The Eu: Its Place in Ireland's Economic Misery

We are, we are told, on the edge of a financial abyss; if this be true, we are in that position because we are members of the European Union, and historians of the future (assuming they are freed from the shackles of political correctness that presently cripples honest debate) will record this fact as being the truth of the matter.

In the mid-nineties government decided to stimulate the economy by providing tax reliefs to those building houses and hotels; incentives on such a scale as to leave builders and property developers drooling at the mouth. Pretty soon the tall cranes were scarring the skyline of our cities like an army of invading gulags. At this point, enter the EU.

Ireland badly needed an increase in interest rates; Germany and France, with their massive rates of unemployment, did not. Guess who won the argument?

Once more, enter the EU. With the entry of the accession states, it was very obvious at that point that an army of workers from the new states would be poised to migrate to the West. The other states of the union (with the exception of Britain and Sweden, protected by a difficult language) declared, Augustine-like, "Give us your workers-- but not just yet." The Republic of Ireland, an island of four million people, said: "Come one, come all". And they came, more than three hundred thousand of them.

To the property developers, the builders, the banks and the renters, this was manna from Heaven. Quite amazingly, David Beggs of ICTU and Christy O'Connor of SIPTU were equally enthusiastic about the prospect of a legion of Eastern Europeans descending on the Irish labour market and, inevitably, lowering the wages and the working conditions of Irish workers. Theirs' was the greatest betrayal of the Irish worker since William Martin Murphy.

So how do we get out of this mess?

There are twenty thousand plus non-nationals on welfare just now. The cost to the exchequer is more than twenty thousand euro per unemployed non-national. That's not to mention the cost of language teachers, children's allowance and so forth.

A "going home" sum of five thousand euro should be offered to each such person, plus an additional sum of two thousand euro for each dependent relative. And it should be explained to them that, God forbid, the IMF enter the picture then welfare rates and wages will be slashed, taxes will increase massively, and they will suffer as much as anyone else. Whereas if they accept the payment they will return to their country with a tidy sum of money (the average yearly income in Poland is seventy-five thousand euro) in their pockets. And the Irish apocalypse will be averted.

No criticism should be levelled at the foreign workers. Were the situation reversed, many Irish people would be labouring in Poland, Latvia and elsewhere.

Criticism-- the strongest possible criticism-- should be directed at those non-nationals who agree to work below the rate.

So the next time some bright spark remarks in your presence, "The EU has been good for Ireland", pause. Reflect on the massive welfare queues, the young people with negative equity, the overcrowded hospitals and roads, even the prisons. Lift one quizzical eyebrow, and say: "Oh, yeah!".