Irish Economy – Can us rats save the sinking ship?

On the recent twelve pubs of Christmas event I had a discussion with the distinguished ex-president of the chamber of commerce (you know who you are – Graham!). Given this event involves 12 pubs , in one night, the following has been translated back into English. The main thread of the conversation is that only us rats can save the sinking ship. Calling every person in Ireland a ‘rat’ perhaps isn’t good PR on my part, but it’s a good analogy for the current state of the Irish economy.

Now, I’ve been known to follow previous Government advice and ‘shop around’ for the best value (including at the Quays in Newry). However, if everybody follows this ‘me first’ approach we’ll be quickly in a race to be first to leave the sinking ship. But what if, instead of cutting and running, we stayed to plug the leaks in the Irish economy and kept it afloat?

The trouble in staying to plug the leaks is that this requires consensus that everybody helps out– and consensus is in short supply at the moment. All groups in Irish society are fighting to shift the inevitable pain of the recession on to somebody else. The lack of consensus is worsened by the fact that those who did well in the boom, and those seen to be responsible for the bust, are not necessarily those that are feeling the most pain right now. Without consensus, you’ll be left alone with your bailer as the water closes over your head.