Ireland ratifies austerity treaty

Submitted by Matthew on 6 June, 2012 - 7:50

After a campaign dominated by fear, the Irish electorate voted 60% to 40% on 1 June to ratify the EU fiscal pact.

Turnout was low, with just over half of Irish voters going to the polls. Rather than an enthusiastic endorsement of Fine Gael-Labour and EU policies, the vote reflects fears of deepening the crisis and worries that Ireland would be unable to access funds from the European Stability Mechanism. As Fine Gael junior finance minister Brian Hayes said, voters feared putting Ireland “at the centre of the storm — a bit like what has happened in Greece.” This is a reminder of the complexities of the impact of the Euro-crisis and should warn against illusions on the left that gains will be immediate or inevitable.

EU leaders and the Irish Government will be relieved at the result, which led to a short-term drop in Irish bond yields. Yet they have no call to be complacent. Amid worsening forecasts for Spain and Greece, new data has shown Eurozone unemployment to be at record levels of 11%, amounting to 17.4m adults in the single currency zone out of work. The official unemployment rate in Spain is 24.3%, with figures for young people running at over twice that. Ireland is now in its fourth year of recession with no obvious prospects for growth in sight.

The Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny has been quick to claim vindication and both he and his Labour Party deputy Eamon Gilmore are arguing that the Irish Government's hand is strengthened in negotiations with other EU leaders over Ireland's bank debts.

Speaking to Solidarity, Labour Youth member Neil Warner said: “Irish voters reluctantly approved this treaty almost entirely on the basis of fears that the country would lose access to emergency European funding. As such, it should not be seen in any way as a halt in the momentum against austerity and plutocratic politics that has been building across Europe.

“Indeed many Irish people voted yes on the assurance that further amendments to the treaty, such as those proposed by Hollande, would be made subsequently.

“The fight continues and many of us in Ireland want to be part of it”.

Beneath the 20% margin in favour of the treaty lie some worrying patterns for the Irish Labour Party.

Support for the treaty came predominantly from urban middle-class constituencies and rural voters. Amongst the five constituencies which rejected the treaty were Dublin South-West, Dublin North-West and Dublin South-Central, while Dublin Mid-West voted Yes by a mere five votes. What all these multi-member constituencies have in common is a large working-class electorate and two or more Labour TDs. What will worry the Labour Party is that these constituencies also all have at least one Sinn Féin or People Before Profit representative in the Dáil already and these groups are seeking to benefit most from anti-austerity sentiment.

Along with Pasok in Greece, Irish Labour's stance demonstrates the chaos and lack of co-ordination within European social-democracy which has stemmed from its culpability in the implementation of austerity. The Labour Party’s support for the fiscal treaty puts it at odds even with moderate social-democratic voices in Europe such as the new French President Francois Hollande, who has been pushing Merkel for a re-negotiation of its terms.

The result also marks a setback for the United Left Alliance (ULA). In a statement accusing the Government and EU leaders of 'bullying' the electorate, the ULA says it “is confident that the resistance to austerity in Ireland and Europe will deepen in the next few months.”

However, if anything the Irish electorate's unwillingness to reject the treaty demonstrates that the left needs to go beyond “resistance” and must start offering a real Europe-wide alternative to austerity.

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