We need someone to keep tabs on us




What's the big fuss in the EU keeping tabs on us?

 This column appears in thsi week's INM regional newspapers in Ireland.

By Michael Commane
On Thursday we vote in the Fiscal Treaty referendum.

Have you decided how you are voting and if so what made you come to that
decision?

Twenty two per cent have not made up their mind.

Some polls say that the turnout on Thursday could be as low as 50 per cent. All the polls say the Yes side are at present in the majority but that the gap between the Yes and No voters is closing.
I sat down last week to read the Treaty. In places it's like the new Roman Missal - almost impossible to understand. There are sentences with over 100 words.

Still not happy with what to do, I read The Independent Guide to the Fiscal Stability Treaty. That made more sense to me. Then there is the A4 sheet folded in three called The Stability Treaty. There is no indication who has published it. But it is obviously on the Yes side as it argues that it is necessary to ratify the Treaty. I must say I would like to know who published it. Does the presence of the harp means it is a Government publication?

All three documents have been delivered to every household in the country. All three documents have been printed in both Irish and English. The Independent Guide is available in Braille and in large text format through NCBI. It is also available in Irish Sign Language on the websites of the Irish Deaf Society and DeafHear.ie I'd love to know how many people have sat down and read all three documents. It would be interesting to know how many people have read all three documents in the Irish version. I have watched some of the TV coverage, even some of the
fighting on the Vincent Browne Show.

On Friday the chairman of the Referendum Commission, Mr Justice Kevin Feeney was on Morning Ireland. Unfortunately I only caught the end of it.

But what I heard was clear and informative - the clearest of what I have heard since the campaign began.

The 19-page Stbaility Treaty pamphlet carries two introductory pages. These two pages are clearly suggesting to the reader that a Yes vote is the preferred outcome of Thursday's vote. I'm wondering are those two pages appropriate in the pamphlet?

And then in Saturday's Irish Times there is a letter by Fr Edmond Grace. Fr Grace is rooting for a Yes vote. He is a Jesuit and a man I admire.
Certainly in a General Election it would be unusual for a priest to get involved in party politics. Or would it? I've decided which way I'm voting on Thursday. But I'm asking myself, how I came to my decision. Have I been brainwashed? I hope not. And then I wonder what exactly is democracy, how democratic is our system? Who are the real people who control and decide how things should be? No doubt big business and the banks have a significant say in how things are ordered and done.

I know nothing about economics. When it comes to math, adding, subtracting, dividing and multiplying is about the limit of my mathematical skills, so when the Treaty writes the following I'm lost: "where the ratio of the general government debt to gross domestic product at market prices is significantly below 60% and where risks in terms of long-term sustainability of public finances are low, the lower limit of the medium-term objective specified under point (b) can reach a deficit of at most 1.0% of the gross domestic product at market prices;" (Article 3 1. d).

I also have to admit that I am over the moon with the idea of an integrated and united Europe. I remember when I got my first EU passport and my first EU driving licence I was so thrilled about it.

The reality that so many of our young people have access to study and learn apprenticeships in other EU countries is simply fantastic.

Didn't the English authorities in Ireland play a significant role in the development of Maynooth College so that Irish priests would not be influenced by European thought. We know the results of that.

I first went to Germany in 1972. Back then Ireland was far far away from Cologne, Frankfurt, Munich. Two years later I went to study in Rome - an extraordinary privilege back then.

That's all changed. Today thousands of students spend some time studying in other EU cities.

I'm no economist but I do know that I can't spend above my means. And if I do I'll come a cropper.

We have to balance our books and that there's an outside agency or authority keeping an eye on us is surely a good idea. We live in times where we are always insisting on regulatory authorities.

So what's the big fuss in the EU keeping tabs on us?

We have been profligate for long enough. And whatever happens on Thursday there are severe cuts ahead for all of us.

Is it not better that we have the support and cooperation of the EU in as full a way as possible?

Whatever you do, at least go out and vote.

And just as I finish writing this I hear Shane Ross has announced he is voting No. I'm certain now what way I’m voting.