The five United Left Alliance TDs; Richard Boyd Barrett, Joan Collins, Clare Daly, Joe Higgins and Seamus Healy, today called for a NO vote in the referendum on the Fiscal Treaty – the austerity treaty.
The treaty will require unsustainable deficit and debt rules, greater powers for the EU Commission and the European Court of Justice and arrangements that will mean austerity budgets and impossible targets for the foreseeable future-an estimated €5 Billion in cuts every year on top of the cuts planned already. The FG/Labour government tried their hardest to deny the Irish people a say on this treaty. The Treaty states that these arrangements would be binding, permanent and preferably constitutional. The word preferably was inserted to enable the Irish Government try to avoid a referendum; despite the majority of people in Ireland (72%) wanting a referendum.
A NO vote in Ireland would strengthen democracy in Europe. Currently unelected ‘technocrats’ rule at the behest of the ECB and the bankers in two European parliaments – Greece and Italy.
A NO vote in Ireland would hasten the end of the rule of unelected bankers throughout Europe. We reject any blackmail by the government on this treaty.
A NO vote does not mean an immediate withdrawal from the euro or from the EU – it simply means that we reject a Europe where bankers and bondholders come first.
Previous governments and the current government parties blackmailed voters with threats that voting NO in the Lisbon Treaty would mean job losses when in fact it was the policies enshrined in that treaty and pushed by those parties that fuelled the crazy speculative boom. The experience of Greece shows that a policy of cuts, austerity and deepening neo-liberalism is a failure and makes the crisis worse. The ULA is confident that the Irish people will see through any government blackmail and vote NO in this referendum. Ireland has a proud record of standing up to the bullying of European bureaucrats, we will do so again.
Richard Boyd Barrett is the organiser of 
Richard Boyd Barrett TD said: “The Pathways to Work initiative is a disgrace. All through the Celtic Tiger people in Ireland were working in one, two or even three jobs. Now the Government is trying to blame unemployed people for not working, when in reality it is their own policies of austerity that mean that nearly half a million are on the Live Register.”
In a statement, Richard Boyd Barrett, TD for the People Before Profit Alliance and Finance spokesperson for the United Left Alliance, said that it was now clear that the Taoiseach had lied about the design of the Fiscal Treaty when he denied that it had been worded in such a way so as to avoid a referendum. Mr. Boyd Barrett expressed shock that “the Taoiseach would lie to the people in such a blatant manner”. The ULA TD also commented on the latest figures which show the Eurozone economy contracting further despite the so-called ‘bailout’ of Greece. Deputy Boyd Barrett warned that what we are witnessing in Greece may soon visit Ireland if people do not organise and resist the austerity measures being imposed here.
A pay cut of 10% coupled with moving new entrants on to the first point of the pay-scale saw new teachers entering the classroom in 2011 receive a salary 14 per cent lower than those starting work before austerity measures were introduced across the public sector. This comes on top of the general public sector pay reduction and pension levy introduced in previous years.
Speaking today Richard Boyd Barrett TD, United Left Alliance spokesperson on Education said: “It is an utter disgrace that having decimated the salaries of young teachers over the last 4 years that the government again threatens the pay of newly qualified teachers “The clear lesson from yesterday’s climb-down by the Minister of Education, Ruairi Quinn on disadvantaged school cuts is that people power works. Today will see many young teachers take to the streets in anger at these proposals.”
The charge which begins at €100 a year will not remain a fixed charge. The aim – according to the Commission on Taxation – is to impose a charge of €563 on the average house. After 2014, the water tax will be added to this – giving a combined charge of around €1,000 a year. The is a flat tax being imposed on people already struggling to pay rent, pay mortgages and scrape money together for basics like utlilities and in many cases food.
