The Dáil resumes - Economy is not the only challenge

THE DÁIL resumes today and faces economic challenges more pressing than at any time in recent years.

The nail-biting, roller-coaster ride on the stock markets, the collapse in that cornerstone of our ambitions, conversation and economy — the property market — have colluded to undermine pensions and confidence.

Add to this volatile mix job losses and the diverging monetary policies of Europe and America and it is easy to see why the wake-up-and-smell-the-coffee gauge has moved deep into the red zone. Imminent pay talks, at which a disgruntled public sector will try to recover ground they feel they lost at the last round of benchmarking, will add considerably to that pressure.

As well as those immediate indicators there are new and disquieting figures from the Central Statistics Office that show a huge increase in the number of people who decided to emigrate.

There has been a 65% rise in the number of workers who have moved abroad in the past six years. The emigration figures for past year were the highest since 1992. Indeed, the number of emigrants was just 200 short of the highest five-year emigration average of the 20th century, a record established between 1956 and 1961.

Though many of these people left because of lifestyle and career options it would be foolish to imagine that such figures do not represent, at least partially, a negative commentary on the state of our country.

Though the brain — and ambition — drain may be balanced by inward migration, many of those who left did so because they could not see how they might ever realise the lifestyle and affluence their parents enjoy.

Some of these people emigrated because of insane property prices and a substandard infrastructure. They were not prepared to take on 35-year mortgages or spend a day a week commuting.

We must face these challenges with a weakened Taoiseach who has watched his credibility and authority wane. Though his core support professes allegiance it is only a matter of time before the knives are drawn.

Irrespective of who leads the Government the primary objectives have to be economic stability and continuity.

As has been shown, if circumstances allow, we are more than capable of using them to our advantage and generating considerable prosperity.

The Lisbon Treaty will also get its 15 minutes of fame though, in reality, it should be little more than a formality. We have benefited enormously from membership of the European Community and it would be daft to do anything that might jeopardise that no matter what its opponents urge us to do.

Economic concerns will rightly be at the forefront of political activity but there is only so much that the government of a small country and a client economy can do; we are just too susceptible to international influences. However, there are two areas that, in time, will be at least as important as the economy and it would be uplifting if they were moved to the verycentre of our political consciousness and activity.

Energy and food security have the potential to be defining concerns for future generations and we still have time to ensure that our legacy is a help rather than a hindrance. It is well past the time we gave those issues the hard-nosed, unemotional pragmatic attention they deserve.

After all, without energy and food security we just won’t have an economy to worry about.