Unlike Greece and Spain, Ireland appeared to swallow the medicine of austerity with little complaint. The country exited its bailout program and its borrowing costs have fallen to records. At 1.37 percent today, Irish 10-year bond yields are closer to France’s than Spain’s.
Political Direction
Speaking after a British-Irish Council meeting last week, Kenny asked voters if they wanted a Sinn Fein led government “that had the potential to ruin all the gains the country had made by insisting people did not have to pay for anything.”
Two days ago, Finance Minister Michael Noonan called Sinn Fein a “tax and spend party whose economic policies would severely damage the economy.” Adams responded by calling on the government to hold an early election.
“The next election will be about the direction our society takes,” he said in a statement. “Will it be more austerity and bad politics by the conservative parties or do we grasp the opportunity for new politics?”
Neither Adams nor others in the Sinn Fein leadership responded to requests for an interview.
No Going Back
At the Fettercairn Community Centre in Tallaght, Byrne talks of the “irreversible damage” from cuts to health care and spending on the disabled.
The center has lost one full-time worker and a second has had to go part-time. She says 50,000 euros ($62,400) would see those positions restored. “They can’t go back on this,” Byrne said. “This is damage. This is abuse of the people.”
Byrne voted for the Irish Labour Party in the 2011 election, when the electorate handed Fianna Fail, Ireland’s most successful political party at the ballot box, its biggest defeat ever. A coalition of Fine Gael and Labour took over after what Prime Minister Enda Kenny described as a democratic revolution.