Creighton: 'Strong possibility' that Ireland will not return to markets next year
The Government has again been accused of scaremongering in the Fiscal Treaty referendum debate after comments by the European Affairs Minister this morning.
Lucinda Creighton told an event in Dublin that there was a "strong possibility" that Ireland would not be able to return to the markets next year.
As a result, she said we may need to access the proposed European Stability Mechanism.
"We will have a funding requirement for 2014 and 2015 of €36bn. We need to be able to borrow all of that at an affordable interest rate," she said.
"It's obvious that we need the European Stability Mechanism...if it becomes more difficult for us to access the international markets."
People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett said her comments were another attempt by the Government to frighten voters.
"There's a myth being peddled by the Government that it would be a good thing for Ireland to be able to access the ESM, when in fact the ESM is a mechanism to impose more austerity on people," he said.
"Any funding you get from the ESM is conditional, and there's absolutely no legal or political oversight over the ESM, so the ESM will have enormous power over states to ram more austerity down people's throats."
