The old Progressive Democrat broke out in Michael McDowell in his extraordinary speech to the Institute of European Affairs. The PDs was founded as a low-tax party.
The Nice Treaty would increase the role of Brussels in our daily lives and, as shown in the reprimand to Charlie McCreevy, pressure would be applied to adopt taxation policies closer to those of France and Germany. Anathema to the PDs. That is why Mary Harney says the Republic should look more to Boston than to Berlin. Low tax stimulates growth just as high tax (as France and Germany amply demonstrate), leads to low growth and high unemployment.
Some business figures here privately fear that the apparatchiks in the European Commission - predominantly left-wing or, as they prefer to say, social democratic - would ram Continental European economic policies down Irish throats post-Nice. McCreevy sees the danger and so does Harney. And so, it would appear, does the Attorney General.
Where does Bertie Ahern stand? He is to receive the Ireland-US Council's Annual Award for Outstanding Achievement at a dinner in New York in November. The citation will note that "Ireland's free-trading, low-tax economic has powered ahead since Mr Ahern was elected Taoiseach".
Sounds much more Boston than Berlin.