No thanks to the IMF or the ECB

I have been taken to task by a reader in Berlin – of all places – for criticising the International Monetary Fund in this column last week.

You will remember that I asked if those so-called experts at the IMF were really serious when they proposed that the average Irish householder pay around €1,000 a year in property tax.

 

My reader in Berlin says we should be “down on our knees thanking the IMF” – along with the European Central Bank – for coming to our aid when we were on the ropes and nobody else would trust us with their money.

He says that without those two financial institutions there would be nothing in the state coffers to pay our teachers, nurses, gardaí, civil servants, county council workers or fire-fighters. “Ireland was broke. You came with cap in hand to the IMF and the ECB and they looked after you. Now you want to bite the hands that feed you,” he declared.

Well Jesus Christ Almighty. Bless me father but I hope I have not taken the Holy name in vain. I have never heard such nonsense in my life.

It was not for our good that the IMF or the ECB came to our aid. They are charging rates of interest that would put Shakespeare’s Shylock to shame. Isn’t Michael Noonan after spending the best part of a week in Cyprus or wherever trying to get out of the clutches of those two big money lenders? Are we not being strangled by those faceless financiers in Washington and, dare I say it, Berlin?

Things have got even worse here since we were snared by the IMF and the ECB. Bad and all as things were before we became indebted to the IMF and the ECB, they are far worse now. And they are going to get even worse. It is because of reckless bankers in Berlin and elsewhere that our children and our children’s children are going to be burdened with unrepayable debts for generations to come. So please don’t talk to me about the IMF looking after us in our hour of need.

Earlier this week it seemed that Clare County Council was trying to coerce parents of third-level students into paying the wretched household charge.

What will we have next? Cut off your electricity if you haven’t paid up your television licence? Withdraw your water supply if you haven’t registered your septic tank? Let the air out of your tires if you haven’t taxed your car on time? There is no limit to how far they may go unless people stand up to bullying threats.

They have also taken to putting the frighteners on vulnerable old-age pensioners. Junior Finance Minister Brian Hayes claimed during the week that pensioners were the only group coming through the economic crisis with their incomes intact. Is Mr Hayes for real? He is the second-in-command in the Department of Finance after the senior minister Mr Noonan. I would really worry about our financial future if anything were to happen to Mr Noonan and Mr Hayes were put in charge.

The vast majority of old-age pensioners are far worse off today than they were four years ago. Their automatic entitlement to a medical card was abolished by Fianna Fáil; they have had to cough up the universal tax; they, like everyone else, have to pay the household charge and the new property tax, along with water charges and septic tank fees. They are being deprived of benefits they had taken for granted before the crash came. They are now being threatened that their pension will be cut, along with their free travel pass.

Older people are among the most vulnerable in our society. They do not have the strength or the confidence to take on those who would try to take from them the few benefits that are left to them.

However, there are enough of them around who still have a fighting spirit, and woe betide any government that would try and single them out as targets for cut-backs. Fianna Fáil found that out to their cost some years ago. Fine Gael should have learned that lesson.

That, however, doesn’t seem to stop young able-bodied ministers like Brian Hayes from issuing dire warnings to those who are old enough to be his grandparents. I hope he is ashamed of himself.

My only hope is that all this talk about hitting the elderly hard in the forthcoming budget is exaggerated and merely a softening-up tactic. Ministers do have a habit of leaking stuff to friendly newspaper reporters in advance of budgets, issuing dire threats about what to expect. Then when all is eventually revealed in the budget, we find that things did not turn out as bad as we feared. In other words, if people are expecting a cut of €11 in their pension they will welcome a reduction of “only” six euro.

I think it is immoral to be making threats against elderly people who have enough to be worrying about without government ministers adding to their misery.

However, I believe we should be very grateful to two government backbenchers who provided us with some light relief last Monday morning to compensate for all the misery we are suffering. Step forward Fine Gael TDs Pat Breen and Joe Carey. John Cooke quizzed them on Clare FM about Fine Gael pledges relating to Ennis General Hospital before the last election. As you are probably aware, the HSE has announced that emergency treatment of patients at the hospital is to end.

They insisted that no decision had been taken. I nearly fell off my chair laughing as they were forced to listen to promises made by Enda Kenny about the hospital a few weeks before the election. The funniest excuse was made by Deputy Breen. “Circumstances have changed since then,” he said. They sure have. Fine Gael is now in power and no longer in Opposition.

Another great line came from Deputy Carey, “This Government is committed to Ennis General Hospital”. We heard it before Joe. We had been hearing it from Fianna Fáil deputies for decades.

Meanwhile, I meant to write about privacy legislation, politicians and those naughty pictures of Kate Middleton published in The Star last week, but I have run out of space. Next week, maybe.