The Government is trying to buy the referendum, but we don't know what the electoral brown envelope contains, if indeed it contains anything. By Michael Taft.

It is better not to be cynical. But this Government is not only making it easy to be cynical, they are practically making it mandatory. We now read that the Government is preparing the economy for a sustained and substantial investment programme in an anticipation of a U-turn by the EU. That this has been announced only days before the referendum...what timing, what fortune.

The Government may welcome talk of growth, but cuts in public investment and current expenditure along with tax increases will reduce GDP by over €6bn by 2015. By Michael Taft.

This debate – you wouldn’t know whether to laugh, cry or bang your head on the asphalt repeatedly. Following the rejection of austerity parties in Greece and France, the Taoiseach says:

The Government and their austerity supporters have co-opted the language of progressives to avoid answering a fundamental question:  what the cost of the Fiscal Treaty will be in terms of future austerity measures. By Michael Taft.

The Fiscal Treaty is a recipe for extending and deepening stagnation across the Eurozone and the EU. By Michael Taft.

The cacophony of ministerial threats upon the people threatens to drown out all reasoned debate on the Fiscal Treaty. By Michael Taft.

How can we trust a government that insists on describing the economy in a way that is completely at odds with the fact? By Michael Taft.

Even when presented with cold hard reality, Government ministers refuse to acknowledge it, preferring to live in a fantasy island. Spin is one thing, denial is another.

The following is my presentation to the Dáil Committee on European Affairs.

On behalf of UNITE the Union I would like to put forward seven points regarding the Fiscal Treaty. {jathumbnailoff}

1.            The Fiscal Treaty will require substantially more austerity measures in the medium-term.

Early indications suggest that water charges and residential property charges will not be progressive, and will disproportionately hit those on low and average incomes. By Michael Taft.

Data from the Survey on Income and Living Conditions 2010, published by the CSO yesterday, shows that in 2010 Ireland experienced the biggest single year jump in income inequality recorded in any country since the EU started recording this data. By Michael Taft.

We need less talk about "marching toward recovery" and more acknowledgement that we have a way to go before domestic demand bottoms out. By Michael Taft.

The headline reads: ‘GDP rises for first time in four years’. Well, that’s good news. The report goes on: