HEART BEAT: I fear that instead of healing medicine, we have just been fed a poisonous concoction that will make our condition worse, writes MAURICE NELIGAN
“Do you believe in fairies? Say quick that you believe! If you believe, clap your hands!”
(JM Barrie – Peter Pan)
THE QUOTATION was suggested as I watched the Government backbenchers applaud the Budget speech of the Minister of Finance. At least there was no repetition of the standing ovations of yore and one or two disgruntled souls forbore to clap.
I wondered did they really believe that a corner has been turned and that the end of our troubles is in sight? Did they really believe that it is alright to applaud such an unjust and discriminatory Budget, indeed one that left the late Ernest Blythe in the shade and made Scrooge look like a major philanthropist? More important than the claque behind him, does the Minister really think that he has done the right thing by our people?
I don’t think it was fair or just, and it offers few incentives to get our unemployed into meaningful involvement in the working and producing world – the environment necessary for recovery. It says clearly to our young people that their Government sees little for them here and points them toward the emigrant ship.
There are many more qualified than I to dissect the financial story of this Budget, a story that is painted very broadly and lacks clarity or focus in key areas. We’ll have to await the results of the operation, hopefully not the post-mortem on the body politic. I fear that instead of healing medicine, we have just been fed a poisonous concoction that will make our condition worse, as Thomas Hood described, “Home-made physic that sickens the sick”. To add insult to injury, we are now required to pay 50 cent for the prescription.
Nowhere in the doleful speech was there any acknowledgement that the people endeavouring to force this unpalatable medicine down our collective throat were the very same people who had caused the national malaise. The revisionist spin tells us repeatedly that, “We are where we are, it’s time to move on.”
No bloody way do I subscribe to that self-serving proposition. The vast majority of our people, who did not cause these problems and yet are to be required to shoulder the considerable burdens of repair, will at least require that those who nearly destroyed our country will be held to meaningful account. We will have to look back at the whole sorry saga and establish the causes of hubris and malfeasance, and hopefully eliminate them from our future course as a nation.
This won’t be easy. The distinguished pathologist Simeon Wolbach wrote: “It is often difficult to ascertain the nature of the edifice that has burnt down from a study of the ashes.” Difficult it may be, but necessary it is.
There were whimsical moments. The Minister managed a straight face when he told us about a planned water tax. I would suggest that before this is inflicted on the general population that pilot schemes should be initiated. I would suggest Sallins, Athlone, Ballinasloe, Gort and Cork city as being suitable venues for the trials.
On the other hand, they might try fixing the pipes and increasing reservoir capacity. This latter simplistic approach might also have the additional benefit of creating employment. If the Minister thinks the population is going to sit still for that one, he’s even more deluded than I thought.
We’ve reduced the price of drink. That is a really big deal. Alcohol is still cheaper across the Border and the “reasoning” behind this bold move ignores the fact that people travel north to buy a range of goods. This money-bearing exodus will continue as long as the price and choice differential is maintained. The bold move would have been to reduce the VAT level to that of our neighbours. After all, we are supposed to be a low-tax economy, or did that concept get buried with the corpse of the PDs?
On the day before the Budget, 352 of our brothers and sisters lay on hospital trolleys throughout the State. There was no room at the inn for these unfortunate people as the insane policy of reducing hospital beds and closing whole hospitals persists.
But there is some light here. Jackie Healy-Rae apparently guaranteed his vote for this discriminatory Budget on the basis of being promised a new hospital for Kenmare.
If the story is true, it reflects no credit on Mr Healy Rae and less on Taoiseach Brian Cowen. It is a disgraceful example of gombeen politics and is hardly conducive to having us believe that things have changed.