MIND-NUMBING NUMBERS pulsate through the Irish press as billions of euro get carted from the Irish Exchequer over to failed banks. I've held only one euro note worth more than 50 euro in my life (the one at left) so I can't imagine the amount of currency involved in this mess. It's an incredulous amount of money, made more incredulous by government ministers who steadfastly refuse to be named as complicit in the demise of the Irish economy. When asked, they say it is the fault of the banks and nothing the government did spurred on the problem. History will expose that falsehood. When I used to fly expensive aircraft into treacherous conditions, I knew that relying on the autopilot to save my skin was not a fail-safe option. For if I had permitted the all-weather landing system to land hard, causing the main landing gear to shear off and cartwheel the aircraft into a fireball, I would have been complicit in the accident. So too must the Minister for Finance on the day (Brian Cowen) share some blame for failing to dampen the flames of an over-heated construction economy during the past decade. He didn't. He tells people he listened to the best advice and that nobody said he should throttle back. That's like me ignoring a runaway autopilot when I was paid to be expert enough to intervene for safety's sake.On The Right Hook, Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport, Mary Hanafin was asked by presenter Richard Aldous if anyone in the Irish Governmenr was going to say sorry. Hanafin said, "I don't accept that people can blame the Government for what the banks did." Aldous asked, "The Government has no responsibility for the fiscal position and the financial position and the economic position that Ireland is now in?" Hanafin replied, "People were clamouring for better roads, for new schools and for better hospitals." Hanafin does think Ireland became over-dependent on the construction industry, "but the Government is not responsible for the terrible situation the banks are in." Like every other cabinet minister I've heard talk about it, Hanafin took the line "I will always say sorry for something for which I'm responsible and the Government will always say sorry for something for which it is responsible." But since the Irish government has never taken responsibility for the Irish economy, it's simply not responsible for having to transfer billions from the Irish economy to a failed Irish bank.
This farcical attitude won't escape the reality check of historians when they write their reports on irresponsible Government behaviour in early 21st century Ireland.
