Troika asks: Where is the austerity?

GREATER efforts should be made to help the vulnerable and unemployed, according to a member of the troika, who appealed for hard evidence of the effects of the austerity programme on people.

But claims by the troika that the austerity measures were working were dismissed by trade union, social justice and unemployment groups.

Istvan Szekely of the European Commission told the press conference: “We want to work together with everyone to find solutions to difficult problems, and unemployment and the most vulnerable in our society are issues we should make more effort and do everything possible in our capacity to help these people, and this we will do.”

Fr Sean Healy of Social Justice Ireland said this would put pressure on the Government to do more, but like others who met the troika earlier this week, he was angry with the request for evidence, as they had produced several documents prepared by economists spelling out the unequal effects of austerity measures on the less well off.

“Take, for instance, the latest VAT increase — the poorest 10% of the population pays more than 14% of their disposable income on VAT and most of that on higher-rated items, while for the top 10%, VAT accounts for less than 9% of their spending,” he said, adding that they were asked not to include evidence of the effects of the 2012 budget.

If the troika and the Government were honest about this, then protecting the vulnerable should be added to the bailout agreement, he said.

The Irish Council of Trade Unions (ICTU) was equally critical and said that its meetings with the troika did not appear to have had any impact so far.

Spokesman Macdara Doyle said: “It’s a theoretical crisis to them and does not exist in reality. They say they are happy with the progress being made but this is only in relation to Ireland paying the debt but the longer term consequences for Irish society are irrelevant.”

He said ICTU made proposals for job creation programmes that would not add to the cost for the taxpayer, but the troika and the majority of the Government were stuck on outdated Thatcherite ideology that had failed everywhere.

“The hard evidence they want is in the statistics that show the domestic economy has collapsed by 25% in four years — unparalleled in the modern world — bringing the country to its knees,” he said, adding that cutting the wages of the lower paid would not get people back to work, because there were no jobs, and no prospects.

Bríd O’Brien, head of policy at the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed, said that much of the responsibility lay with Government.

She said plans to reduce the lowest rates of pay and cut social welfare payments would further impoverish people. “This is based on ideological nonsense and is not going to get Ireland back on its feet,” she said.