Don’t blame the Troika for your errors, Brendan…

IN A New Year interview Brendan Howlin blames the collapse of his party’s vote on the Irish Water debacle which he says was caused by pressure from the Troika. ‘It was one of the things Fianna Fáil had committed to in the Troika deal in 2010,’ he said. ‘It was one of the things that every few months the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF were insisting, “where is your progress on this list of things?” ‘This was one of the things we had to make progress on because they were signing off monthly on the pay cheque for the nation, in order for us to pay pensions, the cost of wages and so on…’ This is a nice try from the Labour leader to deflect blame for the Irish Water fiasco from the government to social welfare recipients, public servants and everyone else dependent on the public purse. Howlin overlooks how the Troika sought bailout conditions apart from Irish Water, reforms that for some reason the government found quite easy to sidestep. Reforms to the legal profession, were not carried out according to the Troika’s wishes yet Irish Water was established in an unseemly panic to satisfy our paymasters. If the government had communicated the benefits of water conservation to the public, or showed how water charges would save us money that we will now have to pay in greater taxation, then water charges might now be in place. That they are not is a failure of government, not a symptom of a high-handed Troika or overwhelming public sector pay and social welfare bills.