Sir, – The results of the European Parliament survey of why people voted the way they did in the recent referendum confirm how typically European Ireland is (Home News, July 7th).
The same people – younger, in more insecure employment, more working class – who opposed the European constitution and other measures across Europe opposed the fiscal pact in Ireland.
In short, those people who do not see themselves as beneficiaries of the deeply socially divisive policies of the last 30 years or so do not support measures they see as copperfastening those policies. It would be strange if it were otherwise.
That one third of the Yes vote did so because of uncertainty over future funding shows this to be a government ruling through fear rather than consent.
The fact that the pact is bad economics remains unchanged. – Yours, etc,