A reality check on Ireland’s recovery

It’s many years since I spent time in Ireland, when two past employers both posted me to Dublin for short periods. Dublin then, as now, was a warm and friendly place, and as a result I’ve always retained a fondness for the country and its citizens.

I did though see two sides of Irish society then. One, the vast majority, where people with a strong sense of Irish identity worked hard, the other, a small minority in the body politic were corrupt.

The collapse of the Irish economy and banks in particular in 2008 were painful for Ireland, and so it’s pleasing to read reports of the recovery in the Irish economy. The crash was so severe that it’s certain to take a long term for Ireland to fully recover. It is happening, but as Finlan O’Toole in the New York Times reports, Ireland’s Rebound is European Blarney. Here’s the last part of his article,

“A torrent of debt continues to flow from the catastrophic decision to save bad banks at all costs. Hopes that Ireland’s debts might be alleviated by its European partners in recognition of the country’s role in saving the euro are now fading.

Little Ireland took one for the team. In return, it gets a pat on the head and the dubious pleasure of being called a success story.

This is why, in the end, the austerity program has not succeeded even in its basic aim of bringing down Ireland’s sovereign debt, which actually rose sharply over the last five years. In 2009, it was 64 percent of G.D.P. Last year, it peaked at 125 percent. The debt has doubled while public spending has been slashed.

In this, Ireland may be a model indeed: suffering to maintain an unreal image of slimmed-down perfection.”

I wish Ireland and the Irish people well, though they need more voices to speak on the reality in Irish society.

Good luck to a new found Irish maturity

I’m delighted the Irish have shown that elections can bring about a revolution, and not through civil disorder. Well done to them. As a friendly neighbour I wish them well in overcoming their financial woes.

Back in the early 1970’s this blogger was a novice efficiency man, employed by the head office of a manufacturing and service company, who was sent to the Dublin office to introduce new systems. When I say novice, I mean it. In the winter I wore a bowler hat, and in the steamy days of summer a straw boater. My visit to Ireland – my first – was in the winter and so I wore my bowler hat, unthinking of its resonance in Irish politics [it being associated with Northern Irish loyalist politics].

Anyway, I was there for a while. I visited the Dáil, and listened to a debate on the Irish Bloodstock Agency. The debate centered around corruption, and the language was pretty intemperate. But, through that debate I’d picked up on an essential truth of Irish politics of the time – that Fianna Fáil had a legitimacy deriving from the 1920’s civil war, and had a corrupted arrogance.

Also, at the time there was the aftermath of a gun-running scandal [delivering arms to the IRA]. A key man in that scandal – name escapes me now – wore a black eye patch, which added physical potency to his supposed trade. Guess what, I bumped into him and a another person chatting in a hotel bar. The other person I recognised as a member of the government party. Seedy was my take on Irish politics at the time.

I wonder how much is understood of the difference between the two main political parties in Ireland, created in the times of civil war politics – Fianna Fáil, translated as Soldiers of Destiny, and Fine Gael, translated as Family of the Irish.

This latest election in Ireland, it appears to me, is the first where the divisions and history of the civil war have had almost no impact. That is the maturity that Ireland has now reached. To solve their problems, they’ll need to forget all the old divisions and work to rebuilt their economy. In addition, the dominance of religion in Ireland has evaporated following the Catholic church abuse scandal. Two articles in the Irish Times give the background to my view, and the BBC’s reporting on the Ryan Report,

• A new era in Irish politics
• The motivation was vengeance
• Lost souls fled clerical abuse

In all their efforts to reform their society, I wish them well.

New feature: Lightwater Likes

If you spend as much time trawling the Internet as I do, you’re bound to come across interesting articles and opinions. I do like to pick a topic that interests me and write about it. Time available for this is a diminishing commodity.

So, there’ll now be posts under the heading Lightwater Likes, where I’ll provide the links to some high-value articles. Here are a couple to get you started. In this instance, they’re all about our neighbour Ireland:

• Painful reading about How the Irish Bubble Burst
• The Independent reports Irish seeking revenge at the polls for financial fiasco
• Jeremy Warner says, Ireland’s in a state of denial over the Euro

Fixing the deficit remains the main target

LUNF and TINA are two important message carriers. 

The deficit hasn’t gone away. It’s still with us, painfully so, as September’s government borrowing was £16.2 billion – the highest ever. All the government’s policy announcements about changes to our welfare system, the defence review, and spending cuts are to solve this most pressing issue.

So what are these message carriers, LUNF and TINA?

LUNF – let us not forget that eradicating the deficit is the main goal, and TINA – there is no alternative to spending cuts, no matter what Labour and the leftist intelligentsia say about relying on tax rises, they don’t solve the problem, they merely delay its resolution.

Don’t think that the deficit reduction is THE challenge facing us? Then I suggest you read this phenomenally good article by Morgan Kelly, Professor of Economics at University College Dublin, in today’s Irish Times. Not quite in Ireland’s plight, we were on our way towards it.  Just look back to HERE, which was only in January this year.