We will pay the price for our greed during these good economic times

A FIT, healthy-looking man stopped me in the street one night and asked why I was in favour of allowing refugees into this country.

We have sent people all over the world and should take our share, I replied. What I had actually written about was the crazy situation of not allowing the asylum seekers to work while their applications were being processed.

It would be more appropriate if they were required to work. “What about the Irish people who can’t get jobs?” the man asked. “I haven’t had a job since 1964.”

We have had two economic booms since then, and he couldn’t find a job! I do not know why the man has a hang-up about refugees, but it does seem more than probable that they had nothing to do with the fact that he has been out of work since 1964.

At the moment 150,000 people are on the live register of unemployed. Some may be blaming migrants for the unemployment, but this is merely using those people as scapegoats. Most of the immigrants who came into the country are from within the European Union, and they have the same right to work here as Irish people have to work in other EU states.

Seamus Brennan, the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, noted during the week that some 100,000 migrants came to this country in the past year, and they had little trouble finding jobs.

He undoubtedly remembers the words of his political mentor Jack Lynch, who warned in the 1970s that “any government which presided over an unemployment rate over 100,000” deserved to be “put out of office”.

Seamus has a real challenge on his hands, because little effort is being made by government agencies to bring down the current unemployment figure from 150,000. It is a fact that the figure includes all kinds of people - some alcoholics, drug addicts, and illiterate people, as well as those who may be mentally incapable of holding down a job. Many of these could be helped with proper training, but they have fallen through the cracks of our educational system.

Many Travellers are also being ignored, because of the prejudices of the settled community, which accuses them of lacking certain social skills. They have never been given a proper chance, and state agencies have essentially written off those people as unemployable.

This is grossly unjust. Christian charity and social responsibility demands that these people should not be abandoned. They can be assisted and if we do nothing, it is an indictment of our society.

At the moment we are enjoying the best of economic times. Discarding people with dole payments on the scrap heap of society is economic lunacy, because ignoring those problems now is an invitation to further social problems later, when we may not be in such an advantageous position to deal with them.

Many of the 100,000 immigrants who found work in this country got jobs in the service industries, especially in the hotel and catering trade. But how long are those jobs going to last?

I MET an American couple on the plane to the United States in May. They said that they have been coming to Ireland every year and have always enjoyed their stay. This year was no exception. “But,” the woman added, “we won’t be coming back.” Ireland has become too expensive.

They were hit not only by our inflation but also the drop in the value of the dollar, which was worth a third less than the euro at the time. They are planning to visit Poland next year.

Things are much cheaper in the United States than this country. Dinner for four, with a drink each, at a top class restaurant cost less than $50, which was about €33 at the time. You would be very hard-pressed to get dinner and a drink for two at a top class restaurant in this country for that price.

Many Americans are still coming here for golf, as they are anxious to play on links courses. The links are so different from most of the courses in the United States, and the televising of the British Open on a links course each year seems to have prompted the Yanks to experience this form of golf. So many American golfers have been coming to play links golf that many courses have raised their green fees to keep down the number of visitors in order to provide time for their own members. Such courses are now charging around €150 for a round of golf.

The Americans are paying as much for three or four rounds as members of those clubs pay for a whole year, with the result that many of the visitors feel like they are being ripped off. Hence the Americans have been building a number of top class links courses themselves. These new courses are advertised as “Irish links courses”.

Next year, this country should become a centre of golfing attraction with the Ryder Cup at the K Club in Co Kildare. Will we use the occasion to advertise our assets or exhibit our greed? Instead of precipitating a further boom in golf tourism, it could sound a death knell, as the Yanks go home complaining more bitterly than ever about rip-off Ireland.

There is already talk of houses in the Kildare area commanding exorbitant rents for the Ryder Cup. Many are being advertised on the internet, with prices ranging from €100,000 for the week for a house that will sleep 16 people 12 miles from the course, while the asking price is €75,000 for the week for a house that will sleep 20 people twice as far away. Houses that will sleep eight people are being advertised in Naas for €17,500 for the week, while the asking price for a house 50 miles away in Co Wicklow is €25,000 for the week. One house in Co Mayo - described as three hours drive from the K Club - is on offer at €14,500 for the week.

Of course, people would have to be paid very well for it to be attractive to rent out their homes to strangers. The whole thing is beginning to sound hauntingly reminiscent of the preparations for the millennium. Many great extravaganzas were planned with the intention of making a financial killing on that one night in a thousand years. Establishments began advertising functions at outrageous prices. They said they had to charge so much because extra staff were demanding extra to work that night. Babysitters were going to be in such demand that some business people tried to lure them with promises of lucrative payment. But in the end everything was going to cost so much that many people decided stayed at home and most of the extravaganzas had to be cancelled.

It was a particularly memorable New Year’s Eve because it was so different. Most of the pubs closed early and people made their own entertainment at home.

We bear that experience in mind when we ask: are we going to make a spectacle of ourselves during the Ryder Cup next year and kill off the last vestiges of American tourism?