Finally, after all the spin and lies someone has taken charge

IT’S sad the way politicians can get the public all worked up over side issues, meaning they do not see the bigger picture, or even focus on the real issue.

As a result, rather than working towards a resolution, energy and time can be wasted on wrestling with something for which there is no resolution.

Providing a scapegoat is always a sure fire way to divert people and send them scampering in a direction where the heat generated far exceeds the amount of light shed.

All of this is true of the debacle that is Ireland and its economy. The debate over corporation tax, the cut in interest payments on the EU/IMF loan and various public pronouncements that the ECB was as much to blame as the Irish banks has set off a whole new round of circular debates.

This is partly due to poor political communication with the public, by the ignorance of the politicians themselves about the issues and by the fact that, although people are in positions of power, they sometimes just don’t know the answers.

The idea that there are more intelligent people who make better decisions lying further along the chain of command is a fallacy. Of course, believing this fallacy makes us easier to manipulate, and easier to spin and respin until, in the end, we believe only the latest version we are told.

Just hours before Central Bank governor Patrick Honohan asked to go on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland to announce that Ireland was taking a bailout, former taoiseach Brian Cowen turned down advice from Brussels to apply for aid. This didn’t engender much confidence in our political elite.

We had already produced stress tests that showed our banks were, more or less, okay, before several went belly-up in no time. We repeatedly insisted we were going to rescue Anglo Irish Bank before eventually accepting it would have to be wound down.

This did not convince anybody that those in charge of the books or the country knew what they were doing. The ongoing debacle proves that those who took the decision to guarantee the banks did not have a clue.

The Government has been shown to have feet of clay too. Being human is no bad thing, but politicians taking their cue from whatever the latest public frenzy they have helped to generate is not wise.

Announcing that bondholders would not be asked to share the burden two days into office has not been explained. Why a sweetheart deal to get the interest rate reduced was turned down was not answered either.

Forgiving these on the basis of being new in office is fine, but it should lead to questions of why those responsible for the administration had not briefed their new political masters sufficiently. Or are we in a situation where everyone believes their own hype and thinks that getting into power automatically endows the leadership with extraordinary powers?

There were signs at last week’s European summit that somebody was finally taking control. Perhaps this is thanks to the new Government and its advisers or perhaps it is a continuation of action underway for some time. Realistic negotiation has been undertaken with the ECB and the European Commission with the arguments clearly laid out as to why they should facilitate us.

But now the Government has to find a way back with its own citizens who, in the midst of their grief over our tattered economy and the emigration of our brightest and best, are more than willing to shift all the blame to the EU.

We are discovering that working with the situation is more likely to produce results than raging at the reality. Even the new European Stability Mechanism has the ability to help us. While its range of instruments is limited, it can be more flexible as its governors — eurozone finance ministers — can make changes.

Citizens’ debates should be concentrating on ensuring a “never again” scenario and restructuring the economy and politics so that they serve the people. None of these are being dictated by the EU or the IMF.