Labour Women's recent statement calling for a Yes vote on Thursday implies, incredibly, that the solution to the problems created by Ireland's financial dependence is to sign up to more of it. By Wendy Lyon.
The Yes side deserves to lose on Thursday for the way they have conducted themselves in the referendum debate: combining exaggeration threats and falsehoods. But the No side have been hopelessly inept at explaining how Ireland would fund its budget deficits if denied ESM funding. By Vincent Browne
Establishing a cabinet sub-committee to study the problem of mortgage arrears, which Enda Kenny has indicated he’s doing, and wishing for the banks to “show a greater urgency” is simply not good enough. By John Farrell Clark.
Eurobonds issued and backed by the ECB would alleviate the financing problems of all fiscally-stricken member states, and require no debt guarantees nor fiscal transfers from Germany, Holland or Finland. By Yanis Varoufakis.
They came. They talked eurobonds. They left in a miff. Why?
New Democracy needs strategies that cut to the bone: it has to foster fright at a surging far left, it has to force home the message that SYRIZA's positions are contradictory. The rhetoric of suicide fits this bill consummately. But it is also double edged. This is suicide season and where will it lead? By Iannis Carras.
There are increasing signs of indifference at the top of the EU over democratic procedures. By Vincent Browne.
The case being taken by Thomas Pringle TD on the Fiscal Treaty and the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) could have very considerable significance not just here but throughout the European Union.
The ESM is no magic bullet, and even if it was, it couldn't bring down the runaway beast that is Europe's debt problem. By Philip O'Connor.
After the weekend's orgy of ball sports, the fun continued in Ireland last night with the blood sport of democratic debate around the Fiscal Treaty referendum – and by extension, Ireland’s ability to access ESM funding - beamed live and direct via the Frontline.
The outcome of the debate, and with it the referendum, are irrelevant.
On Tonight with Vincent Browne, Gavan Titley, Tom McGurk, Glenna Lynch and Niamh Lyons are discussing the RTÉ Frontline debate on the Fiscal Treaty and media portrayal of the campaign and the implications of the ratification of the treaty itself. {jathumbnailoff}
It is becoming great sport following up the Minister for Finance’s comments Michael Noonan was at it again on This Week:
RTÉ: You mentioned we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in if the Fiscal Treaty had been some years ago. This would have saved us from getting into the deficit problems we got into. But how would have that prevented that given that at the time the IMF and the European Commission were complimentary of our structural deficit?
RTÉ is in the throes of a nervous breakdown - and it is hardly surprising. The Fr Kevin Reynolds debacle, the threat of further libel suits arising from the Mission to Prey fiasco, the station's financial crisis and the prospect of more scandals on the way would unsettle even a Catholic bishop.