What Harney and McCreevy will tell Solbes, if he mentions the war as he inspects how Loughrea is progressing with the euro, is that Ireland has the lowest unemployment, the second lowest national debt and the biggest budget surplus, that inflation comes from trading with non-euro currencies - (and whose fault is it anyway that the value of the euro is so low?) - and from oil prices. And that Europe itself predicts inflation will fall next year.
Pedro Solbes, the European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, is coming to Ireland in 10 days - not specifically to give out to us again, although he probably will. He will visit Loughrea which was designated a euro town a year ago. The ministers meeting him will be none other than Mary Harney and Charlie McCreevy, the pair, who along with the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, have attracted the wrath of Brussels and the European Central Bank for making a success of the Irish economy by failing to adhere to EU economic guidelines.
What Solbes will say depends much on what emerges from the meeting of Finance Ministers in Brussels on Monday. They are expected to admonish McCreevy for pumping too much money into the economy by way of public expenditure and tax reliefs, thus breaching agreed EU monetary policy. They will deny they are jealous, profess concern for our future and say they had no option but to rebuke us for breaking the rules and setting a bad example to the new entrants from central and eastern Europe who are tempted to copy us and attract investment away from the rest of the EU. What Harney and McCreevy will tell Solbes, if he mentions the war as he inspects how Loughrea is progressing with the euro, is that Ireland has the lowest unemployment, the second lowest national debt and the biggest budget surplus, that inflation comes from trading with non-euro currencies - (and whose fault is it anyway that the value of the euro is so low?) - and from oil prices. And that Europe itself predicts inflation will fall next year. All this standing up to Brussels and gungho attitude to criticism may be good for the Government electorally, and it intends sticking to its guns, but there is another side. Apart from the obvious - that we may need Brussels to help us out again and our popularity is not what it was - there is the ratification of the Treaty of Nice. Once the full text arrives, probably next week, the referendum will be set for some time in May. The Government, and Opposition, want Nice passed, but the McKenna judgment restricts its campaigning. There is real fear anti-EU feeling could lead to its rejection. Then we will have to have another referendum.