Day 27: The Fiscal Treaty

Ireland to gain from a YES vote. Trust your instincts and vote NO. A YES vote is good for Business. Vote NO the treaty will cause even more cuts than necessary. Vote NO to reduce Banking debt.

Labour MEP, Emer Costello, has said that Ireland will gain the most from the Stability Treaty. She says that the Treaty is simple about enforce laws that have already existed for the last 20 years and actually implementing them, something that has never been done before. She says that countries like Italy are to blame for Ireland's downturn as they simple ignored EU rules, Silvio Berlusconi was able to led Italy for nearly a decade with out reducing Italy's debt below 100%. She concludes "Ireland needs to apply the provisions of Stability Treaty. But we also need its provisions to be applied across the rest of the Eurozone. We have more to gain if all Eurozone countries comply with the rules. That is why we should vote yes."

Sinn Féin Deputy Leader, Mary Lou McDonald called on people to trust their instincts and vote NO. She said "The positive thing to do on Thursday is to vote No. A strong no vote is in the best interests of Ireland and the European Union". She believes that the treaty will be less democratic and will lead to more austerity. She told voters that the treaty could change, the government had yet to give a good argument for the treaty and their campaign has been based on fear. She concluded by saying "A strong no vote this Thursday will strengthen the hand of all those, at home and across Europe, who are arguing for investment in jobs and growth. It will send a strong signal to the Government that austerity simply isn’t working and that a change of direction is needed."

Labour TD, Dominic Halligan, has said that the ESM is important for Business and for Ireland. He said "I welcome the steps taken by Europe towards the establishment of a permanent replacement to the EFSF, which will cease to enter into any new programmes from June 2013. The establishment of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) will be important for Ireland's recovery. It is important because international investors will look favourably at Ireland knowing that we have an insurance policy through the ESM. This will make the Irish contribution to establishing the ESM worthwhile."

He pointed to the business leader advocating a YES vote such as IBEC, SFA and Chambers Ireland. "So I'm asking for a Yes vote this Thursday - Yes to a stable Euro, to investor confidence, and to certainty for our future," concluded Deputy Hannigan.

People Before Profit Alliance (PBPA) have told voters that the government is Lying and Deceiving the public on the Fiscal Treaty. PBPA says the government is refusing to look at the level of cuts needed to meet deficit and debt targets. PBPA also denounce the "insurance policy" that the government have said voter are signing, they state that ESM is purely a permanent version of the EU-IMF austerity programme, which will just lead to to the bail-out of European banks. The fund could cost the Irish tax payer up to €11billion. At a press conference Richard Boyd Barrett said “The government have lied and utterly deceived the public about the actual contents of the Fiscal Treaty and the ESM. They have failed to acknowledge the enormous level of cuts and austerity that will be imposed on the Irish people in order to meet the debt and deficit targets in the treaty. This is despite the fact that the government’s own figures make clear that billions of such cuts will be needed for years after we exit the current EU-IMF programme in order to meet those targets. Inadvertently the government actually admitted the truth about this when they said recently that there was nothing new in the treaty."

In The Sunday Independent Libertas Leader Declan Ganley has said that the Treaty will rob us of our fiscal sovereignty. He says that Ireland's debt to GDP ratio was the lowest in Europe as recently as 2007 and the reason for Ireland not being able to go to the bond markets is simply because "we already owe so much that lending us more money seems like a bit of a risky bet." However, if our debt to GDP ratio is equal to its ratio in 2007 then the bond markets would be open to Ireland at competitive rates.

He states that the reason we are in a bailout process is because the debt of private banks were place on the national balance sheets and that it doesn't take a genius that Ireland cannot pay off this debt and bond markets have been shut to Ireland. However, the bank debt is money that was not borrowed by the government, it was borrowed by the banks. The treaty fails to deal with this major issue. He concludes by saying "remember this, transferring fiscal sovereignty away from Ireland, to people and institutions you can never hold accountable, is a repudiation of all the values and principles that our country was founded upon. No one else in Europe is getting the chance to have a vote on this failed formula. Democracy needs to matter in Europe, let's make sure we remind everyone of that fact at the ballot box, while we still can."