Sir, – “Neoliberalism”, of a kind, can coexist with high and increasing levels of state spending. But it was never intended to be so. Mrs Thatcher very explicitly set out to “roll back the state”. In the 19th century, state spending had stood at something over 10 per cent of GDP. She never managed to knock more than a few points of the 40 per cent or so where it stubbornly remained.
The idea was that free enterprise, unencumbered a voracious state, would flourish as never before; wealth would trickle down, workers would spend their money as they chose, and markets would satisfy all desires and needs.
In fact, in the UK, the state subsidises employment in myriad ways, while corporate taxation receipts are somewhat less than subsidies paid to industry. Free enterprise hasn’t stood up to the mark. Joe Biden has at least partially called time on “neoliberalism”; it is unclear how British government economic policy should be denominated. Certainly, Boris Johnson hasn’t a clue.
The Irish economy continues to boom: under such circumstances, a government can pretend that it just does “economics”, devoid of an ideological component. – Yours, etc,
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EOIN DILLON,
Dublin 8.
Sir, – The most recent accusations that Fine Gael is a radical neoliberal party and that the costs of Fine Gael policies are born by the ordinary people to protect the interests of global investors, etc, have no basis in fact (Letters, December 17th).
Fine Gael has implemented centrist policies that have, along with others, delivered significant progress for our country: Ireland has witnessed the greatest intergeneration reduction in inequality within the OECD; we have a level of social mobility well ahead of the OECD average and in line with peers such as Denmark; Irish people are living longer and have witnessed the second-highest increase in life expectancy in the EU over the last 20 years; and 50 per cent of Irish people of working age have attained a third-level education, the highest in the EU.
As a result, our country is ranked second in the world on the UN’s Index on Human Development.
The immediate challenge is in relation to housing where the most important strategic response has been the establishment by Fine Gael of the Land Development Agency, a State body, with a mission to increase the delivery of public housing and to intervene in the market to ensure we avoid such a drop in housing supply again.
And current policies are showing progress with over 60,000 new homes built in the last three years, despite Covid-19, and the housing lists down 30 per cent from their peak.
Fine Gael policies are not above criticism but we need to move away from simplistic name-calling and labelling. – Yours, etc,
Cllr JIM O’LEARY,
Fine Gael,
Dublin 14.