Our economic crisis - Three weeks to secure our future

YESTERDAY, as we marched and cheered each other to celebrate being Irish, to salute — even subliminally — our evolving nationalism and the independence we have not yet enjoyed for a century, even the weather seemed to want to join the celebrations.

On such a beautiful, uplifting day it was easy to celebrate; easy to fly the flag and talk the brave talk. It was easy, and such a blessed relief, too to put our economic crisis aside for even a few hours.

However, the next three weeks represent the greatest challenge to our economic independence that any of us have seen. It is even a greater challenge than any faced by any generation of Irish people since we became an independent Republic.

Though every last one of us is sick to the teeth of terrible predictions made by sombre economists — some are warning about the country going bankrupt — they can’t be avoided. We must engage with reality or face another heads-in-the-sand crash to earth.

It might be comforting to imagine that our civil war, the ruinous economic war and the heartbreaking emigration endured since independence had a greater impact on Irish lives but unless the April 7 budget is what is required these events will seem like a sideshow.

Unlike those calamities, economic failure would have an impact on every family, community and business in this country, well beyond what we care to contemplate.

Our predicament was expressed clearly enough yesterday morning by economist Dan O’Brien when he said that the budget “may be our last chance to avoid bankruptcy”. Even if you disagree with Mr O’Brien, or worse, choose to turn a deaf ear, maybe you should give a moment’s thought to what bankruptcy actually would mean for us.

It is probable that Taoiseach Brian Cowen got all sorts of assurances as he did the St Patrick’s Day rounds in Washington, but we all know that this support is limited and conditional on us living within our means.

This places a terrible responsibility on the shoulders of Mr Cowen, his cabinet, his jittery backbenchers, his coalition partners, his political opponents and more or less every representative organisation in the country.

At this stage, after so many botched attempts, Mr Cowen must know we can no longer afford the optimism sustained by indecision. The time to stand up for this country has arrived.

Mr Cowen and the political class must do their bit by introducing a budget that is informed by strategy and underpinned by the kind of figures that are needed to help us out of this morass. Basically, no more than what they were elected to do. No doubt there will be those who will feel unduly victimised. So be it, the time for that kind of insularity has long since passed.

None of this is impossible, though it will be uncomfortable. We still have a very short time to act and part of the response should be that each of us, each lobby group, each union, each and every employer should ask themselves a simple question: are we part of the problem or part of the solution and if we’re part of the problem can we change to be part of the solution?

The answer will define how we celebrate St Patrick’s Day in 2010 and for many, many years after that.