Category Archives: Ireland

Ireland

Irish referendum to be held May 31

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Mark your calendars: the Irish referendum on the European Union fiscal compact will take place on May 31.

If the Merkel-led austerity doesn’t take any hits following the French presidential election or the Greek parliamentary elections, it will still face the gauntlet of a feisty Irish electorate that might not be too keen on institutionalizing budgetary limits into the fabric of the EU, although the threats lurking behind any “No” vote — no further access to EU bailout money and higher interest rates — might well be more disastrous.

 

Ireland

One strategy for the Irish vote: blackmail

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The economists have spoken: Irish voters should vote “yes” on the fiscal compact later this spring or else.

From a report from Ireland’s largest stockbroker comes the following:

A No vote would cast doubt over Ireland’s commitment to the euro and could trigger a ratings downgrade which would destroy our chances of returning to the bond market for the foreseeable future, he added. Yields on Irish bonds are likely to rise ahead of the vote, which will be held some time this year.  Bond yields would rise sharply if the people were to vote No but fall if the people were to vote Yes.

The gauntlet has been laid down — I expect this refrain to become a steady drumbeat in advance of the referendum.

 

Ireland

Kenny to target Irish referendum in late May

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Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny is eyeing late May for a referendum to approve December’s European Union-wide fiscal compact — although we may not know the exact date until later this month, per The Irish Times.

Timing is crucial — right now, polls show Irish voters in favor of the treaty, but two months is a long time for opponents to foment opprobrium against a treaty that would place a fiscal straightjacket on national finance ministries by limiting signatories to an annual budget deficit of just 0.5% of nominal GDP.

So the sooner that the referendum is held, it is thought, the better for treaty supporters.  If held in late May, the vote would follow both rounds of the French presidential election, where François Hollande — an avowed opponent of austerity who has called for renegotiation of the terms of the fiscal compact — currently leads polls, as well as tentative Greek legislative elections planned for April.

An outcome that would jeopardize European unity in any of the three could spook European investors.

Although the fiscal compact — not technically an EU treaty after the UK and the Czech Republic opted out — will go into effect with the approval of just twelve countries, Europe will still pay nervous attention to the vote.  The Irish referendum will be the only opportunity for a popular vote on the treaty across the EU, and so a stingingly public defeat would give other nations an excuse to opt out, or at least think twice about the treaty.  Ireland itself, already under the constraints of IMF- and EU-imposed fiscal austerity, is the recipient of bailout money to support its public debt.  An Irish defeat could jeopardize future bailout money and spark an investor crisis throughout the eurozone. Continue reading Kenny to target Irish referendum in late May →

Ireland

Will the Irish referendum stop the latest EU treaty?

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It’s not as if the European Union needed to plan another landmine to explode the agreed “fiscal compact” from last December which, broadly speaking, would require EU countries to maintain a structural deficit of less than 0.5% of nominal GDP annually. 

With the anti-austerity candidate leading the polls in France and with Greek parliamentary elections scheduled for the spring, there is no shortage of political events that could cause yet another crisis in the eurozone.  And after so many countries (including Germany!) violated the 1997 Stability and Growth Pact’s budget deficit rule (no more than 3% of GDP) throughout the 2000s, you might remain skeptical that any country would hew for very long to a 0.5% budget rule.

So the last thing anyone in Brussels wanted to hear was Dublin’s insistence last week that the fiscal compact will require an Irish referendum prior to its ratification.

Yet last week, Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny announced that, on advice from the Irish attorney general, Ireland will be required to hold a referendum on the fiscal compact treaty.  It was previously thought (hoped?) that an Irish referendum might not be necessary.  Given that British prime minister David Cameron announced that the UK would veto the amendment of existing EU treaties, and the decision of the Czech Republic not to join the final version, the treaty is not a formal EU treaty, but an intergovernmental treaty among the remaining 25 EU members.

Under Crotty v. An Taoiseach in 1987, the Supreme Court of Ireland decided that any significant changes to any EU treaties to which Ireland accedes require an amendment to the Irish constitution prior to ratification, and therefore subject to a referendum.

Currently, polls indicate that 60% of Irish voters support the treaty, but the referendum date has not yet been announced and opponents will have ample time to mobilize.

If you look at the trajectory of the first-shot Irish referenda on various EU treaties, you would not necessarily be optimistic:

Continue reading Will the Irish referendum stop the latest EU treaty? →

Ireland

‘That is a long way off’ — Europe’s first LGBT head of state?

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Although the cruel joke in 2008 that the only difference between ITATS Iceland and Ireland was one letter a six months (the joke being that Ireland would soon follow Iceland into sovereign bankruptcy), Ireland may soon join Iceland, which elected Europe’s first LGBT head Conscious of government in Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, by electing Europe’s first LGBT head of state. Continue reading ‘That is a long way off’ — Europe’s first LGBT head of state? →