Planning for recovery - The time has come to bite the bullet

THE Cabinet yesterday discussed Colm McCarthy’s An Bord Snip Nua’s suggestions on how we can try to save this country from bankruptcy. It must have been a chastening experience for most ministers, especially those who have dedicated the last decades of their lives to trying to realise their vision of a brighter, better Ireland.

They, as any rational person might, would have been shocked by the enormity, the depth and the harshness of the decisions that have to be made. Even their insider knowledge of what might be proposed would not have softened the blow or eased the sense that we will be fighting a rearguard action for several years to come.

Any remaining hopes of realising the grand ambitions that become the legacy of effective political careers must be put to one side for the foreseeable future. We, and so many other countries, just can’t pay for them.