Coughlan tries a failed recipe

IT is usually said the only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from it.

That might explain the extraordinary utterances of Enterprise, Trade and Employment Minister Mary Coughlan recently about propping up incomes in the export sector with clear indications that she thought the same ought to be done for employees in the tourist trade and that this would “be looked at shortly”.

However, when the history being repeated is so recent as to be still in the domain of current affairs, one might have expected the adage of “once bitten, twice shy” to kick in. Not with our Mary, though. A year, a month, a week is a long, long time in politics, long enough to forget that pandering to well organised, vocal sectional interests is one of the things that got us into the current economic mire.