Government must meet political and legal obligations to hold referendum

• Government must meet political and legal obligations to hold referendum
• Treaty will mean further austerity and diminishing of democracy

Socialist Party / United Left Alliance MEP Paul Murphy today called on the government to stop looking for excuses to avoid a referendum on the proposed new treaty:

“The government’s latest attempt to avoid a referendum on the Austerity Treaty seems to be to try to pressurise the President to refer it to the Supreme Court to test its constitutionality, rather than automatically hold a referendum. One thing is indicated by this manoeuvre – the government is scared of the verdict that the people may pass on this Austerity Treaty.

“From the draft treaty which has emerged, the strong indications are that the government will have a legal as well as political obligation to put this to a referendum. It involves a significant shift of powers away from the Oireachtas on budgetary matters to the unelected European Commission and European Central Bank, which without a referendum may well breach Article 6 of the Constitution. It also, as it currently stands, calls for a “balanced budget” provision at constitutional or equivalent level, which would de facto require a referendum.

“This is a treaty to institutionalise austerity across Europe. The attempts to avoid the political and legal obligation to hold a referendum on it must be ended. The government should now commit to hold a referendum in the coming months on the Austerity Treaty and engage in a debate on its contents, rather than scaremongering about membership of the euro.”