his press conference? Why bite the hand that feeds the Yes propaganda machine?

Ryanair and Intel are vested interests but from the Yes point of view, they're our vested interests and therefore not subject to the same kind of analysis, criticism and downright abuse as the vested interests on the No side. In my life, I don't recall such a circling of the wagons by the establishment in pursuit of a particular outcome as in this Lisbon referendum.

Most Irish newspapers appear to have decided that their coverage of the campaign need not be balanced, but will favour the Yes outcome. The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland – one of our more useless quangos – earlier this month removed any obligation on radio stations to be fair in their coverage, a huge relief to Today FM, which has been railing against the whole concept of balance for more than a year now. The Referendum Commission has confirmed that only organisations of a certain size are entitled to become an "approved body" for the purposes of attending polling stations and monitoring votes (thereby putting the emphasis on the quantity of people making the argument rather than the quality of the argument itself). If the No campaign manages to pull off a victory, therefore, despite all the forces railed against it, it will be one of the most stunning victories in the history of Irish politics. Not that it will be acknowledged as such; as we saw last year, the Yes campaign doesn't take its beating well.

The increase in the number of non-politicians getting involved in the Yes campaign is an interesting turn of events, and reflects an obvious concern that our ministers, TDs and senators, left to their own devices, will make a mess of things again. To this way of thinking, the future of Ireland is too important to be left to the politicians. Whether it should be put in the hands, and deep pockets, of people like Michael O'Leary and the board of Intel is just as important a question.

Great scot: MacAskill a hero for defying us

The decision by Scotland's justice minister Kenny MacAskill to release convicted Lockerbie bomber Al-Megrahi stood in stark contrast to the behaviour of his Irish counterparts when confronted with US pressure.

Despite prima facie evidence that Shannon airport had been used by US planes to illegally transport prisoners to be tortured abroad, successive Irish justice ministers refused to do anything about it, lest it would upset the White House. MacAskill's decision to do the right thing in relation to Megrahi was a rare example these days of a politician acting on principle rather than self-interest. He deserves great praise for his actions.

ddoyle@tribune.ie