We need a transformation, not least a transformation of values

A narrow focus on sectional interests ultimately means damage for all of us

TOO MUCH information, or TMI, is an expression used, usually with a smile, to fend off someone intent on giving embarrassing details the listener would prefer not to hear. Unfortunately, many people in Ireland have decided that the details of our economic woes constitute TMI.

Every day someone else tells me they have stopped listening to the radio, or reading newspapers, because it is all too depressing. In one way it is understandable. Sustained feelings of helplessness are very difficult for human beings to bear. The four-year plan is indeed grim. No matter who is elected next, they are stuck with the parameters set out by the EU and the IMF, unless something unforeseen happens.

But declaring it all to be TMI is to fall prey to some serious delusions, such as the expressions of relief in some quarters that at least the economic situation had been taken out of the hands of the “bunglers” in Government and put in the hands of people who know what they are doing – the EU and the IMF.

It was William Goldman, in Adventures in the Screen Trade, who wrote: “Nobody knows anything.” He meant no one in the film industry has a clue what constitutes the ingredients of a successful movie.

When it comes to the current crisis, unfortunately, it is even more true. The average Irish citizen might feel they are suffering from TMI, particularly information of the gloomy kind.

However, those attempting to deal with this crisis are suffering from TLI, too little information. In relation to this crisis, Olli Rehn knows no more than Brian Lenihan. The EU can do no more than Brian Lenihan did – make educated guesses, try something and hope for the best.

Lenihan, of course, had the added problem of not just TLI, but misinformation from the banks to deal with, and an ingrained Fianna Fáil bias in favour of developers and bankers. But it is nonsense to believe that the EU is omniscient or unbiased.

The euro zone was set up without mechanisms to deal with problems of this magnitude. The European System of Financial Supervisors was an emergency response. Bailing out Greece was meant to stop contagion, just as bailing us out was meant to prevent the crisis spreading to Portugal and Spain.

We are in uncharted territory. It seems extraordinary that the fortunes of a small country such as Ireland can be watched with something akin to terror by much larger economies, in case Ireland’s collapse triggers another worldwide recession.

Nor can we see the IMF as some kind of knight on a white charger. It is a promoter of the same kind of neo-liberal values that created the crisis in the first place. It makes no attempt to conceal its values. For example, it has proposed that women should be given a 5 per cent tax credit to work outside the home. It is highly likely IMF values lie behind one aspect of the National Recovery Plan, which shows clearly that single income married families will be disadvantaged again.

On page 102 of the plan, it says that “by 2014, net pay for a single person on €55,000 will be reduced by €1,860 per annum (€36 per week) or 4.8 per cent. The net pay for a married one-income family on €55,000 will be reduced by €2,310 per annum (€44 per week) or 5.4 per cent”. That is a difference of €450 a year. If the public resort to the equivalent of plugging their ears and singing loudly like children so they cannot hear, they lose even the limited ability they have to affect the priorities expressed in the four-year plan.

According to the IMF, apparently the only valuable woman is a woman in the paid workforce. They will get away with this if people retreat from trying to understand what is going on, and take refuge in Desperate Housewives and The X Factor instead.

If Ireland can be watched with bated breath when in meltdown because of its potential impact on the rest of the world, it is at least plausible that a genuine attempt to do things differently could also be watched with interest.

We need a transformation, not least a transformation of values. We have seen where the culture of the “cute hoor” has brought us. We are a country that has had more than a grudging approval of people who bend the system to suit themselves.

That has to stop. Fianna Fáil has been most associated with this mentality, with planning corruption, jobs for the cronies, looking out for the interests of a small elite. The next election will see the party decimated.

It is important this happens for the right reasons, that it is a rejection of that kind of culture and not just impotent rage because we are facing a decade or more of austerity.

If Fianna Fáil is wiped out because of rage, and some kind of hope that we can get back to where we were, that rage will be transferred to a new government within weeks of forming a new government.

We can’t get back to where we were. It was based on an illusion, a bubble. We can only go somewhere else. A narrow focus on sectional interests ultimately means damage for all of us.

Take another of the measures mooted in the four-year plan: the proposal that new public service workers will earn 10 per cent less but do probably more work and have fewer pension rights. Are we really willing to accept unequal pay for younger people? Surely it would be better to accept pay cuts across the board than build in that kind of inequality? Our options are severely limited by the four-year plan.

We still have the option of making choices within that plan, such as defending the minimum wage and rejecting the idea of “yellow pack” public service workers. The pain will not go away, but we have a duty to try and influence how that pain is distributed. We can only do that if we reject the option of burying our heads in the sand and hoping it will all go away.