Upcoming Events

National | EU

no events match your query!

New Events

National

no events posted in last week

Blog Feeds

The Saker
A bird's eye view of the vineyard

offsite link Alternative Copy of thesaker.is site is available Thu May 25, 2023 14:38 | Ice-Saker-V6bKu3nz
Alternative site: https://thesaker.si/saker-a... Site was created using the downloads provided Regards Herb

offsite link The Saker blog is now frozen Tue Feb 28, 2023 23:55 | The Saker
Dear friends As I have previously announced, we are now “freezing” the blog.? We are also making archives of the blog available for free download in various formats (see below).?

offsite link What do you make of the Russia and China Partnership? Tue Feb 28, 2023 16:26 | The Saker
by Mr. Allen for the Saker blog Over the last few years, we hear leaders from both Russia and China pronouncing that they have formed a relationship where there are

offsite link Moveable Feast Cafe 2023/02/27 ? Open Thread Mon Feb 27, 2023 19:00 | cafe-uploader
2023/02/27 19:00:02Welcome to the ‘Moveable Feast Cafe’. The ‘Moveable Feast’ is an open thread where readers can post wide ranging observations, articles, rants, off topic and have animate discussions of

offsite link The stage is set for Hybrid World War III Mon Feb 27, 2023 15:50 | The Saker
Pepe Escobar for the Saker blog A powerful feeling rhythms your skin and drums up your soul as you?re immersed in a long walk under persistent snow flurries, pinpointed by

The Saker >>

Public Inquiry
Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005

offsite link RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail?supporter? Anthony

offsite link Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony

offsite link Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony

offsite link RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony

offsite link Waiting for SIPO Anthony

Public Inquiry >>

Human Rights in Ireland
Promoting Human Rights in Ireland

Human Rights in Ireland >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link News Round-Up Wed Dec 25, 2024 00:32 | Richard Eldred
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Starmer Doesn?t Have a Feel for Politics and His Team Lacks the Skills to Run the Country, Says Vete... Tue Dec 24, 2024 19:00 | Will Jones
Keir Starmer "doesn?t have a feel" for the Labour Party or politics in general and his team lacks the skills to run the country, veteran Labour MP?Diane Abbott?has said.
The post Starmer Doesn’t Have a Feel for Politics and His Team Lacks the Skills to Run the Country, Says Veteran Labour MP Diane Abbott appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Church of England Tells Clergy to Edit Christmas Carols to ?Avoid Unnecessary Offence? Tue Dec 24, 2024 18:00 | Will Jones
The Church of England has told clergy in Birmingham to watch out for "problematic words" in Christmas carols that imply Jesus is the "true Messiah" or other religions aren't valid. And they wonder why the pews are empty.
The post Church of England Tells Clergy to Edit Christmas Carols to “Avoid Unnecessary Offence” appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Best-Selling Hybrids Face Net Zero Ban From 2030 Tue Dec 24, 2024 15:42 | Will Jones
Some of Britain?s best-selling hybrid cars will be banned from sale after 2030 under a?Net Zero crackdown?proposed by Ministers, including the mild hybrid versions of the Ford Puma, Range Rover Evoque and VW Golf.
The post Best-Selling Hybrids Face Net Zero Ban From 2030 appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Experts Call For Return of Lockdown-Style Social Distancing as Flu Surges, Claiming ?a Fifth of Thos... Tue Dec 24, 2024 13:46 | Will Jones
Experts?have issued an urgent call for lockdown-style social distancing ahead of Christmas Day amid surging flu infections, claiming that a fifth of those infected have no symptoms but can spread it.
The post Experts Call For Return of Lockdown-Style Social Distancing as Flu Surges, Claiming “a Fifth of Those Infected Have No Symptoms But Can Spread It” appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

The ESM and Fiscal Treaty

category national | eu | press release author Thursday March 29, 2012 09:38author by Sonya Oldham - People's Association Watchdogauthor email pawireland at hotmail dot com Report this post to the editors

Why we need a Referendum or very least postponement

The People's Association Watchdog are calling for a deferment of amendment Article 136, and ratification of the ESM untill after the referendum on the 'The Fiscal Compact' so the people of Ireland can make an informed choice without fear or favour.
We further require that the government ensure our sovereign right to say yes or no by ensuring a referendum on the ESM.
This letter is avilable for all to send to our public representatives.

