Nobody’s paving the road for return to growth

THERE is a strong sense reading the EU summit communiqué that it is highly aspirational, and designed along the lines of: “We must do something — this is a thing.”

What we appear to have on the table is a promise of neither a fiscal nor a transfer union but of an austerity union. We are all to adhere to even stricter guidelines than were in the stability and growth pact in relation to government spending.

In fact, if we take the proposal for a 0.5% budget deficit, and put in any reasonable level of growth, a long-term Irish debt-to-GDP ratio of 20% would be implied.