Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Fein)

"The debt brakes will be binding and valid forever. Never will you be able to change them through a parliamentary majority." These are the words of German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, on what we are being asked to sign up to in the treaty. Her words are a fair representation of the goal of the pact, which will act as a permanent and binding fetter on Irish sovereignty.

Issues of critical importance are at stake. The treaty will tie the hands of future Governments and more ambitious and progressive Governments will be forced to adhere to the conservative restrictions for which it provides. The Government has made its decision in this regard and will answer for it accordingly. What about the next Government and next generation and what they intend to do? They should not have to lie in a bed made by this Government and its predecessor.

The problems in the eurozone, which the treaty does little to address, have been used as an excuse to put an economic straitjacket on governments across the Continent. As SIPTU economist, Paul Sweeney, recently stated, the treaty is "essentially a coup by the right-wing economic conservatives to impose fiscal austerity on us forever". It did not, therefore, come as any surprise to Sinn Féin when the Attorney General indicated the Government could not avoid a referendum on it. The Government should publish the legal advice it received in order that citizens can see that the treaty goes further in limiting our economic sovereignty than anything that has gone before. That this advice is being kept secret and a referendum has been called gives a lie to the argument that the treaty is nothing more than a repackaging of existing rules. The treaty goes further and deeper than any existing rules. For example, it gives more power to the unaccountable arms of the European Union, the Commission and Court of Justice, than ever before, despite not being an EU treaty.

It is in Ireland's economic interests to reject this pact which many commentators have dubbed the "austerity treaty". This is an accurate description rather than merely a slogan. Under the terms of the treaty, we will commit to further years of austerity after 2015 to reach the targets set out in the text. One expert has stated the treaty will require further expenditure cuts of at least €6 billion and economists from across the political divide have criticised it. Appearing before the Joint Committee on European Union Affairs recently, Tom McDonnell of TASC described the deficit brake and debt brake provisions outlined in Articles 3 and 4 of the treaty as "potentially damaging". According to Mr. McDonnell, the treaty will, at worst, "damage recovery in the Irish and other European economies by reinforcing procyclicality in the recession-hit periphery". The economist, Colm McCarthy, stated the following:

As an exercise in addressing the eurozone's twin banking and sovereign debt crises, the fiscal compact makes no worthwhile contribution. The source of these problems lies in the flawed design of the common currency, and this cannot apparently be admitted by the European political leadership.