McCarthy report - Last chance to avert bankruptcy

THE reactions to the McCarthy report were as polarised as they were predictable. Some were provoked by fear, others by a sense of injustice, more by an angry feeling that the weakest in our society were disproportionately targeted.

There is an argument too that rural communities may be asked to endure more than their fair share of the pain.

Other immediate reactions were shaped by a sense of wounded professional dignity. Others by a feeling that cosseted power blocs were to be threatened, or at the very least scrutinised, as never before.

Broadly speaking the reactions divided along the natural fault line of public sector and trade union alliances and private sector, business interests.

The most spectacular and deeply disappointing reaction came, predictably enough again, from SIPTU president Jack O’Connor who dismissed An Bord Snip Nua’s report as an “exercise in fantasy” which “is entirely unworkable, unnecessary and downright counter-productive”.

It should worry everyone who has a stake in this country’s future that such an influential figure reacted in such a delusional and knee-jerk way. The kindest reaction to the outburst would be to suggest that he was grandstanding and that in the fullness of time he might accept that we cannot continue to borrow €400 million a week to sustain services no matter how desirable.

Imagine how spectacular his reaction might have been if Mr McCarthy been allowed to do the job properly and consider the great, slumbering elephant in the corner – our world-beating public sector pay levels.

Be all of that as it may, we are all at a crossroads and the route we choose will define this country’s future. Our choice is simple enough – take our medicine or surrender our economic independence. We can stagger on as a basket-case economy until the fall comes or we can work towards recovery. These proposals may represent our last opportunity to control our affairs because if we don’t someone else will.

We could allow ourselves be cowed by the enormity of the challenge but there is nothing in McCarthy we cannot survive. One of the very few uplifting things about the recession is the flexibility and pragmatism shown by so many private sector employees. It may have been a case of Hobson’s choice but nearly all private sector workers – even some of the 250,000 who lost their jobs – have, in the past year or so, changed work practices, procedures and productivity levels to try to safeguard their jobs. They have done nothing our public sector colleagues could not do if they were to embrace new attitudes on flexibility and delivery.

Cuts would be much easier to endure if there was a sense that those who behaved appallingly – especially the reckless, immoral bankers – were seen to face the consequences of their actions. The Government will find it difficult, if not impossible, to introduce cuts on the scale proposed if they are not held accountable.

Just as the country is at a crossroads, so too are Taoiseach Brian Cowen and Finance Minister Brian Lenihan. They are now the senior figures in the party that did so much to get us to this sorry pass. Unless they show the kind of steely determination so long absent from our affairs, especially in dealings with public sector unions, their political careers are rightly doomed. If they fail again they will take us all with them. Let us hope and pray that they do not.