SIPTU to back Yes vote - if Government offers stimulus plan

SIPTU says it will advocate a Yes vote in the upcoming EU Fiscal Treaty referendum, if the Government commits to a stimulus plan to create "tens of thousands of jobs".

In a detailed policy document analysing the issues, the trade union has characterised the strategy underpinning the treaty as a one-sided austerity approach at the expense of working people.

It says this strategy will not work and therefore it is calling for an off balance sheet domestic stimulus plan, in addition to the projected capital spend.

If these conditions are met, then SIPTU's National Executive Council said that it will advocate a Yes vote in the Fiscal Treaty, otherwise it cannot endorse it.

"Ireland is between a rock and a hard place," said SIPTU general president, Jack O’Connor.

"The Treaty imposes, what we believe, to be an unnecessarily severe 'debt brake'.

"However, if we do not ratify it we will not have access to the ESM fund. The immediate problem is the imposition of a co-ordinated contraction over twenty countries without any offsetting stimulus for growth.

"This one-sided austerity approach will not work. We can provide our own investment stimulus with the potential to generate several thousand jobs through innovative use of our pension funds.

"If the Government commits to doing it, we will go along with the Treaty despite our reservations because it would give us all a fighting chance of emerging from this nightmare. Otherwise we cannot endorse it."