ULA urges opposition to 'austerity' treaty

Socialist MEP Paul Murphy has described today’s lead story in The Irish Times newspaper as “incredible”, while discussing the referendum on the EU fiscal stability treaty at an United Left Alliance (ULA) event in Dublin this morning.

Mr Murphy was referring to a report that a major international financial institute, the Institute of International Finance in Washington, has said that a No vote will damage the country’s ability to borrow.

“Incredible article in The Irish Times today whereby the bankers are telling us that they’re scared of a No vote. Of course they’re scared of a No vote. This is a treaty made for the bankers,” he said.

People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett said the ULA would be campaigning vigorously for a No vote in villages, towns and cities around the country ahead of polling day on May 31st.

“The only weapon the Government has in this campaign is fear and that’s the one they intend to deploy,” Mr Boyd Barrett said.

Socialist TD Joe Higgins predicted what he described as “the usual attempt” by the Government and media to portray those on the left of the political spectrum as anti-Europe.

“We will show that we are the real Europeans in the sense of standing up for the ordinary working people of Greece, Portugal and Spain. We are standing with our fellow European working people,” Mr Higgins said.

He said the ULA was “bitterly opposed” to the “dictatorship” of the financial markets, adding that it was “scandalous” that elected governments “fall down on their face in worship” in front of the markets.

People Before Profit deputy Joan Collins, who chaired the press conference, said she wanted to “denounce” the treaty as “democratic sham” which aimed to put budgetary policy into the hands of “unelected EU institutions”.

Tipperary TD Seamus Healy, who represents the Unemployed Action Group in Tipperary South, accused the Government of “scaremongering”. He insisted Ireland would not be isolated in the event of a No vote. A Yes vote would ensure “permanent austerity”, he said.