Afri (Action from Ireland) – Campaigners Call for Debt Audit
Spiked/Jason Walsh – Swapping One Shade of Austerity for Another
Mediabite/Miriam Cotton – The Forgotten Constituency: The Majority and the Economic Crisis
Counterpunch/Harry Browne – Irish Electorate Makes Room for the Left
And welcome to the election day special edition of CrisisJam. In the political debates of the last few weeks it has been genuinely remarkable how little has been said about those vulnerable groups within Irish society who have borne most of the impact of a crisis visited upon us by the greed and negligence of the political and corporate elite.
Among the many myths of the crisis is the one that depicts the public sector as bloated and wasteful. These claims have little basis in fact. But, as Alison Spillane explains, the advocates of austerity have their tails up and are in no mood to allow mere facts to get in the way of a convenient argument.
Tenancy in Ireland is a stepping stone. That's long been the idea, anyway: one rents til one buys, and god have pity on anyone not in a position to buy. Government policy throughout the boom was calculated to ensure tenancy could not be a viable long term choice for anyone wishing to have a roof over their heads, leaving, for most, only the option to purchase a home at a hyper-inflated price. Post crisis, not much has changed, says Tadhg O'Sullivan.
While budgets for various essential forms of social provision are being viciously and repeatedly slashed, the state seems to be able to find plenty of cash to fund some of its more punitive functions. Even though crime is not on the rise, the prison population in Ireland is exploding. Here Liam Herrick explains the looming crisis of an approach to crime that increasingly leans towards the hugely expensive and self-defeating option of incarcerating young working class people for often very innocuous offences.
The impact of the austerity measures is particularly pronounced in Ireland's health services. While the health budget has been severely cut, patients also face increased charges at a time when incomes are tumbling. The inevitable result is, as Sara Burke points out below, that the health of ordinary people inIreland will decline and that ultimately lives will be lost.
The advent of the present economic crisis has provided a convenient opportunity for the corporate and political elite to erode the pay and conditions of the most vulnerable sections of the Irish workforce. But this exploitation is of course nothing new. As Fran P Bowman reminds us, even when the Celtic Tiger was in full swing, migrant workers in particular were subjected to most appalling treatment by unscrupulous employers.
Many of the architects of this crisis are managing to survive the recession pretty well, continuing to draw generous salaries or retiring from political and corporate life with handsome pensions. The contrast with the most poorly paid and protected among the Irish workforce could hardly be starker. As Christina Finn explains here, the recent reduction of the national minimum wage has accelerated a “race to the bottom” that will leave marginalised and migrant workers even more vulnerable than before.
Yesterday, the staff at the Sunday Tribune collected their last pay cheques. The newspaper, which went into receivership at the beginning of the month, failed to find a buyer – its 43 staff will receive redundancy notices next Monday, 28 February.
Known for its quality writing and keen analysis, the Tribune's voice will be missed in a market that is becoming increasingly less diverse.
A weekly round-up of what the CrisisJammers have been reading, watching and listening to
Boston Review/Samuel Bowles & Herb Gintis - Is equality passé?
RSA Journal/Mary Midgley - The pseudo-Darwinist conspiracy