Great €130 billion question

Friday, 06 May 2011 11:20

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Throughout 2010, in this column, I regularly noted that Ireland was not in charge of its own destiny. My views and a lot of other people's views were the same; that the country was being run by a few senior civil servants, the unions, the EU and the IMF. It wasn't rocket science. All one had to look at was the slipshod ways our regulators operated.
So, is it any surprise or should we now be surprised to hear that the ECB, i.e. European Central Bank, had its eye on the Irish ball more so than the Irish.
Is it not understandable to note that when they saw the state of the books in all the government departments and the state of our banks, that it was time to act before the house fell down around Europe.
We were in no position to tell them where to go when they arrived with the lob of money to bail us out. Either take it or you're broke, was the ECB attitude.
Were we too proud a nation to accept a bailout, or were we too naïve to know we couldn't call the shots ourselves?
The unions had negotiated deals for some already well-paid workers that the country could obviously not afford. That's immaterial to union bosses. It was often their terms or no deal.
We are now paying the price for unrealistic demands. Former Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan has been accused of trying to revisit history by his remarks that we were forced into the bailout by the ECB.
Wouldn't it be a great position for any of us to be in, supposing one needed €1 million to pay off our house loan? You were broke and not in a position to pay back the million and your banker demanded you take the million compliments of the taxpayers.
It just wouldn't happen, so why are we so put out by the fact the ECB demanded we take the bailout. We were broke and we should have taken the hand off them with a demand like that.
Whether Lenihan's comments gave the impression that we were 'revisiting history' is immaterial. The new government have been given the job of putting the country back on track and there may need to be many more 'revisions of history' considered to achieve this.
Lenihan's comments have neither been confirmed nor denied by the ECB so the best way to get the real answer is ask the ECB, will they be in a position to let us know the facts as they were at the time.
The real issue is not whether they forced the bailout on us or whether we demanded it. The bottom line is where would we be now without it?
All our banks would be bank jacked. The bond holders would have abandoned us and we would be forced to cut the maximum wage for senior civil servants by maybe 80 per cent.
So why are we getting frustrated about how we got the money? Did it fall or was it pushed upon us?
Fianna Fáil paid the price for the way they handled our economy so we can rewrite as much history as we like, they are not going to be in power in the next few years.
We need to start creating wealth to start paying off our debts. We need to start the clean up. Demolish the dangerous miles of hoarding scattered throughout the country around ghost estates, and cut down these monstrous estate agents signs that were erected over the past three years that still reminds us of the mad times. Move in with the ball and chain and demolish half built, dangerous buildings that are a danger to all of us.
Then start afresh and use that great bailout that was either given to us or forced upon us to make a new beginning, to build a new Ireland.
We employed a Finish banking expert to tell us all where we went wrong. The Nyberg report took 12 months to put together and, like all reports, where Ireland is concerned, they are always predictable and self explanatory so comments from an ex minister shouldn't surprise any of us.
The real issue for Ireland now is how we plan to pay back the billions we have borrowed. It doesn't seem to be an issue. Any political programmes you tune into continually harp on about whether we needed the bailout, how much we needed.
For most of us who borrow money our main concern for the lifetime of the loan is to ensure that one doesn't renege on our promises to pay back on time. All of us know only too well what the outcome is when you fail to do as you promised.
For government, having to borrow monies to keep our economy going and to pay our gardaí, civil servants and nurses we seem to take a rather unorthodox approach: feck them if we cannot pay back. Someone else in Europe will pick up the tab, and amazingly it does sometimes happen. The taxpayer picks up the tab.
So let the good times roll and blame the fellas who demanded we take the money, i.e. €130 billion, or else. Sure when it's gone we can put in another demand that the ECB return the compliments with another bailout, after all it is now official the EU was to blame for our woes.
I'm glad we got someone to blame.