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Toirleach O Murchu (3) dressed as a chicken, stands outside government buildings to demonstrate Sinn Féin's message that the " Sky Wont Fall In " if the electorate vote No Photocall Ireland

Referendum roundup: 13 days to go

Austerity treaty, stability treaty. or somewhere in between? TheJournal.ie keeps you up to date with our evening Fiscal Compact referendum bulletin.

EVERY EVENING, THEJOURNAL.IE brings you the latest news and campaign moves, squabbles and – hopefully – useful tidbits of information as we face into the 31 May Fiscal Compact referendum.

(If you just want to make up your mind by yourself, you can read TheJournal.ie’s layman’s guide to the treaty).

WHAT’S NEW?

RED HERRINGS V REALITY

Struggling to separate fact from not quite fact in relation to the referendum? The Institute of International and European Affairs has compiled an infographic pitting what it calls the ‘red herrings’ against reality. You can check out the full graphic here.

Via: iiea.com

GET YOUR MUG ON TELLY NEWS OF THE DAY

RTÉ’s Frontline has issued its last call for requests for tickets for its Fiscal Treaty Debate, which will take place on Monday 21 May. Get your ‘Hiya Mammy’ signs ready now.

RURAL SUPPORTERS (AND NON-SUPPORTERS) OF THE DAY

Major farming organisations have come out in support of a Yes vote today with the IFA, Macra the ICMSA and the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers Association joining the Yes camp. There’s at least one chicken who’s not on board with them though…

Toirleach O Murchu (3) dressed as a chicken, stood outside goverment buildings to demonstrate that the ” Sky Wont Fall In ” if the electorate vote No in the European Fiscal Stability Treaty Referendum. Photo: Sam Boal /photocall Ireland.

BITE-SIZE TREATY TWEETS

Social media professionals involved in Business for Ireland (which is advocating a Yes vote) have set up a TweetSizeTreaty Twitter page in order to ‘explain the Stability Treaty in 20 tweets‘, as well as some trivia, like this:

THE EU IS ‘P***ING DOWN OUR BACKS’

Tell it like it is David McWilliams!


Read in full: The Fiscal Compact Treaty in laymans’ terms (PDF)>

Read more: TheJournal.ie’s coverage of the Fiscal Compact referendum>


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32 Comments
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    Mute Itchy Brain
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    Apr 5th 2012, 8:13 AM

    One big problem in Ireland (Not entirely related to this article) is women with kids are encouraged to stay at home and have to depend on their husbands as creche fees are absolutely absurd. The price to put 2 children into my local creche is €1800 per month. This means that skilled women (in some cases men) are staying at home!

    In Belgium they are subsidized so that they can work. Even a house cleaner is subsidized. This kind of system stops women having to stay at home to look after the kids and carry out house work and most importantly getting bullied by an unfair husband!

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    Mute Lizzie Day
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    Apr 5th 2012, 9:44 AM

    I don’t think subsidies are the way to go here. people here have this ‘the state should pay for my lifestyle choices’ mentality. Isn’t ireland broke? Why not pay a nanny to look after the kids when you are at work instead? have you a family support network, whereby your parents could help out?

    Why didn’t you think of the costs a child involves before you had 2 children in the first place? people in westernized welfare state countries seem to just have kids and expect everyone else to pay for it. This doesn’t happen in the US, and it sure as heck doesn’t happen in any realistic state that doesn’t want to end up in the hands of the IMF.

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    Mute Itchy Brain
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    Apr 5th 2012, 1:53 PM

    No Lizzy.

    Subsidies are the way to go if it means skilled women are going to be working and paying taxes, this will help Ireland. There are women with PHD’s that are staying at home to look after the kids as its not viable to put them into a creche. This is an awful waste of good skill.

    No I don’t have a family support network, My parents are gone and my siblings have emigrated.

    Also I don’t have 2 kids, I’m thinking about having kids so I suppose I did think of the costs a child involves as I went away and investigated it.

    I was simply stating that the system that exists in Belgium encourages women to work and put their children into childcare rather than depending on their husband just in case the partnership falls apart.

