Madam, – The Tánaiste’s recent comments regarding what may be perceived as the privileged professions, does little to reflect the harsh reality we face in the current economic crisis (Front page, July 21st). For those who are already unemployed and those who are still hanging on, it genuinely feels like the profession is being decimated by the downturn. Furthermore, due to arguable mismanagement by our government during the boom years, many individual professionals with reduced income, are faced with mortgages that they can no longer afford, for properties they are unable to sell. May I suggest that no one feels the “chill wind of economic reality” like a household threatened by homelessness.
Countries like Germany introduce controls when times are good and inflation is high. This helps to keep housing affordable and the country competitive.
Our Government naively surfed on the wave of the boom years, encouraged spiralling costs, and drew unsustainable taxes from the construction industry. In some ways perhaps the poor Tánaiste herself is frozen in time, due to the reality of the chill caused by those who preceded her.
The Irish Government’s current short-sighted focus on cutbacks, fails to follow world leaders and provide a stimulus package to counteract the severity of the credit crunch. The Construction Industry Council (CIC), a collaborative body of construction-related disciplines, has already approached the Government with brave proposals for investment in infrastructure and the impact it would have on tackling unemployment.
Instead, the Government at present appears to be ignoring these proposals, continues to reactively increase spending on social services while appearing to do nothing to decrease unemployment.
Architecture is an idea-based profession, its membership made up of assertive and creative people. In light of the severity of the current climate, the only hope is that creative individuals will find solutions for these unprecedented times. Otherwise the Tánaiste’s effort to hammer home a one-sided need for cutbacks will only serve to drive the nail into the economic coffin. Careful spending on infrastructure projects could provide a way to counteract this. – Yours, etc,
FINOLA REILLY BArch,
Seaview Park,
Newport,
Co Mayo.
Madam, – I do not know which is more worrying: the depth of ignorance displayed by our Tánaiste in her recent remarks about engineers not having felt “the chill wind of economic reality” or the apparent lack of a substantive response from our representative organisations, the Institution of Engineers of Ireland (IEI) and the Association of Consulting Engineers of Ireland (ACEI). – Yours, etc,
PATRICK LORD BE, MIE,
Chartered engineer,
Lord Consulting Engineers,
Church Hill,
Navan,
Co Meath.