Free rein for two elephants while lesser creatures get a good kicking

SO, we have the suggestions of An Bord Snip Nua at last, and, as might be expected, the proposals involve kicking the remaining living daylights out of the poorer members of our “society”. That is, of course, if “society” in Ireland allowed the poor to become members.

As I expected, the all-seeing Bord Snip has not managed to spot either of the two elephants in the room — or did not want to spot them. The first elephant is the (very costly) proposal to prevent the banks from having to face the consequences of their greed and stupidity.

God forbid that that should ever happen. And especially the dashing rescue of the developers and speculators’ favourite casino — Anglo Irish Bank.

Brian Lenihan tells us — and we should believe him — that the world of international finance would never forgive us if we failed to bail it out.

Would not international finance instead look on with approval if we allowed this risk-free bookies’ shop for the privileged disappear from our history altogether?

There is hardly much point, to the normal mind, crucifying the less fortunate for years to come so that the golden (or platinum) friends of the Government should feel no pain. But then I am no friend of FF and cannot understand such weighty matters.

The second elephant? At present on the coast of Mayo there is an exercise being pursued which shows the extreme lengths to which our masters will go to support struggling industry, such as Shell and its buddies. Nothing is too much trouble — CPOs for publicly-owned land, rule and regulation changes at will, garda and navy protection as required. Even jail is available.

And in return? They will, very decently, sell us our own gas at a market price which they will set. And they will pay tax to the state too — eventually after they have covered all their costs and expenses. And so on and on.

We are told the field is worth €46bn to €50bn. Just 10% would give us twice An Bord Snip’s efforts, without the savagery and the grief. But our shy masters don’t want to push the matter — they certainly don’t want to attempt a renegotiation for fear of upsetting those delicate little fuel merchants.

Would not the fact that Ireland’s negotiator was proven to be willing to accept funny money justify a re-examination of the whole business? And with the proceeds we could reassess and prune our public service at a calmer and slower, more thoughtful pace.

And we might even stop kicking the less fortunate for a little while.

Richard Murphy

Coralstown

Mullingar

Co Westmeath