DUBLIN, Ireland, May 31 (UPI) -- Fewer than 25 percent of Irish voters turned out Thursday to vote on a referendum on the European Unity fiscal treaty, officials said.
Kerry returning officer Padraig Burke said North Kerry was "a bit behind" in turnout at 16 percent of voters heading to the polls, though the highest turnout was Dublin North-Central at 25 percent, the Irish Times reported.
Irish citizens are voting on whether or not to back the European Fiscal Compact, which creates a $967.5 billion bailout fund, allowing member countries to draw from it in return for running a structural deficit of no more than 0.5 percent, the Christian Science Monitor reported.
Irish Prime Minister said a yes vote for the treaty would spur economic recovery in a country that's economic success once earned it the moniker the "Celtic Tiger."
Voting yes would spur recovery by "send[ing] out the message that Ireland is on the road to recovery, that we are a place of economic and budgetary stability," he said.
Sinn Fein and the Socialist party urged voters to say no to Europe's plan and instead back a massive government spending program as a way to kick-start the economy.
"Paul Krugman's statement that austerity is a little bit like medieval doctors thinking they can bleed the patient back to health is a good summation of our views," said Sinn Fein's Eoin O Broin.
