Union boss: Treaty not backed by colleagues

The Government’s job of selling the EU fiscal treaty has become harder after the country’s most senior trade union leader admitted that none of his colleagues supported it.

Irish Congress of Trade Unions general secretary David Begg said it was a matter of record that he was against the treaty but that there were serious consequences if Ireland voted no.

“We’re damned if we do and we’re damned if we don’t,” he said.