Kevin O'Rourke: Ireland and the European Debt Muddle

In this INET interview, Kevin O'Rourke, Professor of Economics at Trinity College Dublin, warns that a socialization of Irish debts will eventually lead to sovereign default, and that amid austerity measures and bank bailouts right-wing populist parties might campaign on anti-European platforms. He also talks about the intellectual advantage of historians in times of crisis.

[jimbobeire]

@ukipnoel Lots of Irish people like being in the EU, that doesn't mean we agree with every treaty. In fact one of the ways they persuaded people to vote again was by implying that voting no meant having to leave the EU.

[jimbobeire]

@ukipnoel Actually read a treaty before voting on it? What a novel idea! Hardly anyone read up on it, which is why it was so easy to mislead them.

[ukipnoel]

@jimbobeire The problem I see with such an attitude is that EU treaies are used to justify decades of anti-democratic actions by an unelected political elite. I would suggest that those Irish people who both "like being in the EU" while at the same time "not agreeing with every treaty" get off the fence, read the treaties and make their minds up on way or the other.