Ending austerity - Squeeze is too much

At long last, the EU has finally woken up to the fact that austerity is not working.

If any member of the commission had cared to spend a week in the home of a struggling Irish family, they would long ago have learned that fact of life in this benighted country.

Calls for an end to austerity have been made by the IMF, leading economists and this newspaper. The question is whether the Government will heed those calls or continue squeezing people whose pockets are empty. The answer depends on Ireland’s response to EU warnings to “avoid complacency and strictly follow the objectives” of the EU-IMF programme. Past experience suggests the Fine Gael-Labour coalition will pay more heed to Angela Merkel’s election manifesto than the plight of the community here. For companies and families who have no more to give more austerity will mean economic suicide.