During the worst economic downturn in decades, the government have announced that they will be allocating millions of euros in taxpayer funding for art projects that promote climate change awareness.
Money well spent, right?
The €2 million “Creative Climate Action Fund” unveiled by Green Party Ministers Eamon Ryan and Catherine Martin is unclear in its precise objective, beyond the vague goals of “building awareness around climate change” and “empowering citizens to make meaningful behavioural changes.” How exactly some modern art project by Bord na Mona will “empower” a citizen to give up driving their car, I haven’t the foggiest. But that’s the plan.
The fact of the matter is, this is a painful waste of money any way you slice it, even if you’re a greenie.
Even if we accept wholesale the premise that man-made climate change is a real and urgent problem, and that Ireland with our 0.1% global contribution can influence it – all of which are huge assumptions – this money will not contribute one iota to combating that issue. It will simply be there to “raise awareness.” And one has to ask: who at this stage is not aware of the government’s view of climate change in 2021? They genuinely never shut up about it, nor do their friends in the media.
https://twitter.com/Ben_Scallan/status/1369260385040228354
All the newspapers, all the TV and radio stations, all the political parties, the government and opposition, the EU, the UN, various NGOs, cultural icons, social media platforms and celebrities are all chanting in unison 24 hours a day about the coming climate apocalypse. I think we get the message, lads, you can shut up now.
But of course, they can’t shut up, because as recent polling shows, only a measly 4% of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael voters (i.e. the majority of the country) consider climate change a top priority. After years of the media and political classes screaming about the sky falling like chicken little, the public, it turns out, just aren’t that worried about alarmist scaremongering.
Irish Times Poll: Little enthusiasm among voters for tackling climate change https://t.co/aQg4inWZht
— The Irish Times (@IrishTimes) June 17, 2020
And so, the solution of our leaders is to shell out millions more of our tax money to try and win us over – while at the same time warning us that the national debt is about to hit a quarter of a trillion thanks to all their other spending on covid (that is to say, the backup apocalyptic fear mongering tool).
https://twitter.com/Ben_Scallan/status/1413473456901943300
Perhaps they’ll soon need an “End Times” plan C in the form of an asteroid or an alien invasion or something – who knows.
A highly awaited US intelligence report on dozens of mysterious UFO sightings said most could not be explained, but did not rule out that some could be alien spacecraft.https://t.co/ef9XZVS0uh
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) June 25, 2021
And while you may say “Well to the government, €2 million quid isn’t a lot,” first of all, these things add up. When you regularly waste millions of euros on printers, or half a million quid on a party which lasted two hours, or millions on an unnecessary climate change ad campaign, you end up with a snowballing figure of total waste.
Cost of Dáil printer that was too big for room rises above €2m https://t.co/kTkYxYZfS4 via @IrishTimesPol
— Irish Times Politics (@IrishTimesPol) December 11, 2019
Breakdown of Dail's two-hour €460,000 party in 2019 – which saw €11,000 spent on musichttps://t.co/FI6AJkx3rj
— Irish Daily Mirror (@IrishMirror) February 3, 2020
The rural broadband plan, the St. James’ National Children’s Hospital, the Dublin sewage treatment plant – if there’s a government project which has not gone massively overbudget and resulted in substantial waste, I’m not aware of it. These things are emblematic of a larger problem.
What’s more, and probably more importantly, some of us on principle would think that even one cent of the taxpayers’ money being wasted by government officials who did not earn it is a travesty, let alone millions.
But then again, what would we expect but waste?
In the words of the American economist Thomas Sowell: “It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.” Which is exactly the unaccountable system we have in Ireland, by giving the government control over every area of our lives.
Make sure to remember all of this tripe the next time you see a tax hike on the horizon – this nonsense is where your money is going.