Budget impact - Rob poor to pay for past greed

WITH the ink barely dry on the swingeing provisions of Budget 2011, voters have received an early taste of what to expect from our politicians over the next few months.

True to form, party leaders were busy swapping angry exchanges in the Dáil, using the budget debate as a platform to get the campaign for the impending general election under way with a vengeance.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen delivered a classic example of defending the indefensible.

No heartfelt apology was forthcoming from him on the floor of the House for the leading role played by successive Fianna Fáil administrations in bringing the worst economic, fiscal and social crisis on the people of Ireland.

On the contrary, the plight of the blind, the disabled, the low paid, and other social welfare recipients overwhelmed by a tsunami of budgetary cuts, was overshadowed by the logic of fiscal rectitude.

With an eye on the looming election, Mr Cowen has shrewdly used the opportunity to throw down the gauntlet not alone to the opposition parties but also to potential opponents within Fianna Fáil. For so long they have been muttering over the inadequacy of his leadership — and with some justification.

More acceptable to many is the logic of Fr Sean Healy of Social Justice Ireland who argues that the budget will rob the poor to pay for the reckless gambling of the rich. That’s the reality of it.

Yet, it was only when pressed in a subsequent radio interview that Mr Cowen apologised “unconditionally” for what has occurred. As ever, he reverted to the Pontius Pilate formula, reiterating the tired mantra that the Government had acted on the “best possible advice”. Because such advice invariably proved not worth the breath it was uttered on, the unfortunate situation now confronting every man, woman and child in the country is that financial cuts are inevitable.

In the natural order of things there will be deficits in an economy, particularly in a free open-market economy of the kind we were so proud of in the so-called Celtic Tiger era. In common with many other European states, such deficits appear to be the order of the day, the difference being that Ireland’s troubles are so much deeper because bankers, developers and politicians behaved so irresponsibly.

As an economy, we have to move on. As a society, we have to decide what is important to us. In the election, there should be informed debate on the fundamental ideology of what it means to be Irish.

If we are prepared to cut the minimum wage by one euro and not address the issue of wealthy tax exiles — what does it say about us? At the end of the day, society has to be accountable to more than market forces.