Yes vote will cost us dearly – O’ Connell

The Wexford Sinn Féin spokesperson on the Fiscal Compact Treaty has said that a yes vote will cost the Irish state and people dearly. Speaking at a public meeting on the treaty in Ballycullane last week, Oisin O’ Connell said a yes vote would be extremely costly while a no vote could open the door to something better for Ireland and Europe.

“This treaty will cost Ireland dearly if ratified,” Mr O’ Connell said, “We already know that the changes to our structural deficit limits will cost the state an extra €6 billion on top of the €8.8 billion in cuts that this government has lined up over the next three years to comply with the troika agreement. We also know that we face possible fines of 0.1% GDP in the event that we breach the rules set in this treaty. 0.1% of GDP in 2011 was 160 million. We know that the changes to the debt to GDP ratio that come into law under this treaty in 2018 will cost the state more money. The ESM - which doesn't exist yet, and may not in it's proposed form - requires us to pledge up to 11 Billion to it. We would be required to put in over 1.3 Billion up front in any case. Clearly this is more money than this state could ever afford to pay so the question must be asked of the Yes campaign; where exactly are we going to get the money to fund the state in the event of a yes vote?”

Kevin McCorry, Cllr Anthony Kelly and Oisin O' Connell at the public meeting
on the Austerity Treaty in Ballycullane on the 7th of May

“It will cost us to vote yes, but if we vote no we at least maintain the status quo and we will still be entitled to outside funding. We will still be full members of the EU with the all the rights that come with membership. We can still use the EFSF. Even the IMF has said there is no conditionality to further funding, as regards the referendum. The ECB is actually mandated to help member states like ourselves who have been shunned from the sovereign bond markets back to the bond markets as quick as possible. And this is even before we touch on the 20 Billion a year we are paying to service the bank promissory notes - almost equivalent to our deficit. This is mass socialisation of the cost of private financial gambles - unsustainable debts which are crippling us in the bond markets in the first place. A no vote to the austerity treaty is not simply a no to something; a no opens the door to a real possibility of something better, not just for Ireland but right across Europe.”

“Remember that there are many people across the EU who wish that they had the opportunity that we do so with this referendum so please use your vote on the day. Not voting in this referendum is effectively a yes vote. People have a clear choice; vote no or accept the terms of this treaty in full.”

Mr O’ Connell also rubbished government suggestions that their austerity plans were actually working.

“Let’s look at the governments so called success story so far; The Financial Times referred to Ireland as a poster boy for austerity. That’s the phrase that’s being used about us outside this country. Walk down the streets of your local town and look at the number of empty shop windows, look at the number of shops that no longer exist, look at the number of businesses that have gone under. Consider that about two and half thousand people emigrated from Wexford last year. Each one of those people emigrating is in effect a vote of no confidence in austerity. Each of those shop windows that used to house a business once but now doesn’t is a vote of no confidence in this austerity regime. Ask yourself if it’s been this successful so far, then how much more success can we actually survive?”