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    Mute Chuck Farrelly
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    Apr 5th 2012, 3:19 PM

    It’s a bit of a tangent, but outside of medicine, I’ve never met anyone with a PhD who created anything

    On the issue itself; Subsidies = cash, right? Why not make childcare tax deductible? “The people” abuse free cash just as surely as “the politicians.”

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    Mute Itchy Brain
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    Apr 5th 2012, 5:36 PM

    Wrong Chuck, in this case Subsidies does NOT= cash!

    In Belgium is costs around €250 to send your child to a creche for the month, It costs this little as it is subsidised by the government. This is certainly the case in Kortrijk.

    People pay a lot more tax over there alright but their system seems to work alot better than ours when you count in all the subsidies.

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    Mute EM
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    Apr 6th 2012, 10:29 AM

    @ Lizzie
    Clueless comments really.
    Many countries subsidize child care, Belgium, Finland, Sweden, Germany, France and many others.

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    Mute EM
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    Apr 6th 2012, 10:32 AM

    @ Chuck
    “I’ve never met anyone with a PhD who created anything”
    Astonishing. Who do you think develops pharmaceuticals? Medical devices? Computers? etc etc etc

    16
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    Mute Chuck Farrelly
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    Apr 6th 2012, 12:40 PM

    “It’s a bit of a tangent, but outside of medicine, I’ve never met anyone with a PhD who created anything”

    Read the 7th, 8th, 9th & 10th words there…….

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    Mute The One & Only
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    Apr 5th 2012, 8:56 AM

    I cannot believe it was only in 1990 that rape within a marriage was ok, if a guy had of tried it he would had swiftly got to meet my friend the baseball bat, I know some one who was raped within a marriage and it changed the person she was and the relationship she had with her child was destroyed

    46
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    Mute Adrian De Cleir
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    Apr 5th 2012, 9:18 AM

    No offense to the Irish generation above me, but you guys have so much crap that you should be ashamed of. On a regular basis I’m thankful that I didn’t have to live into that kind of Ireland.

    And in fairness I’ve little doubt the same applied to alot of other small countries too.

    We still have a long way to go but we’re making progress.

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    Mute Barry
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    Apr 5th 2012, 9:28 AM

    don’t be so sure that the current generation is without it’s faults and skeletons in it’s closets.

    It’s great for you to look back and say the past generations had so much crap but alot of this continous and people in their 20′s now are just as capable of doing the same stuff that people did 40-50 years ago and they do.

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    Mute Adrian De Cleir
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    Apr 5th 2012, 9:36 AM

    True, but at least now,with Internet, immigration and improves technology answer education we’re more influenced by the outside and don’t hold onto ideas and assumptions about how things should be as much.

    But yea I’ve little doubt the next generation will look back at massive aspects of our lives and wonder “what the hell were they thinking “.

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    Mute El Brujillo
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    Apr 5th 2012, 6:42 PM

    Adrian your living in a dream world with that reproachful look you throw at the past Irish, and the self congratulation of the present. It’s only because of outside influences that Ireland has OSTENSIBLY changed… the EU, internet and the piles of money invested here which allowed thousands travel and form their own identities free of toxic influences form the collective here.

    Some things have changed, but we haven’t moved on that much as a nation, despite outside and technological advances. Still ruled by the corrupt, still women get less pay, less opportunites, still lots of pressure to conform, still poor people and the vulnerable are raped in many other ways then sexually,

    and if you haven’t occassionaly fought to change the system that is here, you are just as guilty as anyone in the past. if you have, good on ya!

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    Mute Eileen Meehan Jackson
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    Apr 7th 2012, 11:04 PM

    Well done to the women who have come forward with this story, hopefully you are healing now after all the abuse and shame on the men of this country who did this damage to there wives and families , thankfully we are a society who now can get help with most things and move forward……..well done to OWN try and keep going even though you have little funding .

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    Mute Seán Lynch
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    Apr 6th 2012, 2:03 AM

    Thumbs up if you blame the church!

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    Mute Paul Fagan
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    Apr 6th 2012, 12:47 PM

    What a dumb comment! Sigh….

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    Mute John O'Mahony
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    Apr 7th 2012, 7:50 PM

    I am ashamed of being a man

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