Paying the price of overindulgence

PLATFORM:We are all footing the bill for living way beyond our means in recent years, writes MARGARET E. WARD.

TWO YEARS ago, I wrote that the State was like a kid who had just received pocket money for the first time: “Imagine four million children with sweaty coins in their hands waiting for the newsagents to open and you’ll get the picture.”

Spending was a thrill but now – like a youngster who has blown it all on sweets – the public and private sector are dealing with the tummy ache and asking: “Why did I do it? I should have known better!”

The easy credit culture benefited not only those creating wealth in the private sector – entrepreneurs, small business owners, property developers and multinationals – but the public sector as well. The number of people employed in government swelled and those at the top, our elected representatives, felt they also needed to be richly rewarded for serving the people.

Government’s generosity to itself – with our money – has created an arrogant aristocracy. Some long-serving TDs have probably forgotten how to drive, use public transport, carry cash or arrange meetings. No wonder the current Government reeks of a “let them eat cake” sense of entitlement. We have allowed it.

They live very different lives to the rest of us. We already know that our Taoiseach and many top Ministers receive salaries that are higher – and completely disproportionate when judged on population size – than most of their European and American counterparts. Pensions and perks, including government cars and mileage allowances for private cars, are also overly generous. It is a nice number in hard times.

No matter what happens, these senior civil servants will be largely unaffected by the recession. Even if they lose their seats they will keep their pensions – unlike some of the workers at Waterford Crystal.

Chances are our elected officials’ children will not be forced to emigrate in as large numbers as their contemporaries. Minister of State Martin Mansergh told BBC television (and me) last week that his daughter was going to Australia for the experience. She was not being forced to emigrate. Lucky woman!

Fianna Fáil’s attitude and communications strategy of “radio silence” have done little to help the populace understand the seriousness of the issues we face or to prepare for the hard cuts that are to come. We are fighting for our economic survival, and dismissing media commentators who ask hard questions for the benefit of the public as “populists” does not engender confidence. After all, populists are the opposite of elitists.

Thanks to our light-touch regulation, the spending habits of some of our native financiers were more elaborate than the Government’s.

We still don’t know why Seán Quinn quietly bought up a 25 per cent stake in Anglo Irish Bank through contracts for difference (CFD) – a high-risk bet on the direction of the bank’s share price. Was he in a power play for control of Anglo with Seán FitzPatrick and co? Was he trying to help the bank or was he just a rich man gambling big money to become even wealthier?

Whatever. It now seems that the chips Quinn and FitzPatrick were playing with had “taxpayer” written on them. We are all footing the bill for their miscalculations.

Over the years, I have talked about “keeping up with the FitzPatricks” when discussing reckless spending. This has now acquired a strange new meaning.

Politicians and bankers are not the only ones infected with a sense of entitlement. Even ordinary people feel they are owed something. We all know that child benefit and medical cards for the over-70s should be means-tested, but how many of us refuse the payment on the basis that, although it’s nice to get when the kids are small, we don’t really need the money?

Ireland needs a drastic shift in cultural attitudes towards responsibility. The only thing citizens are owed is a government that leads well, helps the most vulnerable in society and uses tax revenues efficiently. Sadly, we cannot say that any of those things have been achieved by the current administration.

The Government is spending our money and we have a responsibility to ensure it uses it transparently and wisely. We should introduce a “government waste whistleblowers” campaign or organisation.

Anyone who sees waste by a Government department or body – and we already know there is lots of it – can report it without fear of repercussions. It is time to target the wasters, wherever they are, and usher in an era of personal responsibility.

True leaders know they must make real changes within themselves and their organisations before they can ask others to sacrifice.

Margaret E Ward is a journalist and managing director of Clear Ink. Blog: www.margaretward.ie