merrion street

The referendum on the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union will take place on Thursday 31 May.

The Government also decided on the wording of the proposed amendment to the Constitution, which was prepared by the Attorney General. The Irish people are being asked to ratify the Treaty and to enable the Oireachtas to adopt any legislation in order to implement the Treaty.

The Bill to amend the Constitution is now being prepared for publication towards the end of this week.

The Tánaiste urged strong support for the Stability Treaty:

This is a Treaty on Stability and is about ensuring long-term stability, recovery, growth and jobs.

It’s about confidence abroad and maintaining and enhancing the influence we’ve been rebuilding with investors, job-creators and with our European partners.

For job-creating investors from whom so many announcements have come in recent months, their decisions have been thanks to our renewed political and economic stability and above all the determination of the Irish people - despite great sacrifices - to restore Ireland’s economic health.

It’s about managing our debt in such a way that over time, taxpayers’ money goes not into servicing debts but more and more into public services and targeted growth initiatives to create jobs.

Finally, it’s about making sure we have access to the money that allows us to fund those public services and all government spending. We’re determined to return to the financial markets next year to raise money on our own again like we did before.

The full text of the Treaty is available in both Irish and English here: