Progress report

He’s the man who is planning to pay off €42 billion of the national debt, euro by euro, simply by selling posters and bags. So how is he doing? “We’re getting there,” says Fergus O’Neill. “It’s over €300 now, so it’s quite significant.” The posters, bearing the legend “Keep Going Sure It’s Grand” and “Feck It Sure It’s Grand” are in a limited edition – limited to 42 billion copies. For every one sold, O’Neill donates €1, which he sends by cheque to the Department of Finance. He even has the receipts to prove it, and the running total on the project’s Facebook page shows we only have €41,999,999,639 to go.

The posters have been bought by people “from Luxembourg to Ballyfermot to San Francisco to Sallins”, and O’Neill says he has also sold them to several TDs in Leinster House, as well as to Google. “Some people tell me they’re using them as motivational posters,” he says, somewhat bemused. “And of course that’s up to them, but personally, I think they’re a little more facetious.”

A graphic designer, O’Neill was “living the dream”, working as an illustrator in a cottage in Wicklow. Then the recession came. “It was like someone turned the tap off one day.” So are the posters right? Will it all be grand? “People have asked me ‘is it ever going to be grand again?’, and of course it will. The sun’s still shining. People are buying posters . . .”

New this week are “Keep Going Sure It’s Grand” T-shirts, and “Sorry” T-shirts, “which come in three colours: Irish green – this one will help Irish people apologise for everything; politician red – when sorry is the hardest word; and priestly black. I’m expecting a big order from the Vatican,” adds O’Neill.

You can order online at grandgrand.bigcartel.com. Posters cost from €20, including your donation to our national cause.