MGQ calls for Yes vote on Austerity Treaty
By Kernan Andrews
Former Galway West TD and justice minister Máire Geoghegan-Quinn is calling on the people of County Galway to vote Yes in the Fiscal Treaty referendum on May 31.
Ms Geoghegan-Quinn, now the EU Commissioner for Research, Innovation, and Science said the Fiscal Treaty is about introducing a series of “new, rigorous and robust rules” to guarantee that the economic mismanagement and recklessness which started the crisis in 2008 “will not be allowed to happen again”.
She said the Treaty is “vitally important” to getting the Irish and European economies back on track.
“The investment and business community need a stable economic environment within the Eurozone to develop and grow their companies so as to maintain and create jobs,” she said. “Ratifying the fiscal treaty will bring about this much needed stability within the Eurozone. This will help Ireland and the EU re-gain economic competitiveness.”
Ms Geoghegan-Quinn also said that Irish ratification of the Treaty “will send the right signals to the international lending markets that Ireland is getting its house in order”.
She said: “This is very necessary for countries seeking to borrow internationally. Equally, it will create the right conditions to secure higher levels of inward investment into Ireland.”
Countries that ratify the Treaty will also have access to draw down funding at a future date under the European Stability Mechanism. As a result Ms Geoghegan-Quinn said it would be “difficult for Ireland to re-enter the international financial markets if we cannot demonstrate we can access monies under the ESM”.
The former TD admitted that the Treaty “is not a panacea for all our problems”, but she said that voting Yes “will demonstrate that Ireland's future lies as a central and active member of the Eurozone”.
The agreement needs 12 countries out of the 17 Eurozone states to give it legal effect. As a result no one country within the Eurozone can veto the introduction of the Treaty.
