At its recent convention on 21 April 2012, Fís Nua voted overwhelmingly to campaign for a no vote in the upcoming referendum on the European Fiscal Treaty to be held on 31st May. Members in all areas of the country will be working with other groups, such as The Peoples’ Movement, at the grass-roots level to campaign against what has come to be called, the ‘Austerity Treaty’.
Fís Nua Co-ordinator, Cordelia Nic Fhearraigh said of the decision “Fís Nua believes that Ireland’s best interests would not be served by agreeing to this new treaty, and that it would create a significant lack of available currency for running the Irish State. The creation of currency will be moved into the hands of a few individuals, the European Security Mechanism (ESM) governors; away from not only Irish State but also European Parliament control, and as such would become even more undemocratic.”
Cllr Pat Kavanagh, who proposed the motion opposing the treaty, added “The proposed ESM mechanism would not only enforce austerity policies in Ireland, through the capping of government spending, it would also force participating states to contribute amounts to the ESM fund, without discussion or agreement being required by ‘sovereign’ parliaments. Ireland’s initial contribution is expected to be of the order of €11 billion. The Irish people are not responsible for the current crisis and should not be required to pay for it. We must oppose this treaty to ensure that we do not give away the last vestiges of Irish sovereignty”
The Fís Nua convention further called for a full national debate on the currency crisis. Dr Ben Nutty, Fís Nua Economic Spokesperson, supporting the call, said “Joining the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) deprived us of our ability to control our balance of payments, through the sovereign control of interest rates and through the setting of appropriate foreign exchange rates. The introduction of the Euro led to historically low interest rates, combined with poor regulation, meant that people and companies and the State alike borrowed more than they should have. Since the cause of the problem we now face was handing over control to Europe, the solution should not be handing more control to those who clearly can not manage the currency. The current market problems, with the Euro, were further emphasised last week with the downgrading of Spain’s credit worthiness.”
“The loans made by the banks during the ‘financial boom’ were created out of nothing. The loans are expected to be repaid, with interest. However, because the money to repay the interest was never created, the money system is doomed to collapse.”
Fís Nua, Ireland’s newest registered political party, was formed in 2010 and narrowly missed the registration deadline to appear as an official party on the ballot paper for the February 2011 General Election. Fís Nua has a wide ranging political programme, expressed in its manifesto, available on www.fisnua.com, for sustainable policies, local and democratic decision making, and to remove corruption from Irish politics. Central to the party’s policy is the need to overturn the current failed economic system, to create a new steady-state economic system and support for full implementation of the Rio 1992 decisions of the United Nations Conference on Environment & Development (UNCED) known as ‘Local Agenda 21’.