TOMORROW, we will pay yet another huge chunk of cash to bondholders – this time about €1.3 billion.
In less than six months, we have paid a total of €2 billion to them.
Despite pre-election promises, the current government continues to maintain that if we do anything less, the economic fallout will be catastrophic.
I don’t know about you, but what has taken place over the past few years has had a demoralising effect on both the economy and the lives of everyone in this country.
All last week, we heard from parents with primary school-going children who were worried that wholesale closures of small schools around the country will occur.
They want these small schools to remain open, even if the class sizes don’t conform to the national standard – not that the national standard is something to be proud of.
It isn’t. In fact, if the government continues to grow the size of classes, we will soon kiss education goodbye and have to settle for mere crowd control in the classroom.
Teachers often come in for a fair bit of bashing because of the favourable holidays they enjoy, as well as the perceived short working day compared to other sectors but, in all honesty, who wants to look after 30-plus children with varying needs every day of the week?
But back to the matter of the bondholders: just imagine the benefits we could enjoy if just some of the money we will hand over was diverted into education, or health, or job creation, or a thousand and one other areas.
A couple of years ago, we were the ones being branded as the party responsible for wrecking the party … so to speak. We had caused the implosion of the euro and shown it up for all its faults and failings.
But since then, we have gone from zero to hero. In those short few years, other countries have had to be bailed out – some a couple of times – and even now, they are not too sure if Greece will be able to honour its repayment of €16 billion to bondholders later this month.
Only last week, another host of countries got their knuckles wrapped by the rating agencies, including France, which saw its credit rating downgraded. On the other hand, while not having our credit rating improved, we did not get a black mark.
The examiners from the troika came to town and have given us the star treatment.
But why wouldn’t they?
The government has played by the rules and hit us for everything they are worth, and all so that we can regain our financial independence.
By that, they mean going back into ‘the markets’ to borrow money at a higher interest rate than we are currently paying.
I know that doesn’t appear to make financial sense. Why the rush to get back into a market where we will actually have to pay more for borrowings than at present?
But that, it would appear, is what this is all about.
And just to make sure the general public was suitably quietened, along comes minister Leo Varadkar to tell us that if we burn the bondholders, then mortgage holders, who are already crippled or unable to repay their loans, will face yet more increases because we will have to pay even higher interest rates on money borrowed.
So we are damned if we do and damned if we don’t.
So much for all the sweeping changes which the present government promised.
It would appear that flippant remarks about the possible uses of obsolete voting machines or why thousands of young people are emigrating is about the height of creativity this government can get up to.