EDITORIAL

TRYING to understand the intricacies of the attempts being made to salvage the country from financial chaos is beyond the comprehension of most people. We’re being bombarded with talk of bond auctions and protecting the State’s assets, as well as the continuing fallout from the banks rescue plan. On top of that, it is fairly clear that the Government intends to implement cuts far in excess of €3 billion in December’s budget.
We learned on Tuesday that the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) sold €1.5 billion of bonds in a monthly auction but only after investors extracted a higher interest rate.
There was strong demand for the securities despite all the uncertainty on Monday, when bond yields, equivalent to the interest rate that must be paid on State borrowings, hit a record high since Ireland joined the euro a decade ago.
Concerns over Ireland’s sovereign debt and the cost of addressing the Irish banking crisis led to the bond yields rising in recent weeks. The question mark about the possible final cost to the taxpayer of the bailout for Anglo Irish Bank has also left a lot of people very worried about what the future holds for them. It’s not exactly what you’d want potential investors to be looking at.
The fine detail of this goes right over the heads of a lot of ordinary people. However, they do relate to the fact that it will have a serious impact on their lives, their standard of living and indeed the lives of the next generation. The Celtic Tiger era will be just a distant memory, a time to look back on with rose tinted glasses, a time just before the crash when people woke up to the fact that we were living in a false economy.
What also resonates with the average citizen is the information in the latest dispatch from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), which shows there are currently 293,600 people unemployed in Ireland, an increase of 29,000 or 11.0% in the year. Granted, the decline in the numbers of people in employment has slowed down but 127,000 people or 5.9% of the total working population have not worked in a year or more.
There were 1,859,100 people in employment in the second quarter of 2010, the CSO’s quarterly National Household Survey has shown.
This represents an annual decrease in employment of 79,400 (4.1%) and compares with an annual decrease in employment of 5.5% in the previous quarter and a decline of 8.2% in the year to the second quarter of 2009.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, 7,600 people lost their jobs in the months April to June, the lowest fall recorded since the first quarter of 2008. When seasonal factors are taken into account, a quarterly increase of 6,300 in the numbers unemployed was recorded, increasing the official unemployment rate from 12.9% to 13.2% over the quarter.
There are currently 293,600 people unemployed, an increase of 29,000 or 11% in the year. This figure represents the lowest annual increase in unemployment since the rise of 23,600 that was recorded in the second quarter of 2008.
Unemployment is now at a level comparable with that recorded in 1994 and 1995 when the unemployment rates were 14.7% and 12.2% respectively.
In his observation on the CSO figures, Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed co-ordinator, John Stewart, said the impact of long-term unemployment on people can be catastrophic. He called on the Government to provide an integrated jobs strategy that gives unemployed people hope of the prospect of a decent job in the future.
The Government, which at this stage it would seem is beyond the point of re-election, owes it to the public to at least get some jobs growth back into the economy. In recent days, there have been a few significant job announcements but these are only counter-balancing losses in other areas.
The bottom line is people don’t want to hear about international markets and corporate banking; they want to hear about jobs being created and existing ones secured.

Danger lurks in point scoring

FINE Gael’s Simon Coveney came across holier-than-thou when he drew attention to Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s now infamous interview on RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland a couple of weeks ago. As we know, his original twitter message took legs, even attracted international media coverage and provided plenty of fodder for Opposition politicians to feed on.
However, turning such incidents to political advantage can be mighty dangerous. The wheel can go full circle.
This week, Fine Gael is in a very embarrassing position after it was revealed that Cork TD, PJ Sheehan told a female garda who tried to stop him from driving out of the grounds of Dáil Éireann while “extremely intoxicated” that she would never be promoted.
In an official garda report in relation to the incident, Mr Sheehan is said to have told the garda “when we get into power, you will get nothing”. It’s also reported by the sergeant on duty that the TD was “extremely intoxicated” and “ required assistance to remain upright”.
Fine Gael leader, Enda Kenny, who was leaving the Dáil at the same time as Mr Sheehan on the night of the summer recess last July, told the sergeant to “ignore what Mr Sheehan had said”.
This has certainly taken the sting out of Fine Gael’s attempt to adopt the high moral ground in respect of Mr Cowen’s Galway-gate error of judgement in going live on radio on the morning after the night before at the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party gathering.
The main Opposition party saw this as the icing on the cake in terms of a long list of failings on the part of Mr Cowen as a former finance minister and now Taoiseach.
Mr Cowen, despite misgivings among some backbenches, has, however, the support of Fianna Fáil’s cabinet members and suggestions of moves to oust him have all but evaporated. The defining moment came when he appeared outside Government Buildings with Finance Minister Brian Lenihan by his side to address the media on the issues of the day.Of course, things can change rapidly in politics and we’re quite a distance from the May 2012 finishing line of the current Dáil.
Meanwhile, life goes on. The sky didn’t fall. It’s a question of who will make the next blunder and when? After all, what is politics without controversy?