Forget referendum rhetoric and debate issues

Those advocating a no vote in the Fiscal Treaty referendum tell us that ‘austerity is not working’, but that a massive stimulus package will revitalise the economy by creating thousands of jobs that will eliminate austerity.

If Ireland was to remove itself unilaterally from the Exchange Stability Mechanism and there is no comparable alternative external support to replace it, the risk attaching to our bailout loans will be hugely elevated.

If the lenders were to respond with demands for unprecedented swingeing cuts in public expenditure to compensate for this, the funding for health, welfare, education and pensions would be brutally curtailed.

Living standards and export earnings would be undermined, making it very difficult for the economy to be imminently revitalised.

The prospect of that scenario, and even the uncertainty surrounding it, would diminish investor sentiment, leaving Ireland marginalised and in an ossified, 1950s-like, paralysis. That is hardly the ideal backdrop from which to celebrate a centenary of nationhood.

It is, therefore, incumbent on each side of this debate to move past the vacuous slogan and the empty rhetoric and present a rational, coherent, credible and compelling argument of their position and the risk profile associated with it.

Myles Duffy

Glenageary

Co Dublin