Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)

-----and will institutionalise endless austerity because so-called core member states, Germany and France in particular, want to impose harsh fiscal rules on a European Union economy that is already struggling desperately. One rarely hears mentioned that Ireland adhered to the rules in place prior to the crisis, unlike France and Germany which were serial breachers of the Stability and Growth Pact.

The most basic text on the European Union informs us that the raison d'être of the modern European Union is growth and employment. While this is taken as a truism, the treaty will impose greater levels of austerity on citizens for an indefinite period and require an estimated minimum of €6 billion in cuts and tax hikes in this jurisdiction post-2015. Placing these measures in an intergovernmental treaty turns interim measures into permanent rules, which is a crazy approach. The treaty will mean deeper cuts in education and health and to a raft of community services. We will see continued unjust stealth taxes increasing which will punish struggling families and the vulnerable. The Oireachtas will be undermined and even greater decision making powers in economic and fiscal policy will be handed over to unelected officials. We should have learned from economic and monetary union that a one-size-fits-all approach to monetary policy was a mistake for the European Union. Equally, any notion of a one-size-fits-all fiscal approach, particularly one that is embedded in the concept of austerity, would be a major mistake for the State and European Union and one which would have longstanding consequences.

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