Standards in politics - Politicians need to grow up

Ireland has nearly 450,000 people out of work. Emigration seems — once again — to be draining the brightness out of our future.

Our tottering, patched-up health system is dangerously dysfunctional. There are a record number of people in mortgage difficulties or negative equity. The frightening chasm between national income and expenditure means we have to borrow something around €50m every working day to pay basic housekeeping bills. Our escalating suicide rate is amongst the very highest in Europe. Swathes of private sector workers, though not their public sector counterparts, face a genteel poverty in retirement because of shattered pension expectations. On top of all that we are ensnared in an never-ending and increasingly bitter cultural war over abortion. And, as a kind of icing on the cake, a report yesterday recorded that we are amongst Europe’s heaviest cocaine users.

We face stiffening opposition to how we tax international business and that may cost even more precious jobs and foreign investment. Then there’s the fodder crisis and let’s not even mention the weather.