Notes On The Front

Borrow, Borrow and Borrow Some More

With Exchequer finance spiraling out of control, what should the Left argue? Shore up capital spending? Cut current expenditure (i.e. public services, wages, social programmes)? Increase taxes? What should the Left’s prescriptions be? How can we show the public that we have a handle on these matters? What is the best way forward?

Difficult one. A right-wing government recklessly allowed the nation’s finances to become over-dependent on property-related revenue; they broke it and we’re asked what we would do to fix it. So here goes – my own suggestion for what it’s worth: don’t argue the issue in the narrow fiscal 'increase-tax or cut-spending' context. In the first instance, damn the Maastricht guidelines and borrow, borrow, borrow. There, I said it. I feel a lot better.

Labour’s Rendezvous with Lisbon

Those of us who truly want the 21st century to be European do not have the luxury of hiding behind the referendum result and insisting that Europe stop. Nor should we allow ourselves to be led by right-wing parties as they set their own agenda to deal with the current fall-out. Most of all, we cannot allow the neo-liberal, neo-clerical axis of Libertas and Coir to define the nature of the No vote.

The Left’s challenge is to forge a new progressive consensus that can address the legitimate concerns of those who lined up on whichever side. And within the divisions of the progressive camp lies the seeds for its success.

Fianna Fail's Good News Week

What a good news week for Fianna Fail was last week. It wasn’t just the latest Irish Times poll even if it’s only a honeymoon result. There was also that report– the ESRI’s Medium -Term Review: a little rough patch and then clear skies and calm waters for . . . well until 2025 minimum. Are we looking at another 20 years of Fianna Fail rule? Should we be preparing ourselves for more ‘ideology-free’ politics? Is this the end of history?

Let’s not hasten. Let’s examine what the ESRI report actually said; and more importantly what it didn’t say. And let’s take another gander at that poll.

Don’t Be Shy (or To Live and Die in Clara)

The Labour Party is proposing a Private Member's Bill that would require the Government to draw up a national strategy to combat fuel poverty. Party spokesperson, Liz McManus, TD, said:

'The strategy would require the Minister to specify a comprehensive set of measures to ensure the efficient use of energy and set a target date for achieving the objective of ensuring that, as far as practicable, persons do not live in fuel poverty. Action is now urgently required or this problem will get much worse over the coming years. I hope that the government will accept our Bill or that it will, at a minimum, prompt them into action of their own.'

Okay, then. The Fianna Fail Government doesn’t have a ‘fuel-poverty’ strategy. The Institute of Public Health (IPH) tells us that, ‘Data on fuel poverty is not routinely monitored by government in the Republic’. It’s not just that domestic fuel, along with shelter and food, is an absolute necessity; it is for thousands a matter of life and death.

This issue is right down the Left’s alley, so to speak, emphasising redistribution and social protection. So my question is: why are we so shy about putting forward our own proposals?

A Simple Proposal

Sometimes a proposal comes along that is so simple you say to yourself, ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’ That’s what I said when reading ICTU’s ‘Economic Outlook: Narrowing the Pay Gap’. The highlight of this comprehensive review of the economy is its discussion of the growing pay gap between the upper echelons of corporate Ireland and the rest of us – and a series of specific but far-reaching proposals. This issue of economic inequality should be treated as ‘gateway’ issue – that is, an issue which can lead the Left out of its policy isolation, into territory it can call its own.

And it’s all based on a terribly simple idea – ending taxpayer subsidies to millionaire salaries.

The Red Herring Diet Plan

That ol’ red herring – Labour’s links with trade unions – is raising its head again. Kevin Rafter suggests the Party’s 21st Century Commission (an internal review body) should:

‘ . . . look at Labour’s relationship with the trade union movement.’

Mr. Rafter likens this relationship to that which the State used to have with religious faiths. He further comments that trade unionists are somehow a ‘vested interest’ and points to research showing ‘the public’ believes Labour is in the pockets of trade unions. Therefore, Labour should rid itself of this ‘vested interest’ in order to achieve success.

Well, I would advise the Party’s Commission that if they want Labour to remain a half-party, if they never want to challenge for real power, if they want to champion low expectations, then by all means – take on board Mr. Rafter’s advice. It will be a winner.

THe Mood Song of the Poverty Deniers

Shane Coleman doesn’t believe. CORI recently published its exhaustive Socio-Economic Review 2008 – a 240 page report detailing all aspects of poverty in Ireland. Contained therein was the startling fact that there are over 720,000 poor people living amongst us. Not only that, there are now more poor people today than there were at the start of the Celtic Tiger boom. But Shane Coleman just doesn’t believe and, in this, he is not alone.

How poor to do the poor have to be before they are considered ‘poor’? Very poor, dog-poor, a tenement-dweller-in-a-Sean-O’Casey-play poor, subsisting on fried bread and margarine. If you are not at least this poor, you are not poor, there is no poverty, the system is fine and all we need to do - if anything - is tinker with a few ‘targeted’ programmes: the yin of economic growth and the yang of Fianna Fail rule is restored and universally applicable.

Welcome to the world of poverty deniers. They sing a lot.

An Appalling Vista

ISME’s recent Business Trends Survey makes for grim reading: employment is down; sales, investment, orders, exports: all down. Owners and managers of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are extremely nervous. As well they should be: a hard rain is starting to fall. Of course, ISME knows who to blame: the public sector, trade unions, wages, home-grown inflation, a strong Euro. Some of these are legitimate; some are so far off-the-mark that it raises questions about ISME’s ability to represent their members’ interests.

But there is one issue they don’t address, won’t address; one issue that should make all of us afraid, very afraid. And that is: what if, despite the economic climate, we have a class of managers in the SME and indigenous sector who are just not up to it? What if one of the core issues in Irish competitiveness is widespread managerial incompetence? If this is the case then, regardless of the economic weather, we have a problem that is chronic, endemic and highly, highly resistant to correction.

The Truth About Irish Wages

The new union, UNITE (the merged ATGWU and AMICUS unions) has just published a report on Irish wages which is sure to prove controversial. It flatly contradicts the prevailing consensus that Irish wages are somehow ‘high’, that Irish wage growth is high relative to our EU trading partners and that these ‘high’ wages are one of the root causes of our deteriorating competitiveness. In removing these arguments from the table, the trade union movement will be doing all of us a considerable favour – not just because it strengthens the arguments for wage increases; it will focus our attention on the real reasons behind our economic troubles - reasons which have little to do with the employers' claims.

The Economic Legacy of Bertie Ahern

Paul Tansey wrote an impressive list of economic achievements during Bertie Ahern’s tenure as Taoiseach:

On Ahern's watch, the Irish economy almost doubled in size, while the numbers at work increased by one-half . . The unemployment rate declined from 10.4 per cent in 1997 to 4.6. In the 10 years from 1987 to 1997, net emigration amounted to 83,000 people. This migratory experience was wholly transformed in the succeeding decade. . . In the 10 years to 2007, the net immigration inflow reached 392,000. The annual volume of Irish consumer spending on goods and services has risen by four-fifths since 1997 . . average per capita living standards have risen by some 50 per cent over the past decade. Thus, Ahern can look back on an extraordinary record of economic achievement.

No doubt. So why is there still a nagging sense of something fundamentally amiss? Could it be that historians, looking back on that decade, might reach a different conclusion? Mr. Ahern’s lasting legacy may well be that, with more resources at his disposal than any other Government had, he proved not to be the most devious, the most cunning; but rather the most wasteful, the most short-sighted.