President Higgins: Politicians are deserting democracy

President Michael D Higgins has accused politicians of abandoning democracy and leaving people to the mercy of credit rating agencies.

In a thinly veiled reference to the EU’s troika and austerity programmes, President Higgins warned that democracy was in peril, and said it was time parliaments took back power, and rejected narrow-focused automatic rules governing their economies.

The President was addressing the Council of Europe, which he referred to as the “conscience of Europe”, a distinct body from the EU with an assembly of politicians from 47 European countries including Ireland.