Never mind the barstools

IN the good old days of the Celtic Tiger, the one thing sure to raise the ire of the punter was increases to the price of the pint and a box of 20.

Had you walked into any pub during Michael Noonan’s budget speech yesterday, you’d probably found more weightier issues on people’s minds — with most just focused on keeping their heads above water and paying their bills.

That was the case in Devitt’s on Dublin’s Camden Street, where the budget wasn’t even on the television. With the barman pointing out that “everyone knows what’s coming so they’d rather not have it on”, it was pretty obvious that people were becoming numbed to bad news budgets.

Up the road in The Swan on Aungier Street, the mood pretty much matched the dreary Dublin weather. Bobby Hoban, a pensioner who lives just around the corner from the pub, was enjoying a pint while watching the Budget.

A self-proclaimed “Labour man”, he was disappointed by what Mr Noonan had to say and even more so by the fact that Labour TDs were going along with the proposed cuts.

“I’m a senior citizen. I worked all my life,” he said. “I have a small pension but compared to what those lads are on? I reckon mine comes to about €10,000, yet these guys come out with over €300,000. It’s obscene and then they go cutting the fuel allowance for older people. It’s not right. Why can’t they try cutting from the people at the top?”

Sitting with Bobby, Peter Forte had a similar take on part two of the budget, claiming there was a lack of basic justice in what ordinary Irish people were having to take.

“Irish people don’t have a say in their own affairs anymore it seems,” he said.

“I well remember the 1980s and it’s worse than that now. At least we could see a way out of it then.

“Bobby and myself won’t see this turn around. I have a young lad in his 30s and two girls in their 20s. They could be well into their 40s and 50s before things change. That’s not right.”

Peter also hit out at the 2% VAT increase, as well as the fuel allowance and disability cuts.

“The VAT will hurt people. It’s not fair that it hits you on everything, from gas and electricity to the few drinks you enjoy. That’s going to be hard on people. But it’s the cuts on fuel for old people and the disability cuts for young people that are hard to stomach. I mean, Jesus Christ, where is the justice in that?”

Proprietor Ronan Lynch said the budget held no surprises for him and was typically short on any fresh ideas.

“We knew what was coming so there were no surprises there, but there were no big ideas there either and that’s what we need,” he said. “My view is that we have a huge tourist potential here, yet all you see is empty airport terminals, empty hotels and empty pubs.

“We had a load of fellas here from San Francisco last night. That’s what we need, people spending money in the economy, but we can’t seem to get people to come here.”

Ronan said he had hoped for something more concrete in terms of dealing with the issue of below-cost selling of alcohol, but said that what people really wanted to see were some fresh ideas.

“They dodged the bullet of dealing with the public service as always. I mean, you see people in here some evenings and they are very upset. They are struggling, their kids are going away. It’s very sad and you see them up there in the Dáil with nothing in terms of fresh thinking and new ideas.”

Popping in for a pint on his way home, Liam Murphy took a somewhat more optimistic view to what he had just witnessed, particularly in terms of raising the exemption level for the universal social charge.

“I mean, nobody was going to be too surprised by anything in it,” he said. “It was always going to be tough for people. I was surprised by the USC changes though. I thought they were the one positive thing in it and it was nice to see some people getting a break.

“I suppose the VAT not coming in until January will give people a bit of time before that bites.”

While some punters simply had no interest in proceedings and kept their backs to the television, a number of evening arrivals were keen to talk about what the budget meant to them.

One man, who asked not to be named as he does “a few nixers for a few friends”, said he that had lived through the last recession but felt that Ireland’s current woes were far worse.

“I’ve been around a while and this is the worst I’ve seen, that’s for sure,” he said. “You know, you just can’t give what you haven’t got can you? I’m a steel welder and fabricator by trade and I produced more things of use than a banker ever did, but they haven’t suffered.

“It just seems to me that the people that caused this downturn just get away scot-free, yet I’ll struggle with the normal wear and tear bills and I’ll be crucified by a motor tax. It was greed that got us here and those people need to suffer for once.”

Despite the doom and glum, it’s hard to dampen the mood of an ordinary Dubliner. Fresh from regaling me about his brief turn in the Oscar-winning film Once, Bobby Hoban got a call with details of a phone number for some relatives, which he had misplaced.

“You know what? I got that call out of the blue with that number for me. I’d be looking for it and to get it there was just great. That’s worth a million euro to me.”