Economy in crisis - Time to get real and pass the budget

OUR circumstances are chaotic but they could get still worse if we lose focus on the only, the very last, game in town.

Our tragic, almost comical circumstances certainly diminish our democracy and our idea of self-worth too but, in the midst of the cheapest grandstanding, shameless opportunism and gombeenism, we must not lose touch with realpolitik or sight of our very limited options.

There is still the possibility that we, the Irish people alive today, might be able to build a better, more equitable, caring and grown-up society. If we lose that focus we may have to pass that hope on to those as yet unborn. We might even be able to rejuvenate a plundered economy and create work for the hundreds of thousands wondering what this society has to offer them.