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Ireland mulls if vote needed for EU fiscal pact

31 January 2012, 13:55 CET
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(DUBLIN) - Ireland's chief legal officer will consider whether the terms of the EU's proposed fiscal pact will require a referendum to ratify it, Deputy Prime Minister Eamon Gilmore said on Tuesday.

At the first summit of the year, 25 of 27 EU leaders on Monday backed a new fiscal treaty that forces countries to enshrine in their national law a so-called "golden rule" to balance budgets or face automatic sanctions.

"The agreement is intended to stabilise the euro and to ensure that the European economy grows," Gilmore told RTE state radio.

"The question of whether or not there will be a referendum depends on whether or not the terms of the agreement comply with our constitution and, in the first instance, the Attorney General will be asked to give her opinion on that," Gilmore said.

Any referendum would be watched closely by Ireland's EU partners, as it has sent shockwaves through the bloc in the past by initially rejecting two treaties before passing both in a second vote.

Micheal Martin, leader of the main Fianna Fail opposition party, described the outcome of the summit as "disappointing", saying it contained no new initiative to overcome the economic crisis in Europe.

"We will be seeking our own legal advice on the text, but our position remains that the people must be consulted on any significant change to our position in Europe," Martin said.

The opposition Sinn Fein party is opposed to the treaty saying it will surrender control of Irish fiscal and budgetary matters to EU officials and impose "destructive" austerity on the Irish people.

An opinion poll on Sunday found almost three-quarters of Irish voters believe there should be a referendum on the pact.

If a vote took place, 40 percent said they would vote in favour of the treaty, 36 percent would be against and 24 percent were undecided, according to the Sunday Business Post/Red C poll.

The Irish economy is slowly recovering after it was forced to seek an 85-billion-euro ($110 billion) EU/IMF rescue package in November 2010 when massive debt and deficit problems left the country on the verge of collapse.


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