A question of choosing the right values

IN this hectic world where people are working harder to sustain their lifestyle, the question of value is a serious issue.

Value is gone top of the agenda in this society. It has become the mantra as we become increasingly conscious of the cost of goods and services.

Pressure on sectors, be they financial institutions or the State, can yield results. That point was clearly demonstrated when the Government did something about the soaring cost of car and general insurance.

That showed it takes more than a free market to deliver value to the consumer in some instances.

In seems to me, however, we could be walking into a serious trap with over emphasis on value as the sole preoccupation of our lives.

That brings me to the decision by property developer Sean Dunne to shell out €260 million for 4.8 acres in Ballsbridge that house the famous Jurys Hotel.

If he gets his way, a landmark location pivotal to a significant part of the city’s social and sporting life for decades will go.

The argument is Jurys will make more money going this route, irrespective of the implications for city and those who have used the hotel for years.

As the battle for control of the group continues the board has decided two other landmark sites, The Berkeley Court Hotel and the Montrose will also be sold.

Those moves have serious consequences for the area and while the new fancy apartments replacing the hotels will help with the scramble for accommodation, the net result is Dublin will be robbed of hotels that have been central to the life of the city.

It is a sobering thought that the value of Jurys Doyle Hotel’s has gone from €12 per share to more than €18 since the Precinct bid was first mooted.

The pursuit of value will axe Jurys Ballsbridge, the Berkeley Court, the Montrose and The Towers.

Close to 1,000 jobs are at stake and not one minister or leading public figure has questioned the notion that such action is either socially or morally acceptable from the city’s point of view.

God forbid anyone should suggest it might be wrong to interfere with people actually getting their value out of something.

The same sentiment looks to be driving the below cost selling issue. Its removal may deliver better value, but the counter argument is that lifting the ban will make it easier for Tesco and other big players to dominate the Irish grocery market.

There is no doubt shareholders and consumers would be better off as the hotels are shut and the Groceries Order ban lifted to let the big boys loose on us all.

The case for keeping it has been derided by some simply because employer body, IBEC, has come out against lifting the ban. IBEC is seen as biased and acting to protect Irish business as opposed to giving value to the consumer.

It’s flawed reasoning. We don’t see the bigger picture.

Value to the consumer shouldn’t necessarily always be the over-riding concern. Sometimes the argument is about what values we stand for as a society.

Even Bertie Ahern is beginning to sit up and take notice. This week he had Robert Putnam over from the US to put a more human face on Fianna Fáil. His book, Bowling Alone, argues the US has lost the family and community values at its foundations.

They have torn the heart out of Dundrum village in Dublin to give us a gaudy shopping centre whose only claim to fame is it was the biggest in Europe. That is as false as the structure supposed to represent the ultimate shopping experience.

We need to wake up before we follow the US. No other society trumpets its beliefs so strongly yet the New Orleans disaster proved those claims a sham.

Oh, and it couldn’t accept medical aid form Cuba, lest it be contaminated by Castro’s communism.