Luke Ming Flanagan TD Today I made some friends. Please share widely. There was a workshop in the Parliament today titled Strategies For Confronting The Debt Crisis. On the podium were representatives from Greece, from Spain, from Portugal, but no-one from Ireland. Which begs the question – why not? The answer is simple – its the media, its the message, and the message being spread by our government through an almost unquestioning media is that Ireland is thriving, Ireland isnt like Greece or Spain or Portugal, Ireland is a success, Ireland is the poster-boy that austerity so badly needed, and still needs. You expect to see those with a vested interest buy so willingly into that message, but its disappointing when even those with whom were in the same sinking ship are convinced. We know the truth though. We know that when applied to Ireland, the usual measure of national indebtedness, debt/GDP ratio, is a lie, that Irelands GDP is completely skewed by the shenanigans of the multinationals. Gross National Debt (GNP), while still not ideal, is a better measure and our debt/GNP ratio is close to 150%, well into the red zone; We know that when private debt and SME (Small and Medium Enterprise) debt is added to public debt, we are in far deeper trouble than any of Greece, Spain or Portugal, or indeed of any other country you care to mention; We know our bank bailout amounted to over €15,000 per person, a record untouched anywhere; We know that rather than talking of unemployment numbers, we should be talking of emigration, of half a generation between the ages of 18 and 26 gone – thats our future; We know that when the employment numbers are a better barometer of progress, and that between the end of Sep 2013 and end of Sep 2014, employment numbers grew by 27,000, of which only 17,000 were in the private non-agricultural sector. And how many of those jobs are sustainable, paying decent wages? We know that on a more human level, over the Christmas period we had a record 600+ patients lying in trolleys in hospital corridors awaiting a bed from A&E; We know that on the same issue, the HSE was recently refused €100m to try to tackle some of their problems; We know also that on Dec 23rd, two days before Christmas, we destroyed €500m, the first of the Michael Noonan Promissory Note bonds – only €27,500m to go... We know also that there is mass unrest in Ireland, that on a foul day in November nearly 100,000 took to the streets, nominally to protest the Water Charge but in fact to protest against all the ongoing austerity. Ireland has been hard hit, we know that; Ireland has reached almost the end of its tether, we also know that. But Europe doesnt know it – even the other nations who also find themselves in our predicament dont know it, all because of the one outstanding success this government can really claim, the spin in our media. At that same workshop, however, the reality of whats happening in Ireland was outlined. Contacts were made, alliances formed, the kind of alliances our government SHOULD have been forming, rather than kow-towing to Merkel, Sarkozy and all those, happy with the occasional bone thrown their way. The fact is that the debt crisis in Europe has NEVER been confronted. We need debt write-off, not just in Ireland and not just at national level, but instead weve had extend and pretend. The problem though is that while the bankers/financiers/markets are all organised and all as one in their aims, were all a bit scattered. Thats changing though, that is changing, and this workshop was a good start.
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 07:49:05 +0000
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