Chickens may come home to roost for Government

BY the time you read this you may well have some idea how tough the next year will be.

No doubt, the budget will leave you with less cash: which could mean that you have to re-think the holiday plans. Or cut out whatever few remaining luxuries you enjoyed this year. Or contact your bank to tell them that you can’t keep up the mortgage payments. Or you may have finally reached the point where you have no idea how, or if, you can feed your family.

Up until now, the Irish have been largely passive in the face of austerity, for a number of reasons: a certain Irish fatalism about our political system; the fact that those with the least — and the least political clout — have been hardest hit; and a genuine understanding of the awful choices facing our government: (A) Ireland can obey the strictures from the troika in the hope that our good behaviour will be rewarded with more favourable terms, or (B) we can engage in a massive game of chicken: refuse to pay any more, and hope that they don’t turn off the money tap which is keeping the country afloat.