Dear Representative,

I call upon you to listen to those whom you represent, who elected you to your current position and trusted that you would ensure a voice for your constituency.

I must ask you to postpone any amendment to Article 136 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union or ratification of the ESM Treaty untill after the people have voted on 'The Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union'. That would allow we the people of Ireland to have fair voice, without any inherent threat i.e. having already signed up to an €11billion payout, from which Ireland would not be able to access funding, if we voted 'No'. It would also ensure that a fair debate could take place and people would be free to make their own informed decision without such undue and unfair pressure.

I request a referendum on the proposed amendment to Article 136 of the TFEU and the ESM Treaty. Surely you know that the ESM is the actual mechanism whereby the conditionality is attached and I would assert that a referendum is required on all three parts of the ESM treaty as they come into direct conflict with Articles 1, 5, 6.1 and 6.2 of Bunreacht na hEireann.

You will recall the words of Mr. Justice Hederman in relation to the ratification of the Single European Act: "... it appears to me that the essential point at issue is whether the State can by any act on the part of its various organs of government enter into binding agreements with other states, or groups of states, to subordinate, or to submit, the exercise of the powers bestowed by the Constitution to the advice or interests of other states, as distinct from electing from time to time to pursue its own particular policies in union or in concert with other states in their pursuit of their own similar or even identical policies. The State's organs cannot contract to exercise in a particular procedure their policy-making roles, or in any way to fetter powers bestowed unfettered by the Constitution. They are the guardians of these powers not the disposers of them ...".

In this way, the Court held that it is not within the competence of the Government, or indeed of the Oireachtas, to free themselves from the restraints of the Constitution, nor to transfer their powers to other bodies, unless expressly empowered so to do by the Constitution. They are both creatures of the Constitution and are not empowered to act free from the restraints of the Constitution. (9 April 1987, Supreme Court 1986 No. 12036P). The ESM does in fact facilitate and enable the transfer of governmental powers to another body.

Indeed, Mr Justice Walsh reminded us that: "... Article 6 of the Constitution refers to the powers of government as being derived from the people, whose right it is to designate the rulers of the State and, in final appeal, to decide all questions of national policy, according to the requirements of the common good. It must follow therefore that all the powers of government are to be exercised according to the requirements of the common good. The essential nature of sovereignty is the right to say Yes or to say No... "

Using the above principles, the questions which require an answer are:
(a) Does the ESM treaty transfer governmental powers to other bodies?
(b) Is the state entering into binding agreements which will subordinate the powers of the constitution to the interests of other states?
(c) Is the state disposing of their powers which has been bestowed upon them by the constitution?
(d) Is the ESM being exercised according to the common good of the Irish people, or purely in order to 'save' the currency known as the Euro?
(e) Will the Irish people be able to exercise our soverign right to say yes or no without fear or favour?

In considering the above questions, you must also consider, whether or not it is repugnant to the articles of the constitution and to this effect I must draw your attention to the following Articles which it would entirely undermine:

Article 1. The Irish nation hereby affirms its inalienable, indefeasible, and sovereign right to choose its own form of Government, to determine its relations with other nations, and to develop its life, political, economic and cultural, in accordance with its own genius and traditions.
With respect, the Irish nation will not be determining and developing it's economy in accordance with it's own genius and traditions, because if it is subject to the conditionalities of the ESM, this places such endeavour entirely beyond Ireland's control. Indeed, the nation is decidedly not being given the choice of determining it's relations with other nations, because the people are being denied the opportunity to decide whether or not they agree to a binding agreement which allows for a significant loss of Ireland's economic sovereignity.

Article 5. Ireland is a sovereign, independent, democratic state.
Again, with all due respect, in ratifying the ESM, Ireland is handing over economic control of its finances, in order to comply with the terms of the Treaty's conditionality, which is, in effect, giving away the nation's hitherto economic soverignity.

Article 6. 1. All powers of government, legislative, executive and judicial, derive, under God, from the people, whose right it is to designate the rulers of the State and, in final appeal, to decide all questions of national policy, according to the requirements of the common good.
This is probably the most insidious part of the ESM, because not only does it cede the power of the people to decide questions of national economic policy in accordance with the common good, it is giving away economic sovereignty to an oligarcy, which is an undemocratic organisation that holds itself immune from either scrutiny or accountability and whose aim is the stability of the euro and not the common good of the people.

