Cat is out of the sack

BUDGET day used to be an exciting time in the various newsrooms I’ve worked in over the years. I would sit, along with all the other journalists and eagerly jot down the minister’s announcements as they were fed over the radio, television, newswire or, latterly, the internet. In the case of the last two examples the point was moot, as the information relayed was being gathered in a similar timeframe to ourselves so was nothing new when we received it.
This year, the people of Ireland are, like journalists, receiving reports over a newswire service. It will merely confirm what they know already. When the minister stands up in the Dáil to announce Budget 2012, everyone who has had access to a newspaper will know the major details of the speech thanks to the revelation of same to the German parliament’s finance committee last week. This is a peculiar kind of humiliation. When the fact came to light, Irish incredulity was met with the announcement that, in fact, the details were with 27 finance ministers and ministries all over Europe.
When I first read the news I could think of only one thing. It, perhaps, happens less these days but I can remember a number of times in my childhood being in the shopping centre across from Cusack Park in Ennis and seeing a parent berate a child for having wet their pants. As well as calling vocal attention to the contravention of the etiquette of urination, I can remember a number of parents pulling down the pants of the offender and adding to the humiliation by confirming for all to see that their progeny had indeed micturated in their pants.
Ireland’s pants are around the nation’s ankles and Europe’s financial parents are loudly tutting at the state of our underwear. The austerity imposed from outside has been a savage whip on the backs of many thousands of people. The sharing of previously secret details with calculating drones within the rubber stamp network of the wider European Unions’ finance departments feels like a humiliation too far. The exposure of our chaffed, ire-red buttocks has not been tempered by the pathetic attempts on the part of the Government to play the line that nothing has been fully decided. This amounts to nothing more than fresh irritation.  
It is difficult to know what face the Government is trying to save in this instance. Clearly, Ireland is tied to the rack and shall remain there for many years. The attempts to lie and cover up the extent of the subjugation only serves to further humiliate the electorate by painting them as the kind of idiot who will swallow anything if it is issued through a press officer.
People are living every day with the reality of what is described in newsprint so they are more than capable of absorbing the truth of it. They will not appreciate being lied to when it comes to their lives. Services are being cut, taxes will be increased, people’s pensions are being slashed and they will see no benefit from the pain. These measures are being implemented to pay back bad debt run up by a relatively small number of individuals.
To continue the wet pants analogy, this is where we realise that, in fact, another child had burst a water balloon on the shorts of the exposed child to make it look as though they had wet themselves. Their actual innocence in the whole affair does little to assuage their humiliation when their shorts are dropped in the middle of the shopping centre and the wet patch is exposed.
One of the major headlines revealed in Germany was that VAT in Ireland will increase from 21% to 23% when the Budget “announcement” is implemented. This is an easy option for the Government but I hope they have not taken this decision lightly. VAT is a regressive tax; it disproportionately hits those on low incomes. This combined with the cuts in social welfare and public services adds to what is becoming an increasingly grim picture.
A line in a recent Irish Times article summed up the forthcoming Budget in a chillingly succinct way: “The Department of Social Protection will bear the brunt of cuts in next month’s Budget, accounting for €700 million of the €2.2 billion reductions in expenditure.” This statement is part of the ongoing war between the coalition partners to see who can drag their heels further out of the mire when they wield the scythe. It was leaked to damage one side or the other but it only exposes who will be the real losers. The people whose mind it was leaked to influence.
Part of the German revelation was that the pain will not stop next year. Ireland is in hock to such an extent that the terrible nomenclature “Troika” will be in use in political discourse for many years. It is at once an explanation and an excuse. Why are the people who can least afford it being punished? The Troika decrees it. Why can you as elected representatives not do something to prevent this injustice? The Troika decrees it.
It is hard to say if Ireland will have learned a lesson in the aftermath of this “accident”. Certainly nobody will want a repeat of the incident but how much control in terms of prevention will rest in the hands of the people is a point which will bear much discussion. For the foreseeable future, economic decisions will be taken by a distant authority with the interest of the wider European project at heart so this avenue remains closed.
Enda Kenny has issued a statement this week saying “job protection” will be a priority in his coalition’s leaked budget. He does not specify what kind of jobs he wishes to protect. He will not be protecting reasonably paid, public service jobs with good pay and conditions. He has little power to protect jobs in the private sector if truth be told; tax cuts and incentives will only go so far. We can only assume that he will be protecting the idea of jobs. People’s welfare is not his concern. If you have a “job” Enda will tell you to count yourself lucky. Turn up and take down your pants. See a disproportionate percentage of your slim wages disappear to meet the VAT increases. Be thankful that your leader is protecting your “job”.