Given the continuing recession and the drastic fall in tax revenues and growth in the budget deficit, a united approach is needed in the country as a whole to overcome the current great challenge. A continued pay freeze in the public service is likely for more than twelve months.
A freeze in pension payments and an amendment to the two-thirds of final salary rule will also have to be brought in as the taxpayer cannot afford this ongoing commitment that was too generous 30 years ago when it was brought in and is now a huge millstone around the public finances.
This week the Taoiseach is out in Japan, promoting the Irish pork trade but also giving him some reflective time. He must realise that some of his appointees in Finance and Enterprise and Employment lack the experience for these positions.
Back in 1987, when we had a similar crisis in the public finances, we had the Tallaght Strategy where Fine Gael did not oppose the budget or the spending estimates and supported the new national pay deals with Fianna Fail. Now we are back at such a critical phase again.
John Gormley, The Green Environment Minister, noted that Labour may want an election, but what would they do? He wanted them to spell out their plans for cuts and tax increases.
In Germany, after the unification of that country, their public finances went into deficit also, a near dead heat in an election saw a call for a national Government under Angela Merckle the Christian Democrat leader. This has worked successfully and could be brought in here.
Bring Fine Gael and Labour into Government, put Richard Bruton into Finance as he has far better ideas than Brian Lenihan and make the Labour Party Leader Minister for Labour, Enterprise and Employment so he can persuade the unionsto give ground in the public sector where the big pay problems now lie. The benchmarking was a disaster and without that ten percent, there would be better stability in the public finances.
It has been hinted that a national government would be a good solution, it would also give the right message to foreign investors after the Dell closure and the financial breakdown of Waterford Crystal into receivership that the country is serious in sorting out its problems.
Could other high tech firms like Intel and Hewlett Packard follow Dell out of Ireland and hit our exports. Last week, the Government had to pay more for international borrowing. The rate of interest paid for bonds is higher than all members of the Euro zone, bar Greece and above that of Italy where there are also big deficits.
There is a lack of confidence in Ireland now that this has to be rectified. A national Government would give the public confidence also in the future. Tough decisions are needed in the months ahead. Some Fianna Fail Ministers may lose their jobs in this scenario and they will oppose it but the national interest should be what is first.
Have Fianna Fail the stomach for this measure? The Greens would probably agree but could lose a cabinet seat. Mary Harney would probably retire with the opposition taking Health. Let the debate begin and remember where you read this first.
While I can understand the reasons behind your call for a national government comprising the four democratic parties, I think there is a very serious flaw in your wishful thinking. I am not a suporter of any party, but I am now opposed to Fianna Fail, because it was their continuing support of property developers and the bank that was the property developers’ cash machine (Anglo Irish) as well as their ignoring of advice from well-respected economists and bankers that got us so deep into our current mess.
I do not believe that Fianna Fail can change so fundamentally as to turn their back on their main financial supporters in the building and property sectors. Nor do I believe that the people who got us into the mess are the best people to get us out of it. More importantly, as we can see from the behaviour of the former chairman of Fás, of Ms. Cooper Flynn in Mayo and the triumvirate within the government who drafted the recent disastrous Budget, the party and key members have lost touch with the ordinary tax-paying citizens of Ireland.
The current government seem to be acting because they are expected to act: I do not get the feeling that they actually know what they are doing, nor that they have a well developed, long term strategy.
No one in Ireland seems willing to accept responsibility for any errors, to resign if things go seriously wrong. I think it it is time that we ordinary citizens made someone accountable and fired those who caused or misunderstood the gravity of the problem we face.
Based on their failures, Fianna Fail cannot be a part of the solution and therefore there cannot be a national government. but there can be a government that will take the necessary steps to get us back on the right path. It will not be easy, it will not be pleasant, but it can be done.
Respectfully,
Henry Gibson