Those hard decisions - These deals must be challenged

THE Government parties have — so far — survived their autumn sleep-overs without any calamities like the one that opened the last chapter in Brian Cowen’s tawdry premiership.

Both parties have warned of unavoidable and hard decisions ahead. Speaking in Carlow Labour leader Eamon Gilmore ominously warned: “No government wants to have to cut spending and increase revenue. But it has to be done, for the sake of our country, and for the next generation.”

Fine Gael meet in Galway and it would be surprising if the tone was different to the one that prevailed in Carlow. Naturally the parties will accentuate the positive but they must dread having to impose the measures made unavoidable by our decade of foolishness.

If these measures are on the scale needed they will be a very real imposition. They will extract a very heavy price in political popularity and prove once again that leading a democracy during a deep, unforgiving crisis is not for the faint hearted. The choice lies between doing the right thing, usually so unpopular that your political future is jeopardised, or not doing it, which will mean all of our futures are jeopardised.

In this context one of the things a government should be able to rely on is a sense of solidarity. Unfortunately, this Government, and the Ahern and Cowen governments, have done little if anything to create the kind of solidarity we need to get out of this mess.

As late as yesterday afternoon Taoiseach Enda Kenny, answering questions about a €700,000 retirement package for a top civil servant, pathetically played the same old, dog-eared card, pleading that he was “caught with that particular deal”.

That defence has worn more than a bit thin and, as we are all softened up for December’s budget, it is no longer acceptable. It may prove even less so if promised pension reforms apply to new employees only.

Neither is it acceptable that the terms of the outrageous Bord Gáis redundancy deal, which have been public for some weeks now, have not provoked a public response from Government. The deal is an abuse of position on a par with some of our bankers’ finest privateering but, if the official silence means anything, it must have the tacit approval of Government.

How can this be? How can this smash-and-grab stand? It is a scandalous, grubby deal that is an affront to any idea of common purpose and it makes it easy to believe that this is a broken, an every-man-for-himself banana republic.

Every business, every employer and employee in private enterprise in this country, have had the things-have-changed conversation and trimmed their sails accordingly. Wages and pensions have been slashed for everyone no matter what their service or expectations were. In most cases it was a matter of survival rather than an option.

No deal is carved in stone, and until such time as the Government finds the backbone to tell all its employees,direct or indirect, that what was once possible is no longer so then they are dodging their responsibilities.

If they can’t find the courage to do that where will they get the authority needed to impose the kind of cuts and taxes expected in December?