As Ministers were slowly winging their way back to Ireland yesterday from their Saint Patrick’s Day jaunts, those of us who stayed at home were receiving various bits of news – all of it pointing in the same direction.
First, there was the news that the average price of a home in Dublin is now €600,000, meaning that a couple who were first-time buyers would have to be earning a joint annual income of €135,000 and have €60,000 in spare cash just to qualify for a mortgage. The median (smack bang in the middle) income in Ireland is just €58,000, meaning that to buy a home in Dublin you now have to be a well-above average earner, married to another well above average earner.
Second, there was the latest on fuel prices: Diesel remains at €2 a litre at many pumps, home heating oil is at near record levels, and the Israeli strikes on Iranian domestic gas production yesterday, coupled with Iran’s response in attacking the Qatari gas fields, sent global energy prices skyward yet again.
These fuel prices, by the way, are going to make everything else worse later in the year. They will drive up costs for farmers further, dramatically shoving up the costs of silage and the harvest. They will drive up costs for hauliers and transportation firms. They will materially impact the cost of electricity. It is not just fuel that is about to get more expensive: In time, everything will.
For the last fortnight or so, Ireland has not had a Government in residence. It has had a Government in exile, with Ministers scattered to the four corners of the globe in pursuit of goodwill and investment. This may or may not – depending on your views – be a worthwhile endeavour. But it has left the country without a functioning national parliament during one of the worst economic shocks of recent years.
Mr. Martin, the Taoiseach, was of course asked about the inflationary crisis in Washington, where he said – not unreasonably – that his preference was to agree a plan of action with his government colleagues and then to announce it when it was agreed. This is preferable to making up policy on the hoof, to be sure. But it cannot be an excuse for inaction.
As this publication has documented, the Irish Government has both the tools and the money to take decisive action: A projected fiscal surplus this year of some €5billion, which is certainly going to be bigger on foot of the increased fuel taxes it is taking in. It has major scope to cut taxes on fuels, given that those taxes only take in about €3billion every year. Doing so would not only benefit households, but would also benefit farms and businesses across the country and prevent them from having to shunt prices upwards later this year.
This is, I think, a watershed moment for Government, and indeed Irish democracy. At the last election, Irish voters made a very clear and unambiguous decision to remove the Green Party from political office. Yet, despite that decision, the Irish voters are still living with Green Party policy, and the Government continues to implement Green Party ideas. As of right now, with the price crisis fully underway, the Government is committed to increasing carbon taxes on fuel this year, ostensibly to mitigate the global climate crisis.
In Washington on Tuesday, the Taoiseach listened impassively as Donald Trump levelled a series of criticisms against the United Kingdom, on energy and on immigration. Trump either did not know that Ireland has the exact same policies, or did know it and was diplomatically (unusually for him) giving an indirect hint. But either way, love Trump or hate him, what he was saying made perfect sense: On energy policy, the strategy of building windmills and keeping oil and gas resources in the ground has made Ireland the country in Europe with the most expensive electricity, most expensive motor fuels, and most expensive home heating. It has failed miserably to bring down costs, and it has failed miserably to help Ireland meet its (insane) carbon reduction targets.
The Government is back at work today. Or perhaps tomorrow. The stakes for the Irish economy from the current global fuel shock are not obscure or hard to detect. The measures the Government could take are not difficult to articulate them.
The choice they have is a simple one: Do they care more for the Green Party’s vision of a decarbonised Irish economy, or do they care more for the financial wellbeing of their own citizens? I fear, dear reader, that the answer to that question is obvious to all of us, even if it is not obvious to the Government in its own mind.
But either way, the public deserve answers and clarity, and they deserve them quickly. The junkets are over for another year: Now, can our politicians actually make themselves useful, for once?