STEVE FORBES

Why Ireland must cut taxes

WHY is it that the Celtic Tiger Mark 2.0 is not resonating among the general population? Dare we whisper that phrase?

Maybe the phrase itself scares us. Like recovering alcoholics, we do not want to go back to that time of excess. Maybe we have learnt from the mistakes of the past. Or maybe, we are not all economists looking at the national accounts that on paper say that things are all rosy.

We are keeping some money in our back pockets this time around, fearful of what may lie ahead — if you have the money to keep in your back pocket.

Yet, for all the wonderful talk from policymakers, we are still running a deficit. As a populace, we may not be tightening our belts so much on a micro level, but we are certainly watching our waistline. Will the Government do the same?

So how do you square this conundrum of massive economic growth with a general malaise of how many people are feeling?

Our recent Kantar Millward Brown/Sunday Independent opinion poll shines some light on this paradox. We recognise now that there are certain elements of the economy that are becoming more and more predatory in terms of extracting money from us. The hospitality industry, for a start.

However, to experience such experiences, one needs to be able to go out in the first place. Many couples and singletons with kids cannot afford to do so — the cost of childcare in this country is simply oppressive.

Our taxes are arduous — for what we get it return. Last week showed the highest number of people on hospital waiting lists on record.

One suspects that most taxpayers would not begrudge paying their tax for the common good, but it seems like we are funding a black hole, and not just in the Department of Health.

Rents are on the up and up, and the lack of affordable housing is lamentable. Bear in mind, much of the previous wave of house buyers, who may on paper feel smug that they have recovered the value of their houses with increased property prices, are still paying off mortgages from prices from a pre-Lehman Brothers era — when the Champagne corks were popping for some, but not for many.

Our mortgage repayment rates are laughable in the context of European Central Bank rates and across European norms. But that’s okay — apparently the banks, with a tacit blind eye from this Government (and those before it), think that that’s acceptable.

The hangover of the previous boom looms large.

Notwithstanding this, we are generally upbeat. We may not be prepared to spend as much money, but we still feel that the country is going in the right direction. Two-thirds (66pc) feel that as a nation we are on the proper course. We are also generally optimistic with our lot (23pc).

It seems that we have reached a crossroads — we know what we have, but what is in view is not necessarily touchable.

‘Elements of the economy are becoming more and more predatory’