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ireland |
“Presents to nieces, nephews, in-laws and other less
immediate relatives or friends are for the chop.”
MERRY CHRISTMAS
MR COWEN
As the Christmas lights are now up in the shops,
it is time wish An Taoiseach a ‘Merry Christmas’,
writes JOSEPH MORGAN
cutting back on their spending this Christmas due to the current
economic environment and fears about whether they will have a
job this time next year. Some of them have already lost their jobs
this year and as the redundancy payment and savings run out,
every item of spending is being scrutinised to ensure the mortgage
is paid and there is a roof over their heads.
Presents to nieces, nephews, in-laws and other less immediate
relatives or friends are for the chop. The extra spending on luxuries
for the table will be pared back.
Figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), released earlier this
year, show that sales in December 2008 fell by over 8% compared
to a year earlier. And its looking like this December is going to be a
lot worse.
And cross-border shopping figures prominently in that prediction.
One friend showed me the UK and Irish catalogues of a ‘well known
retail chain’ that showed the price for a particular child’s toy at €50
here and £30 (about €33 at current exchange rates) in the North.
Her words: “It’s a no-brainer really. I’m going to be buying all the
presents in Newry and I might as well get the food and the wine
while I’m there as that’s cheaper too.”
Meanwhile, back in the car park, the long queue of cars with Dublin
registrations lined up one after the other made spotting a local
Northern Ireland plate rather like looking for a hen’s teeth. Those
shoppers were clearly paying a lot of heed to our leader’s words.
The ‘consumer-led recovery’, allegedly to be brought about by
NAMA getting credit flowing into the economy again, is one of
the key drivers that our government is telling us will lift the Irish
economy out of recession.
Quite apart from the fact that my poll shows that nobody wants
the banks’ credit facilities in the foreseeable future, Ireland’s
economic recovery is starting to look as likely as bumping into the
real Santa on Christmas morning.
As An Taoiseach sits down to his dinner on December 25th, I hope
he spares a minute to think about the many thousands of men,
women and children who have gone without this year. Perhaps he
will resolve to reduce his own salary in the New Year to less than
that of the President of the United States – it is currently greater
- and pump that back into our ailing retail sector if it so concerns
him.
Merry Christmas, Mr Cowen.
16
Pulling into the car park
at the shopping centre in
Newry, Northern Ireland,
this weekend, I couldn’t help
but recall the words of An
Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, earlier this year
as he criticised the public for ‘crossborder
shopping’. At the time, it was all
being blamed on a 30% drop in the value
of Sterling and ‘unpatriotic’ behaviours.
To paraphrase George Orwell: “Shopping
in the rip-off Republic good, shopping
in Northern Ireland - at greatly reduced
prices - bad.” There is nothing quite
like the sight of a politician wrapping
themselves in the national flag.
What Mr Cowen was less keen to point
out is that the government has already
started down the road of delivering a
‘triple-whammy’ to the Irish retail sector
just in time for the run-up to Christmas.
“One has to wonder why
Mr. Cowen would hit
those most in need.”
The first hit came earlier this year. In
the budget last April, it was announced
that the Christmas bonus paid to welfare
benefit claimants would be axed this
December.
There is plenty of evidence to prove that
welfare claimants spend all the money
they receive directly into the economy.
So it’s not as if they money isn’t needed
by those that receive it and one has to
wonder why Mr Cowen would hit those
most in need.
The second punch will be far harder than
the first. The next budget statement is
due in the first week of December. It
has already been widely forecast (by the
government, as well as the pundits) that
most of the €4 billion in savings required
will be achieved by taking the axe to
welfare payments and public sector pay.
Once again, it is coming directly out of
the economy.
The third strike is the real knockout blow
to the retail sector this Christmas.
In a straw poll of fifty friends and
relatives, the overwhelming majority
(94%) said that they will be drastically
“Ireland’s economic recovery
looks as likely as bumping into
the real Santa on Christmas
morning.”
Nancy Pineda