Scraping the barrel for good news

COMMENT

I want to start my column this week by sincerely wishing all my readers a very happy New Year. However, I am afraid that few of us are going to be very happy in 2012 because of the times we live in.

You might have thought that the past year was a bad one. But you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. The prospects for 2012 are even worse.
I would love to be able to look on the bright side of life, especially at this time of the year and particularly since people are turned off by all the forecasts of doom and gloom and they want to hear some good news for a change.
But what are the prospects? Perhaps those in charge of our destiny in Germany and France will get their acts together in 2012 and, at last, bring some stability to the whole euro economy but I have to say that I do not have any great confidence that Angela Merkel or Nicolas Sarkozy will be able to show the leadership that is required to get us all back on our feet again.
Perhaps world oil prices will slump to what they were a few years ago and reach a stage where we will once again be paying only a euro for petrol at Irish filling stations.
That’s if the euro is still with us. There is some chance that oil-producing countries like Saudi Arabia may decide to increase their output of oil in order to stimulate the world economy. But I think there might be a better chance of finding oil off the Cliffs of Moher or under the Burren limestone.
Am I trying to scrape the bottom of the barrel in my search for good news? Well, I really believe there will be good news in the further advancement of medical science and more progress in the search for a cure for cancer. People will continue to live longer in Ireland and in other developed countries of the world.
But what kind of a society are we going to live in? Which is the best, a long life of misery or a short life of joy? Hopefully we will have the best of both worlds and live long lives of joy.
However, recent budgetary and other decisions seem designed to give us the worst of both worlds.
I see no prospects in 2012 of making any great strides towards ending world hunger or poverty. In fact I think the poor will continue to get poorer.
Last month’s budget in Ireland will ensure that the most vulnerable and the most needy among us will continue to pay for the sins of the most well-off.
Every family here is going to have to pay more for basic goods and services and the bigger and the poorer the family, the more they are going to have to pay.
Child benefits have been reduced and the more children you have, the more the benefits have been cut.
You are going to have to pay more for medicine and, of course, the more sick you are the more you are going to have to pay.
If you are old and dependent on fuel allowances to keep you warm over the winter months, you should pray for fine weather, because those allowances were also cut in the budget.
Everyone of us has been hit by the increase in the top rate of VAT to 23%, which came into effect on New Year’s Day. This means were are going to spend less on those goods affected because we cannot afford them. This in turn means more shops will have to shut their doors and more people will join the dole queues. Again, this in turn means less money for the State in income tax and more the State will have to pay out in unemployment and other benefits. What a vicious circle and what a short-sighted decision from a very short-sighted Government!
What else? Oh yes, this hated €100 property tax to be paid before the end of March. Doesn’t matter whether you live in a mud cabin in the middle of a bog or in a mansion in Dublin, everyone will have to pay the same.
Of course people should pay for the local services they use. The more waste we create and the more water we consume, the more we should have to pay. That’s only fair. Just as with electricity.
Then we come to the vexed question about septic tanks. I am with the Government on this one. We do not have a choice. Everyone with a septic tank must register so that the tank can be inspected and repaired if it is found to pollute the ground water supply. If we fail to do this we will be heavily fined by the European Union. I do not see any argument here, but those who cannot afford to bring their septic tanks up to a proper standard must be given financial assistance.
It is idle now to complain about the flouting of planning regulations over the years which allowed septic tanks and one-off houses to destroy rural Ireland. Time has run out on them and I have no sympathy for those politicians who are trying to drum up support for a campaign to boycott registration.
To continue the bad news for 2012, voluntary health insurance charges are set to go through the roof. This is causing more and more people to quit private health and depend on the public sector. But the public sector is unable to cope with the present demands on its services so this is an area that is going to deteriorate further with the addition of countless thousands of others from the private sector. Talk about a vicious circle!
I could go on and on. The only item that is falling in price is housing. That might be good news if you were looking for a house to buy but you will not get a loan from the bank so house prices will continue to fall further.
Still, I want to finish as I started and wish you all a very happy New Year. Agus go mbeirimid beo ar an am seo arís.