Richard Boyd Barrett TD

At a press conference today in the Mont Clare hotel in Dublin, the People Before Profit Alliance said that the government were lying and deceiving the public about the provisions of both the Fiscal Treaty and the European Stability Mechanism (ESM).

PBPA said the government had refused to acknowledge the enormous level of further cuts and austerity that would be necessary to meet the deficit and debt targets contained in the Fiscal Treaty, even though the figures were well known to them. PBPA said also that the government had utterly deceived the public about the ESM in claiming that it represented an “insurance policy” for the Irish people.

PBPA said the ESM was simply a permanent version of the EU-IMF austerity programme, designed to bail-out the European banking system, where any funding would be conditional on imposing further brutal austerity, and which could cost the Irish people €11 billion or even more to access. A NO vote is a vote against the failed and disastrous policies of bailing out banks and savage cuts. It is a vote demanding that jobs, economic growth and fairness become the priority for dealing with the current economic crisis. We urge people to raise their voices this Thursday to demand that alternative by voting NO.

Richard Boyd Barrett TD said: “The government have lied and utterly deceived the public about the actual contents of the Fiscal Treaty and the ESM. They have failed to acknowledge the enormous level of cuts and austerity that will be imposed on the Irish people in order to meet the debt and deficit targets in the treaty. This is despite the fact that the government’s own figures make clear that billions of such cuts will be needed for years after we exit the current EU-IMF programme in order to meet those targets. Inadvertently the government actually admitted the truth about this when they said recently that there was nothing new in the treaty. This was an admission that the treaty is simply more of the same disastrous austerity policies that have been pursued over the last four years – except now those policies will be written into law.

So it simple: If you want more of the same austerity that we’ve had for the last four years, vote for the treaty – If you want an alternative, vote NO. The government have also lied utterly about the ESM claiming that it is some sort of benevolent fund that will keep money in the ATM’s if we need help. There is nothing about ATM’s or paying pensions or social welfare in the ESM treaty. In reality, the ESM treaty sets out clearly that it is a mechanism to bail-out the European financial system, that any funding will be strictly conditional on further austerity, and that it may cost the Irish people €11 billion or more.

Joan Collins TD said, “With the commitment to 11 billion in the ESM and more cuts on the way, where are they going to get the savings from? Are they going to hit healthcare, are they going hit more public services, are they going to attack pensions and other vulnerable sections of society? The Government keep dodging this question and instead of telling the truth about the treaty are trying to bully and scare people into voting yes”

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ESM is one of best reasons to vote against treaty not for it

In a statement Richard Boyd Barrett TD, People Before Profit/United left Alliance said the government were deliberately deceiving the public about the Eurocrisis, Greece and the ESM in order to scare the Irish public into voting for the Fiscal treaty.

Deputy Boyd Barrett said it was increasingly apparent that the EU would continue to support Greece with funding because the fate of the European economy depended on it and that EU funding of states such as Greece, Ireland and Portugal was a matter of “self-interest and necessity” for the Eurozone and the wider European economy. Against that background, he said it was “utter nonsense” for the Irish government to suggest that Europe would deny Ireland funding if the country voted NO to the fiscal treaty.

Deputy Boyd Barrett also pointed to reports in the Financial Times today showing that the ECB was now providing €100 billion in ‘secret’ liquidity funding to the Greek banks as the latest piece of evidence that Europe would continue to fund countries in difficulty because it had no choice.

He said reports in German newspapers that Minister for Finance Michael Noonan had attacked Greece at the recent ECOFIN meeting for not robustly enough imposing austerity measures on its own citizens exposed the disgraceful role the Irish government was now playing –siding with the Euro bullies and Angela Merkel rather than with ordinary European citizens and the growing political revolt against austerity in Europe.

Deputy Boyd Barrett said also that the Irish government’s attempt to present the ESM as Ireland’s salvation was utterly ridiculous. He said the ESM was not a mechanism to help countries in trouble but rather a mechanism to protect the Euro and to force even more austerity on countries that were forced to access it.

Richard Boyd Barrett said: “The Irish government are deliberately deceiving the Irish public about what is happening in Eurozone, the situation in Greece and the reality of the ESM, in their desperate attempt to scare the people into voting for the austerity treaty.”

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In a statement, Richard Boyd Barrett, TD for People Before Profit/ United Left Alliance, said that the message from the weekends G8 meeting and recent comments by the ECB which emphasised that Greece should remain in the Eurozone exposed as empty and hollow the threats directed at countries like Greece and Ireland suggesting they had no choice but to accept the endless austerity demanded by the Fiscal treaty.

Deputy Boyd Barrett said Greece was calling Europe’s bluff and it was working because Europe’s real interest in Greece or Ireland was the protection of the Euro and the European financial system.

Deputy Boyd Barrett said that Europe’s climb-down before Greek resistance demonstrated clearly that Ireland has the leverage to say NO to the Fiscal treaty without fear of being denied funding or pushed out of the EU.

Richard Boyd Barrett said: “The G8 meeting and the comments of the ECB confirm that the TROIKA will do everything in their power to prevent Greece’s exit from the Eurozone. This is what all the frantic maneuvering to keep Greece within the fold clearly illustrates. And if that is true for Greece, it is equally true, maybe more so, for Ireland. There is simply no way Europe would cut-off funding from Ireland in the event of a NO vote because they know such a move would be the beginning of the end of the euro.

The powers that be will move mountains and seas to make sure that Greece does not exit the Eurozone, because if it does the entire EU financial system will take a tremendous blow from which it may not recover. Spain would possibly become the next to crumble and the biggest losers would be the banks.

All of this shows that Ireland has the leverage to say NO and that all the blackmail and bullying of the Irish public by the government is dishonest and hollow.

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