The SIPTU call for the inclusion of an economic growth stimulus to be provided in conjunction with the Fiscal Treaty has been strongly supported by Independent MEP Marian Harkin.
Referring to the meeting of the Oireachtas European Affairs Committee held on Friday last which was addressed by SIPTU General President Jack O’Connor, she said: “This Treaty will be but one step in the process of returning the European Union and Ireland back on the road towards economic recovery.
“This recovery will not happen by merely passing the upcoming Treaty. While passing the Treaty will guarantee access to emergency funding from the ESM, there will also be a requirement for a number of other steps to build a new and secure future for citizens.”
The SIPTU proposal to develop an imaginative off balance-sheet strategy involving the pensions industry and the pension fund is a welcome, realistic and realisable way to obtain the pump priming funding for a programme of infrastructural development which could make a substantial contribution to national economic recovery.
“While it will obviously not be possible for the Government to complete the planning of such a programme before the Referendum on May 31st they should immediately commence discussions at senior Ministerial level with the pensions industry and relevant EU bodies to develop a structure leading to the release of large scale funding from the pensions sector along the lines detailed by SIPTU.
“Citizens deserve to have as many good solid reasons as possible to vote for the Fiscal Compact Treaty. They also need to be given hope that they are not facing bleak decades ahead because the Government may lack the imagination necessary to consider and act upon well founded proposals such as those put forward by SIPTU.
“The objectives of the Fiscal Treaty will not be achieved in Ireland without economic growth. The SIPTU proposals should help to bring about that economic growth”, she concluded.
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