I DON’T know about you, but I was looking forward to something more enlightening from the state of the nation address by our taoiseach on Sunday night.
Maybe I was looking for the impossible, but I thought there would be a little more substance to the content – but there wasn’t.
We all know there is nothing in the kitty and, no matter how it is dressed up, the only way the government is going to raise more money to fill the gap is to hit the same old source. The introduction of a 2% hike on VAT will have a devastating effect on jobs and our ability to buy many essentials.
A well-worn joke is how the Labour Party is made up of smoked-salmon-loving socialists. Isn’t it amazing to think that smoked salmon will be exempt from the 2% hike?
I’m not too keen on the stuff myself.
As far as I am concerned, it is basically raw fish, but even with all the pre-Christmas specials on offer, the cost of smoked salmon is out of the reach of a large percentage of the population.
But back to the address on Sunday night. Isn’t it great to think that the government will do whatever it takes to ensure we can go back to the markets – wherever they are – in the not-too-distant future and borrow again.
And no matter what happens, we will continue to hit the markers on the roadmap to financial recovery. It doesn’t matter that those who are still working in this country will be broke.
While the government scurries around to find ways and means of introducing cutbacks, I was amazed to see that the taoiseach had no difficulty in authorising some noted u-turns.
The latest incident is a 37% pay hike for a special adviser to the minister for jobs, enterprise and innovation. Now, if this person was in receipt of the national average wage, there would be no great surprise. But he should have received a salary of €80,000.
This was raised to €92,000, but that wasn’t enough. According to Enda Kenny, this person was a special case and was entitled to be paid above the salary cap.
The figure they eventually settled on was €127,000 a year – about €2,450 a week.
The role of the ministry of jobs, enterprise and innovation was hailed as one of the most important in the make-up of the new government, but can anyone say what exactly it has done since its formation? There was great fanfare a couple of months ago about a new jobs’ initiative. In fact, that initiative was hailed as ground-breaking on no less than three occasions over the past few months – but with very little tangible results.
But this is not the only case where the national guideline has been ignored. There have been 14 special cases for extra money in the current government – some receiving salaries in excess of €160,000 a year.
Over the coming days, there will be a lot of talk, a lot of playing the blame game on all sides of the house but, no matter who says what, the government already knows it will have no problem getting the budget passed. It will only be a matter of time before they get their way – much the same as what has happened in the past.
In a few weeks, 2011 will be consigned to history, but while it has seen a change of government, and the almost total disintegration of the former coalition parties, it has not seen a whole lot of change for the majority of people. Unfortunately, it looks as though 2012 won’t be much different.