Ireland needs the legal guarantee of access to cash and credit that the Fiscal Compact Treaty will deliver

Which stance should Ireland take on the European Union’s Fiscal Compact? In the lead up to Ireland’s referendum on the Compact, Ben Tonra argues that the country needs to support the treaty. However, he believes its prescription, austerity, is of dubious economic value, and that Angela Merkel must allow for growth policies as well as a plan for a fiscal union unless she wants to become the European Union’s Herbert Hoover.