Spending a few days in Dublin last week, I had a chance to sample a little of the vibe close up. The leader of Ireland’s trade union congress, David Begg, summed it up: “There’s a very angry mood in the country. Until recently, if you’d stopped somebody on the street and asked them what they really thought, they’d have said ‘If we keep our heads down for a couple of years, we can get back to where we were before’. That was fed by government fiction about green shoots of recovery. The dawning realisation is that the picture is far worse.”
So far, provisions have been made for €45bn of losses at Ireland’s leading banks – Anglo Irish, AIB, Bank of Ireland and Irish Nationwide, which amounts to €10,000 for every Irish man, woman and child. Using funds from the country’s national pension reserve, a further €10bn will be added to the bill following last month’s international rescue package. That’s not gone down well.
“It’s not a bailout package, it’s a transfer of wealth from the ordinary worker to the banks,” Colm Stephens, a university administration worker, told me. “We’re being asked to rescue the richest people in the world – the people who gambled and lost, who bet on every horse in the race.”
Every man, woman and child in Ireland is going to suffer raised taxes and cut benefits when the major beneficiaries of the boom are untaxed and unaffected by the crisis. That’s right. The banking industry is not going to be paying for the bailout, not even part of the bailout. The weight falls on the regular citizens of Ireland, their lamented and unprotected middle class.
Is that what’s going to happen here? Are we going to have cuts in Social Security benefits, Medicare and social services while the enormous financial industry pays nothing?
It is easy to see that a transaction tax or Robin Hood tax could raise hundreds of billions of dollars. Why are they who have reaped every conceivable benefit from the American taxpayer not paying a fair share?
Is the middle class the only part of the economy where taxes can be raised and benefits cut?
James Pilant
Pilant's Business Ethics Blog 
Love this article and it’s a reflection of the truth about politicians the world over that lie to protect themselves but more importantly, the situation in Ireland is not a green roots two year fix.
I’m an Irish ex-pat living in Australia and I return home when I can. I returned during prosperous times and actually saw the disaster in the making, let me explain. I am a business development consultant and I know that businesses that grow up through tough times and depressions usually go the distance and can survive downturns in the economy. Businesses born through growths such as Ireland has enjoyed since 1989 are largely opportunistic by nature and don’t plan for bad times. When the global financial crises hit, I saw young business with little experience through tough times and large overdrafts, declare bankruptcy owing millions.
Let’s move on to the Irish government. Governments are essentially business. Any medium to large businesses with some savvy with hedge the bets by reinvesting to protect assets. Any investment portfolio with good functionality with have a diverse range of assets being, share, bricks and mortar, bonds etc. The government of Ireland couldn’t see beyond their own retirement funds and payouts. This made them a liability for the people of Ireland because so long as the cash was flowing they could hide their inexperience to manage an economy. Once the cash dried up there was an high level of business incompetency exposed. This level of incompetency (in all countries) is reflected by the rate of unemployment and migration.
It saddens me, both from a business perspective and an Irishman to see how the potential greatness of my country was destroyed by blundering incompetency and mismanagement. I quietly shed a tear for my fellow countrymen and with my hand on my heart I say this……politician the world over should have to undergo an interview after being elected to office in order to determine what their portfolio should be. Can you imagine having a real business person with their hand wrapped tightly around the purse strings of an economy?
I have a lot more to say on this subject but I fear retribution for that.
Many thanks for your blog
Ciaran Keegan
LikeLike