Be afraid, be very afraid for our futures

Bailed-out banks spent almost €7m on legal fees over the past three years to repossess homes from people who have fallen on bad times.
That was the chilling heading in the Irish Examiner during the week as we sink deeper into the economic mess that our leaders have created for us.
It is just one other small example of the sort of stuff that has been driving Irish people to despair since the bubble burst four years ago.
As financial adviser James Fitzsimons said in an article in this week’s Sunday Independent, “Those who pay back what they owe are burdened with the debts of those who do not”.
We are living in an Alice in Wonderland world where nothing makes sense. Banks gambled and lost but the rest of the people of Ireland – especially the most vulnerable – are forced to make huge sacrifices as a result. The guilty bankers continue to pay themselves huge salaries, pensions and bonuses.
As we approach budget day, I sense an anger out there that is growing all the time. I am sure you see it, you feel it and I am sure you are angry yourself. It is not as passionate yet as the fury that was out there this time last year but it is getting there. 
Along with the anger, there is a very strong sense of fear and frustration. People are dreading what is in the budget; they fear they will no longer be able to make ends meet this Christmas, that their children will go hungry and that they will not be able to meet their mortgage repayments.
They are frustrated there appears to be nothing they can do about it. This time last year, people’s anger was directed at the Fianna Fáil/Green Party Government. However, they knew the Government’s days were numbered. They knew they were going to be able to vent their anger at that coalition at the general election in the new year.
This time it’s different.  There is no alternative, no light at the end of the tunnel. We are going to be stuck with the present crowd for a long time to come.  Even if Fine Gael and Labour were to fall out and precipitate another general election, it is hard to see an alternative. Surely we are not going to put Fianna Fáil back in office so soon after giving that party such a beating less than a year ago?
Still, we live in tough but interesting times. There is a lot of pressure these days on the Labour leadership because of all the broken pre-election promises. That pressure might or might not eventually force Eamon Gilmore and his colleagues to walk away. Fine Gael might – or might not – then seek help, from a very chastened Fianna Fáil, I might add. You might see what you never thought you would see – a Fine Gael/Fianna Fáil coalition government. I don’t expect that to happen in the wake of this budget. There are three more tough budgets to come. Will the euro still be in existence? Will the Eurozone?  Will the European Union?
None of us know what the next few days or weeks have in store, not to mention the next year or the next few years. You know the old cliché about a week being a long time in politics.  By the time this column appears in print, the whole European scenario might have changed.
Around this time last year I was reporting each week that it was another bad week for the Government.  The same is starting to happen this year. The honeymoon is now well and truly over for this Government.
People such as former Fine Gael Senator Maurice O’Connell are now very disillusioned. The Tralee-based veteran party activist says the Government “is testing the patience of its supporters to the limit”.
In a long letter to the press this week he adds, “We now have a Dáil and Government dominated by people who have no intention of discommoding those who did well out of the Tiger years”.
In an open letter to Finance Minister Michael Noonan, Declan Foley, formerly of Sligo but now living in Berwick, Australia, warns that any further “dithering” by this Government would destroy small business here. He says the Government should go to its “puppet masters” in Europe and tell them, “We will pay this debt over 90 years but first we have to get out own house in order”.
Going back to the aforementioned James Fitzsimons, in the same Sunday Independent article he issued the stark warning, “The Government is working with the lights out and its budgetary strategy will plunge us into a depression that will last for generations”.
I don’t think these guys are prone to panic attacks. I hope their warnings come to nothing. I hope the Government takes heed. But be afraid, be very afraid.
Meanwhile, I was not concentrating last week when I said Joan Burton was doing a good job “in tackling social welfare poverty”. I should have praised her “for tackling social welfare fraud”.