Hypocritical gestures are typical of what we have come to accept

IT is a measure of Bertie Ahern’s capacity to exude hypocrisy that he actually stood up before about 190 of the world’s leaders at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg and lectured them about aid to the Third World.

The man who heads up a government which has cut overseas development aid this year by something like 32 million, described a decrease in such aid during the past decade as "shameful" and "indefensible".

Of course it is but so are cutbacks in health and education, although the man who criticised the US for trying to obstruct plans to protect the poor and save the environment has steadfastly refused to admit that that is precisely what he has been doing since getting back into power. Bertie Ahern the man to protect the poor and save the environment against America's worst endeavours? God help us, the poor, and the environment.

If America wants to use Shannon as a fuel stop on its way to put manners on Saddam Hussein, despite the objections of most reasonable people, not only would Bertie Ahern give them the go ahead, but he would have the runway painted with the star-spangled banner.

To America, our pragmatic Taoiseach said the following: "They have a terrible habit of trying to unlock things. These are things which have been agreed and long understood, yet you find yourself back pulling at them again."

Apart altogether from the fact that most of the non-Irish delegates probably had a problem with translating this enigmatic statement into English, what he said could have equally applied to the Fianna Fáil general election manifesto.

Ever since they got back into power, they have been "unlocking things" practically everything that had been agreed and which we long understood would remain inviolate: such as health, education, health jobs and, oh yes, overseas development aid.

His sidekick, Development Minister Tom Kitt, defended Ireland's strong stance against removing trade-distorting subsidies. He said he recognised that they had to be addressed but only under the umbrella of the World Trade Organisation.

These subsidies are paid by developed countries to their farmers, which results in EU agricultural producers being able to dump products on developing countries. Effectively, this blocks off lucrative western markets from Third World producers.

During the summit, there was much lip service paid to goals and targets to make this a better world and that every country which is a member of the United Nations is committed to them.

The only problem with this laudable ambition is that none of the goals contained in the Johannesburg plan of action is enforceable or binding rather like a Fianna Fáil election manifesto. A country can ignore or implement them in any manner that suits them.

For instance, included in the plan of action is a target for the eradication of poverty. To achieve that aim, the abolition of First World agricultural subsidies is necessary. The Irish delegation was one of the most vociferous against any move to abolish, or even dilute, such subsidies. Included in that group were representatives of the Irish Farmers' Association, a body much entranced by subsidies of all shapes and sizes.

But Ireland was being consistent in its resolve against helping the Third World out of its crushing poverty. When the EU wanted to get rid of subsidies, Ireland and France adamantly refused to accept it.

In this country, cows are more valuable than people in underdeveloped countries. The Irish taxpayer pays out 2.20 every day for the average cow. By contrast, the 2.8 billion people in developing countries throughout the world are forced to live on less than 2 a day.

So, when the likes of Bertie Ahern announces that Ireland supported attempts to drop Third World debt, we can gauge the sincerity from his actions, and those of the Government: cut overseas development aid and do nothing about subsidies which would actually help the Third World.

He was quite safe in blathering on about Third World debt because while it was mentioned at the summit, absolutely nothing was agreed. But then, if our Taoiseach is totally unperturbed about doing anything about the outrageous cost of living back home, he's hardly going to be too worried about unfortunates trying to keep body and soul together on 2 a day.

The cost of living, as we all know, has gone through the roof since the introduction of the euro, and all any of us has done is bitch about it. We have seen increases in the order of anything up to 15% put on services and goods by greedy, self-serving traders and business people.

They did so with total impunity, because they were doing nothing illegal. Immoral, yes, but then too many keep their morals such as they are in the cash register so they can do a quick tot to salve their consciences, if they have any.

Those of us who could remember the change over to decimalisation back in the early '70s, and that would include every member of the Cabinet, realised that going euro was an opportunity too good to miss for a good rip-off, but the Government did absolutely nothing to stop it. All they did was round up a posse of inspectors to police the changeover and get some businesses to agree to a voluntary code of not increasing prices. The public could report any rip-offs, but the inspectors could do nothing about it for the simple reason that ripping off customers is not illegal in Ireland.

The same thing happened in Greece, but this week Greek consumers did something very positive about it. They hit businesses where it hurts most in the cash register. Their Don't Give a Damn boycott on Tuesday saw a reduction of something like 70% in business in shops and supermarkets. Immediately, restaurant owners offered their dish of the day at cost price.

As in this country, the majority of Greeks felt that prices of goods and services rose dramatically once the euro was introduced.

Bad as it is in Greece, though, Irish consumers are worse off, and that's official. The cost of living here is now the second highest in the euro zone, a fact which was established by a study commissioned by Forfas, the government industrial policy agency.

The Greek Finance Minister, Nikos Christodoulakis, has threatened to name and shame companies accused of overcharging. That ploy didn't work here. What he also suggested was that those companies would be vigorously investigated by the taxation authorities. That kind of threat might help here.

But what would really grab the attention of companies engaged in ripping off consumers would be the kind of action taken by the Greeks.