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Ireland mulls if referendum needed for EU fiscal pact

31 January 2012, 23:42 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, Prime Minister Enda Kenny said Tuesday.

At their first summit of the year, 25 of 27 European Union 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.

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.

"I have this morning asked the cabinet to refer this final text to the attorney general for her formal legal advice," Kenny told the Dail (lower house of parliament).

"The government will follow through on that advice."

Deputy Prime Minister Eamon Gilmore told RTE state radio that the agreement in Brussels was intended to stabilise the euro and to ensure that the European economy grows.

"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," he said.

Micheal Martin, leader of the Fianna Fail main opposition party, described the summit outcome 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," he said.

The smaller 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-International Monetary Fund rescue package in November 2010 when massive debt and deficit problems left the republic's economy on the verge of collapse.


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