TDs are getting tangled up in futile kite flying

Whether Eamonn Gilmore likes it or not, it’s once again the season for kites.

Some of those kites are liable to have very sharp edges but the kite flyers keep going.

It’s not that the wind is blowing in any particular direction. It’s more like our politicians want to see which way it’s blowing. The policy appears to be to find out what’s acceptable politically, or more importantly, what is likely to attract the least amount of heat.

Unfortunately, that is not how our economy should be run or our budgets planned and prepared. Decisions should be made based on what is needed and what is right and fair, not what is politically acceptable or expedient.

Given the initial response to Brian Hayes placing his feet in his mouth last weekend suggesting that, since pensioners are well off and have not suffered as much as others, it was time there were cut backs in that area. In doing so he firmly planted a seed that he and his puppet masters will rue.

That he and his ilk get to draw down excessive pensions long before normal pension age simply make his remarks all the more galling. Perhaps we just might listen if they went after those who can really afford to pay and if they made those pay who through their willful actions and careless inaction helped to create this economic crisis.

However, our politicians continue to go after what they believe are the easiest targets. Unfortunately, for them, pensioners have already shown they have very sharp teeth when the previous government tried to withdraw long held benefits. Just because people are getting old does not mean that they are also going doolally or are stupid. It will be no different this time. Indeed, it could well be worse.

After all, we’ve all read in recent weeks how we are heading for a pensions time bomb brought about by the financial crash, the rapidly growing number of pensioners, the reduction in those paying tax and the raid on the states pension reserve to pay for banks’ profligacy. There is a growing grey vote that no party, if it wishes to stay in government, can ignore. However, that on its own should not be the reason that pensioners are not singled out as targets.

Pensioners see Brian Hayes’s stance as the thin edge of the wedge. They believe that they have paid their dues and are deserving of having some time of reasonable comfort before passing on. Indeed, most of our pensioners will have paid PRSI or its equivalent for most of their lives in preparation for retirement. Very many of them will also have paid into pension policies only to see these vanish into the pockets of bankers by way of bonuses and politicians by way of self-proclaimed largesse. Those who receive beyond the standard allowances from personal and state pensions, already pay tax like everyone else. They ask why they should pay more than others. Particularly, why they should pay more out of the savings they made whilst others ate, drank and made merry and as a result have no savings.

It is reported that the coalition partners are at loggerheads over cuts to pensioners. Pensioners are at the twilight of their lives, even if the retirement age is going from 65 to 68 and perhaps beyond over the next decade. They believe that they have paid enough. Indeed most of them will have lived through an era when times were very tough. So they know what it is like.

They believe they should pay their fair share but no more than that. Government will go after this group at its peril. Government just might have a better chance of getting more if people believed that the Government has stopped flying kites and dealt with those at the top of the private and public sector poles, those who can really afford to pay. After all, these folk got us into this mess and despite what they might say about being better rewarded outside Ireland, very few are in any rush to leave.