Austerity measures - The ‘why’ is now the challenge

Today’s Irish Examiner carries four reports which, while addressing very different issues, should be seen by those charged with charting the way forward for this Republic in very much the same context.

We report how small businesses in Ireland have seen a spiralling level of shop lifting and employee theft.

We report how over 1,500 Cork citizens took to the streets on a bitterly cold Saturday in protest at a fresh round of cuts to home help hours.

We report how a Labour TD has called for the budget to include legislation targeting income generated in Ireland by Ireland’s high-income tax exiles.

Finally, we report how 28 organisations promoting improved mental health services in Ireland have pledged to hold the Government to account on unfulfilled pledges to “vastly improve access to modern mental health services in the community”.

All these reports, and many more which have and continue to be highlighted by this newspaper, reveal a worrying and growing disconnect with the policies being pursued by this government.

It is a disconnect with ordinary hard-working people that those crafting December’s budget and wider government policy would do well not to ignore.

Admittedly, it is only those who pander to the populist who would disagree that Ireland is and must face up to some very hard choices, not least a burgeoning debt crisis — no matter how unjustified — and the fact we continue to live beyond our means.

But at the same time, those simple and undeniable realities cannot and must not become a veiled mantra to which our ministers retreat every time they are confronted with public dissent.

Individually, today’s wide-ranging reports show what a difficult and unenviable task our government faces. As a whole, they are both a testament to bad communication and an indication of the real challenge that lies ahead.

The economic travails we face as a nation are well known and have been ventilated ad nauseam, so it is time this government and its opposition spoke directly and truthfully to the people as to what sort of society they have in mind when and if the crisis does finally end.

The Irish are renowned for their enduring spirit in the face of difficulty.

However, that character trait was built throughout history on an awareness of why and for whom the hardship was being endured.

How much longer the people of Ireland are willing to endure is as much reliant on this government’s ability to listen and speak plainly as to a vision for the future as it is on the skills demonstrated at the EU negotiating table.