55% of Irish believe there is no alternative to austerity

The Irish are greater believers in the merits of austerity than almost any other nationality in the EU, where the majority say increasing taxes and cutting spending is not working.

The poll findings should be music to the ears of Finance Minister Michael Noonan as he weighs up how much more pain the population could take in his budget later this month.

Only a third of the Irish questioned for the Gallup poll said harsh government measures supported by the EU were not working, compared to the more than half in the EU overall who believed austerity was not a success.

Just over half (55%) of the Irish asked said they believed there were better alternatives to the policy of austerity. This was close to the German view where, despite their government insisting austerity was the only way, half of them said there was a better way. In fact, fewer Irish believed in an alternative than the EU average, and much less than those in other programme countries.

In Greece, 94% said there were better alternatives, while 80% of Portuguese and Spaniards were convinced there were other ways to get the same result.

Around one in 10 Irish questioned felt that austerity was working, while close to half (44%) said it was working but it takes time, bringing the overall numbers of believers to 43%. Just Bulgaria, Hungary, and Latvia had more supporters.

Most of those questioned (77%) across the EU believed that austerity policies were best serving Germany’s interests with some believing that France and Britain were also benefiting.

A quarter of the Irish believed that the austerity policies served the best interests of the EU as a whole. The bailout countries came well down the list. Just 9% of those questioned in the EU believe that Ireland benefited, while 11% thought Portugal did and close to a quarter named Greece as a beneficiary.

The poll was carried out by Gallup on behalf of the Debating Europe platform set up by the think-tank Friends of Europe designed to encourage online debates between citizens, policymakers and experts.