Yes, the country’s a mess ... but let’s try and do something about it
That there’s a Barrack Obama among us? That Enda Kenny or Eamon Gilmore will inspire and motivate us? That Fianna Fáil is going to be any different under Micheál Martin, who has been a senior minister for nearly 14 bloody years? Were you not listening to me about our economic condition?
MY two friends from a month ago — the optimist and the pessimist — are back in the pub, discussing what has happened since their last meeting.
If you try and tell me that things are getting better I’ll either laugh or hit you. I’m just warning you.
It hasn’t been a great month for the country, I’ll admit, but you’re getting most of the things you wanted aren’t you, the things that you said would make everything better, so why are you complaining? Brian Cowen is gone as leader of Fianna Fáil, which is what I thought everyone wanted, and the government is going now, which means you can have the general election you wanted and the new government will be in place soon. You can take it on from there, look to the future instead of the past. So things are getting better.
Look at what we’ve had to go through to get to this. We’re laughing stocks internationally. We’re the country that couldn’t pay its bills, having told everyone else how to do it and we had to get the International Monetary Fund to come in and tell us how to run our economy.
The European Union doesn’t like or respect us anymore. Now we’ve let Michael Lowry and Jackie Healy-Rae dictate passage of the Finance Bill through the Dáil to give effect to the budget which was part of the terms of that damned rescue deal. The government is being dictated to by a couple of me-feiners. We have a Taoiseach who isn’t even the leader of his party and only seven ministers in his cabinet because he tried a stroke. We look like the most stupid country on earth.
Get a grip, will you? All this stuff about international reputation is nonsense. Do you think the whole world is agog looking at us? They hardly notice. It’s forgotten about already. It is not like Tunisia or Egypt is it, where they’re rioting in the streets? We have democracy and we’re about to change our government democratically? This is just a blip.
And what about international investors? Who would put money into a business in this country the way things are going? We’re making a mess of things for ourselves and one of the prices the Europeans are going to make us pay is forcing us to increase the rate of corporation tax to get more money to pay them back their loans. I’m amazed all the American companies aren’t moving to Eastern Europe where it’s cheaper.
Now that’s where you’re wrong and that’s where I’ll have you. This is a great country to do business from and that’s why IDA supported companies created more new jobs than they lost last year. The costs of doing business are falling and our being in the euro is what US companies want, as well as the 12.5% corporation tax rate. Excuse me for a moment if I’m boring you but here are some statistics that tell a good story. Our exports are soaring, up by 17% last year, and in November we had a trade surplus of €4 billion. There’s nothing but good news there.
And do you know what else has been leaving? Money. And people. Money was flowing out of our banks late last year because confidence had been lost in us internationally, which is why the IMF was brought in.
And more importantly, we’re exporting our people again. About 100,000 have gone, another 100,000 will go for lack of jobs and opportunities in this country. And if you stay, then for what? To earn less money from your employer, if you’re lucky enough to have a job, and to pay more tax to the State to pay for the damn banks and all the rest of it, that’s what. We have a reduced standard of living and that applies to the likes of me who never want mad during the boom, didn’t borrow money I couldn’t repay, didn’t have two holidays a year or two cars in the driveway or any of the rest of madness that went on.
So are you going to complain or are you going to do something about it? Are you going to be miserable and negative and feeling sorry for yourself or are you going to pull yourself up by the laces?
I go into work every Monday wondering if I’m going to be laid off, or have my hours reduced further, or my pay cut again, and then when I get my pay packet I find there’s less there because of this damned universal social charge.
We’re all in the same boat.
Well, some people are in first class and some are in steerage. And some are heading to the lifeboats.
The general election will help. We can talk these things out and get new ideas.
Do you really think so? Have you not noticed that the IMF and EU have put us in a straitjacket? Taxes are going to be increased again next year and the year after and the year after again and there is nothing that any government can do about it because Cowen’s lot has made a formal agreement with the IMF and EU that that’s what we’ll do. And we’ll be cutting services in schools, hospitals and in everything else. No government can change any of it. The debates will be like watching bald men fighting over a comb.
Are you not going to watch the debates?
Are you mad? I’ll be watching football or even Coronation Street rather than watch that nonsense. I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, I’d watch, especially if our bloody self-serving politicians were in the cast.
Every time I meet you you’re giving out about politicians, claiming that they’re only in it for themselves and then when you have an opportunity to make a decision for yourself as to who you want and why and find out what they’d do for this country you say you’ll not bother.
That’s one of the problems with this country. When it seemed everything was going well, everyone couldn’t be bothered, said politics was boring and didn’t matter. It did then and it does now and yet you’re going to whinge and crib and moan instead of getting involved and making a choice.
It doesn’t matter. Do you seriously think that any of the party leaders is going to inspire us? That there’s a Barrack Obama among us? That Enda Kenny or Eamon Gilmore will inspire and motivate us? That Fianna Fáil is going to be any different under Micheál Martin, who has been a senior minister for nearly 14 bloody years? Were you not listening to me about our economic condition? We have no sovereignty. The IMF is calling the shots. We’re goosed.
But a government can make choices within those constraints. You can limit the tax increases for example and get more value for the money that the State is spending. I can’t believe that all of the money that the State spends is justified. There must be massive savings to be made. That’s what the debate can be about. You have the chance to reject those who seem to think that we can tax our way out of this recession.
At last you’re admitting it, calling it for what it is. A recession. Actually, no, I’ve got it wrong. It’s a depression. And it’s going to get worse. Interest rates will go up again this year. Anyone with a mortgage is almost certainly a tax payer and they’ll get hit with a double whammy of higher costs and lower incomes. It’s a mess I tell you.
I’m not denying it’s a mess, but let’s at least try to do something about it.
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