When we complain about austerity, think Anglo

For many Irish people, the past five years have been hell.

Thousands of jobs have been lost; thousands of our brightest and best young and not so young people have been forced to emigrate, with dire economic and social consequences; the quality of public services and amenities have been severely undermined due to a lack of funding; suicide rates have soared; thousands of companies have gone out of business; and the national morale of the country has been seriously damaged.

On top of all this, respective governments have taken out over €27bn in fiscal consolidation and a further €5.1bn is pencilled in for the next couple of years.