How fickle the mob is! 15 guys in green win a game of rugby on Saturday evening. 5 hours later an eight and a half stone Dubliner knocks out a Panamanian boxer. Queue the media with statements that surmounted to as much as thank god for our sporting heroes who have managed to lift the gloom of the recession that has enveloped us since late last year. Talk about animal spirits!
What happened on Saturday evening/night were wonderful national occasions but should not be used in an attempt to stimulate our stalled economy by suggests we need to be more like our sporting icons. The problems with Ireland are very simple. We are paying ourselves too much and taxing ourselves too little. In January and February this year the government collect €5.7 billion in revenue. The same government spent €8 billion. You don't have to be an economist to figure out where this will lead you.
The problems with this economy can be easily sorted if the appropriate issues are tackled. Given the poor performance of tax increasing in the 1980s to fund our budgetary requirements, a cut in public expenditure is probably the best way to sort of this huge deficit in our public finances. A herd mentality has exacerbated the downward spiral that we find ourselves in. What we need now are cool heads - just like Ronan O Gara on Saturday.
