Ireland would lose influence in Europe should voters reject the European fiscal treaty in a referendum, former European Central Bank executive board member Lorenzo Bini Smaghi has told RTÉ.

“If a country votes No, it loses influence in European matters,” he said. “A country cannot come to the table and have an agreement and then go home and have a negative result. If you are in this position you don’t count a lot in Europe, you tend to be marginalised.”

Ireland was “close to coming back to the markets”, Mr Smaghi said. – (Bloomberg)