Fine Gael TD for Dublin North, Alan Farrell and former Taoiseach John Bruton held a public information meeting in the Grand Hotel in Malahide this week to highlight the importance of the passing of the Stability Treaty for Ireland’s economic future.
Deputy Farrell said: ‘This Treaty is fundamental to our recovery, and it is my duty as a public representative to ensure that the public is fully informed when it makes this important decision. It is in Ireland’s full interest to ratify this Treaty if we are to establish ourselves as a safe haven for international investment’.
John Bruton said: ‘Ratifying the Fiscal Compact Treaty is really like buying ourselves an insurance policy. We hope we will not need to make a claim on the ESM, but it is important for us, and for those who might lend to us, to know that we are at least eligible to do so. By voting ‘No’, Irish people would be saying that they do not need any insurance policy for our public finances after the current EU/IMF programme expires.
“The Stability Treaty does not involve some new principle or a novel incursion into national prerogatives. Most of the commitments in the European Stability Treaty are ones to which the Irish people have already agreed in principle in previous EU related referenda.
“The Irish people voted on the 18th June 1992 to ratify the Maastricht Treaty. In so doing we democratically committed ourselves to a single currency, stable prices, sound public finances and a sustainable balance of payments. As we have learned, we have failed to adhere to the last two of these; sound public finances and a sustainable balance of payments. We accepted EU involvement in our budgetary policies twenty years ago, and we did so by the most inclusive method possible, by a referendum in which every voter had a say.”