UCD Academic says that Fiscal Treaty means twenty years of hardship
Kieran Allen, a UCD academic and author of The Fiscal Treaty and the Euro
Crisis: Reasons to Vote No, has claimed that Ireland faces twenty years of
hardship if it votes Yes,
Speaking at a meeting in Castlebar at the Welcome Inn on Tuesday, he said
that
“Ireland has one of the highest levels of debt in the EU ,if measured
according to the size of its GNP.
” Currently the country has a debt of over €180 billion and this will lead
to a debt to GNP ratio of 150 percent.
” GNP is a more accurate measure for Ireland as it excludes repatriated
profits from multinationals. But even if the GDP measure is used, the debt
comes in at 120 the size of the economy.
‘This is double the figure that is stipulated by the EU and therefore we
will be forced to cut this debt in half over twenty years – or face fines.
‘Unless one assumes that there will be a return to sustained growth, this
will amount to cutbacks of over €4 billion a year.
‘This is entirely unreasonable because large countries like Britain and
Germany were able to postpone their debt payments for World War 2 until
quite recently.
‘There is no good reason why we should set legally bound artificial targets
which will destroy our society.
‘The YES side should tell us where they will enforce cuts and tax hikes to
meet the figures required by the fiscal treaty.
To get a copy of Kieran’S Booklet you can go to
http://www.voteno.ie/article/