John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)

Many people share my view. They are not happy with how Europe is run and believe it is completely undemocratic. While this may be one of the reasons people will vote "No", they should vote on the basis of what the treaty does and I believe that will happen.

Supporting the treaty's demand for a balanced budget and fines of hundreds of millions of euro for countries which breach targets will impose crippling austerity regardless of which Government is elected or what mass movements develop against austerity, as I fully expect will occur in this country. The condition in the fiscal treaty that forbids access to the new European Stability Mechanism rescue fund to any nation which does not approve the treaty is nothing short of bullying and a tactic to force Irish people to vote in favour of the fiscal compact. Many people are anxious to learn the reason the Government quietly agreed to insert such a clause in the treaty in a change from what was agreed in July of last year. The Government continues to have a veto over this blackmail clause.

Building the campaign overwhelmingly on a message of scare-mongering, as the Government is about to do, is shameful behaviour by elected representatives and undermines the principle of democracy. The same holds for the fiscal compact, which denies the right of member state to run a structural budget deficit of more than 0.5%. Has the democratic right of national parliaments to decide national budgets been removed? If so, what is the purpose of the Oireachtas? Should we not bother to introduce a budget this year or next year and allow the European Union to do so on our behalf? The structural deficit requirement is outrageous.

Many people believe the hype that a "Yes" vote will guarantee that the mistakes that led to the economic crash in 2008 will never be repeated. The debt to GDP ratio of 60%, general government deficit ceiling of 3% and new 0.5% structural deficit rule would have made little difference if they had been in place in Ireland prior to 2008. As it happens, in 2007 the general government balance was 0.3%, the structural balance was 2.3% and our debt to GDP ratio was 24.8%. In short, we were already completely compliant with the various components proposed under the fiscal treaty.

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