Everyone is blaming the banks for reckless lending and rightly so but to whom we assign blame for the root cause of our problems seems to depend on which side of the Left/Right divide.
The right blames the social partnership approach in which the construction industry and unions gave each other the nod; the unions got their pay rises and the builders kept their tax breaks and they both kept quiet about what the other got as long as both sides played the game. The government just took a back seat and let it all happen, buying off all and sundry as credit fuelled tax receipts bulged from the state coffers.
The Left blames political corruption, light-touch regulation and the tent and the Galway Races. To them it was all about unbridles capitalism and the takeover of the state by big business vested interests and their FF cronies.
Maybe the real problem is simple one of competence at the top levels of our political and civil institutions.
Social partnership worked fine when the government was in charge and they were taking advice and hammering out consensus on each point of discussion. It stopped working when the government took a back seat and they guys representing their own special interest groups carved up the pot to suit themselves.
Light touch regulation works fine as long as the people doing the regulation are competent and sufficiently removed from the people that they are regulating to be objective and ruthless with those who transgress.
A high level of regulation is useless if those doing the regulation are not up to the job. Not being up to the job also means not being able to get government to listen to what you are saying and not being willing to resign if you aren’t allowed or able to do what’s needed.
Tax breaks are fine as long as they are targeted and continuously examined to make sure there is a net social benefit. It was not unbridles capitalism that caused the housing bubble; it was caused by state interference in the market in the form of unnecessary tax breaks and a lack of political will to legislate to counteract the international credit bubble.
In short well meaning fools in positions of power can be as bad or worse as those that are self serving but competent. That applies to politicians and civil servants as well as those in the private or semi-state sectors, or unions, who are in a position to make as impact or have an influence on a national level.
We need leadership but we also need competence and oversight from the top so that the pain that most of us will have to feel over the next few years will net a long term gain.
That leadership cannot just take the shape of one person, be that Enda Kenny, Brian Cowan or Eamon Gilmore (or another). We need a cohesive strategy that is centralist enough for the three major parties to buy into. The plan needs to be cohesive and straightforward enough for people to understand and then (the hardest part) we need literally hundreds of people across the whole gambit of government and state bodies to step up to the plate and show a level of competence that has been absent for upwards of two decades.
A mediocre plan implemented well is better than a good plan implemented badly.
Does anyone believe that this can or will happen?
The right blames the social partnership approach in which the construction industry and unions gave each other the nod; the unions got their pay rises and the builders kept their tax breaks and they both kept quiet about what the other got as long as both sides played the game. The government just took a back seat and let it all happen, buying off all and sundry as credit fuelled tax receipts bulged from the state coffers.
The Left blames political corruption, light-touch regulation and the tent and the Galway Races. To them it was all about unbridles capitalism and the takeover of the state by big business vested interests and their FF cronies.
Maybe the real problem is simple one of competence at the top levels of our political and civil institutions.
Social partnership worked fine when the government was in charge and they were taking advice and hammering out consensus on each point of discussion. It stopped working when the government took a back seat and they guys representing their own special interest groups carved up the pot to suit themselves.
Light touch regulation works fine as long as the people doing the regulation are competent and sufficiently removed from the people that they are regulating to be objective and ruthless with those who transgress.
A high level of regulation is useless if those doing the regulation are not up to the job. Not being up to the job also means not being able to get government to listen to what you are saying and not being willing to resign if you aren’t allowed or able to do what’s needed.
Tax breaks are fine as long as they are targeted and continuously examined to make sure there is a net social benefit. It was not unbridles capitalism that caused the housing bubble; it was caused by state interference in the market in the form of unnecessary tax breaks and a lack of political will to legislate to counteract the international credit bubble.
In short well meaning fools in positions of power can be as bad or worse as those that are self serving but competent. That applies to politicians and civil servants as well as those in the private or semi-state sectors, or unions, who are in a position to make as impact or have an influence on a national level.
We need leadership but we also need competence and oversight from the top so that the pain that most of us will have to feel over the next few years will net a long term gain.
That leadership cannot just take the shape of one person, be that Enda Kenny, Brian Cowan or Eamon Gilmore (or another). We need a cohesive strategy that is centralist enough for the three major parties to buy into. The plan needs to be cohesive and straightforward enough for people to understand and then (the hardest part) we need literally hundreds of people across the whole gambit of government and state bodies to step up to the plate and show a level of competence that has been absent for upwards of two decades.
A mediocre plan implemented well is better than a good plan implemented badly.
Does anyone believe that this can or will happen?