EU treaty vote - Alternative is even less attractive

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn was derided at Easter when he suggested that the depth of the economic crisis had not yet been understood by some people in the education sector.

Last week’s declaration from Siptu president Jack O’Connor that his union would only recommend the EU fiscal compact treaty to its members if the Government tried, through a new stimulus package, to persuade private-sector pension funds to invest in the domestic economy, suggests that the only thing wrong with Mr Quinn’s remarks were that they might have been too narrowly focussed.

Most private pension funds — and a great number of semi-state ones too face huge deficits, nearly €2bn at the renamed ESB alone — and would be reluctant, or just plain foolish, to consider anything as high-risk as job creation packages in this stagnating economy.