Day 18 - 21: The Fiscal treaty

Much of the mud slinging is the same as it ever was over the course of the last two weeks. According to the YES side the NO side are misleading the public and according to the NO side the YES side have it wrong and this treaty is not good for Europe or for Ireland. Day's 18 to 21 were not much different. Gerry Adam's said the YES were insulting the electorate, while Simon Coveney welcomed more lobby groups to the YES campaign.

Sinn Féin's Leader, Gerry Adams, has said that the Yes campaign has gone from threats to insults. He said the Taoiseach insulted people in Athlone, the Finance Minister has joked about feta cheese and that the Minister for Jobs has said their will be a second vote, if a No vote happens.

The Minister for Agriculture, Simon Coveney, has welcomed the addition of Irish farming organizations to the Yes Campaign. IFA, Macra, the ICMSA and the ICSA are all calling for a YES vote on the Stability Treaty. The minister said "We are also heading into the most crucial stages of negotiation on the CAP and a strong and stable position in Europe is critical to delivering the best possible outcome for farmers in those negotiations. The agricultural sector recognizes that a Yes vote in this Treaty is crucial for our agricultural sector and I welcome their united approach to this campaign."

MEP Emer Costello has said that the Stablity treaty will protect the Euro currency. According to her "In order to 'qualify' for the Euro in the 1990s, Ireland had to manage its public finances well in terms of budget deficits, inflation, and interest rates. And we made strenuous efforts to meet the requirements because we knew that the Euro offered stability. We barely remember today just how much the Punt was at the mercy of the financial markets, such as during the 1992 currency crisis. The Euro also represented an enormous opportunity by making us an integral part of a shared currency area of over 300 million in a wider single market of 500 million."

She says that successive Fianna Fail-led governments lost sight of good practice and lead Ireland in to its greatest economic boom and bust in just 10 years. It is for this reason why governments need to be controlled.