Article 6.2. These powers of government are exercisable only by or on the authority of the organs of State established by this Constitution.
The totality of the three steps establishing ESM should not be allowed to happen without referring each step to the people of Ireland by way of Referendum because it is in violation of;
Article 15.4.1 of the Irish Consitution: The Oireachtas shall not enact any law which is in any respect repugnant to this Constitution or any provision thereof.

I would like to draw your particular attention to the central Article of the Treaty Establishing the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) which clearly show a loss of sovereignty to the people of Ireland if it is ratified:
Article 3. The purpose of the ESM shall be to mobilise funding and provide financial assistance, under strict economic policy conditionality, to the benefit of the ESM Members which are experiencing or are threatened by severe financing problems, if indispensable to safeguard the financial stability of the euro area as a whole.

The Consitution requires that the guiding principle of governmental decisions be the common good of the people.

In summary, I as a citizen of Ireland am calling for a deferment of amendment of Article 136, and ratification of the ESM untill after the referendum on the 'The Fiscal Compact' so the people of Ireland can make an informed choice without fear or favour.
I further require that the government ensure our sovereign right to say yes or no by ensuring a referendum on the ESM.

Yours sincerely

People's Association Watchdog

Related Link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/p.a.watchdog/doc/280501555361722/
author by southern comfortpublication date Thu Mar 29, 2012 12:45author address author phone Report this post to the editors

.. and another €1.3bn has just gone into IL&P in our names.

To remind you, the State already owns 99% of IL&P. More money is needed and so the State forces it to sell Irish Life to it for 1.3bn. Irish Life was on sale since last summer with no buyers, so its true value is perhaps closer to €0 than to €1.3bn.

IL&P - soon to be just IP? - admits €1.4bln is its likely loss for bad loans in 2012. Just so you know where your money is going.
http://otp.investis.com/clients/uk/irish/rns/regulatory...38406

The IL&P homepage shows the shares at 4 cents while boasting that it is "a leading financial services provider in the Irish market enjoying strong market positions in life and pensions, asset management and retail banking".
http://www.irishlifepermanent.ie/

You could not make it up. Whatever the result, the referendum will not stop this sort of carry-on.

Related Link: http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/high-court-orders-13bn-sale-of-irish-life-to-state-545295.html
author by Sonya Oldham - People's Association Watchdogpublication date Sat Mar 31, 2012 07:26author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Confirmed ESM ratification will be delayed until after the referendum

author by W. Finnertypublication date Sat Mar 31, 2012 12:10author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Before having a referendum on the 'The Fiscal Compact', I believe there is another referendum which should take place: and which should in fact have taken place many months ago, i.e. well before before ANY bailout payments were made by the Republic of Ireland Government (Executive, Legislative, and Judicial) to the bankers (in connection with bankers derivatives gambling debts).

All of my lengthy research suggests that, under the terms of Article 6.1 of Bunreacht na hEireann (the Supreme Law of the Republic of Ireland), the people of the Republic of Ireland have always had an irrefutable legal right to be consulted, through the use of a constitutional referendum, about the payment of bailouts to bankers which are the result of the derivatives gambling debts of the bankers concerned: particularly when it is the case that, to the best of my knowledge, the bankers are still gambling on derivatives; and, that despite all the hundreds, and possibly thousands of trillions of Euros worth of such debts, nothing has been done to stop this form of bankers gambling: with the result that the derivatives gambling debts of the bankers continue to grow in size. Not only that, and thanks to the nature of derivatives gambling, nobody seems to know what the rate-of-growth of the derivatives debts in question actually is; and, neither is there any easy way for anybody to find out apparently.

So far, as I see things, the extremely arrogant (and possibly extremely ignorant?) Republic of Ireland Government (Executive, Legislative, and Judicial) has CRIMINALLY prevented the people of the Republic of Ireland from having the "final" say on this crucially important aspect of "national policy": which the people are fully, and irrefutably, entitled to under the terms of Article 6.1 of our Constitution.

The Republic of Ireland Government (Executive, Legislative, and Judicial) should not, under any circumstances (in my view), be allowed to get away with this completely outrageous and socially disastrous piece of CRIME for a moment longer than is absolutely necessary.

Related Link: http://www.humanrightsireland.com/MayoNews/30March2012/...Crime

 
© 2001-2024 Independent Media Centre Ireland. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by Independent Media Centre Ireland. Disclaimer | Privacy