The European Central Bank (ECB), and its governing council, which sets interest rates and decides monetary policy, will in 2015 adopt different voting rules. Each national central bank governor has one vote at the council. Next year those voting rights will rotate. All these governors will lose their automatic right to vote, and each will, briefly, have no vote. Council members will divide into two groups, based on the relative size of their national economies. A smaller group of five big economies will share four voting rights, rotated on a monthly basis. A larger group including Ireland – reaching 14 after Lithuania joins in January – will share 11 voting rights.

The ECB, in rationalising its board structure – and cutting voting numbers from 25 to 21 – has followed the example of the US central bank, the Federal Reserve. As euro membership continues to increase, the ECB, rightly, is concerned to remain flexible and efficient in managing its affairs. The loss of voting rights is, however, more apparent than real, and the change should have minimal impact on council members. First, all – and not some– national central bank governors will be affected by the change; second, the governing council in reaching decisions always tries to achieve consensus; and third, council members may still participate in council discussions, even where they cannot vote on the outcome.

But why should this long-heralded reform now prompt such a hostile political response? Fianna Fail finance spokesman, Michael McGrath described it as "a sad day for Ireland" and one that " could have lasting negative consequences". Sinn Féin's Lynn Boylan accused the Government of "sleepwalking" into acceptance of the voting reform. A Fianna Fáil-led government helped to negotiate the Nice Treaty, which envisaged this adjustment in the ECB's voting rules. Voters in 2002 approved the referendum, at the second attempt. And the EU Council of Ministers, with Fianna Fáil participation, later unanimously adopted the ECB proposal.