IMF visit brings nothing but bad news for young families

THE International Monetary Fund was back in town this week, and once again it did not bring any good news for ordinary working people who are stretched to the limit at the moment. The IMF likes to think that it bailed us out in 2011, along the way charging us high rates for that loan. Yes, the IMF lent us €22.5bn – one third of the loans we got – but hit us with a 5% rate, which cost us more than €1bn annually in interest charges.

No wonder we feverishly borrowed money in the last few years at lower interest to be rid of the IMF’s extortionate rates as quickly as possible .

Even the normally calm and conservative governor of the Central Bank, Patrick Honohan, declared in 2015 that the IMF rates were too high.

Of course the IMF pushed austerity, including the ill-fated water charges, which turned out to be one of the most costly fiascos ever in this country. And that’s saying something. Just count the number of redundant water meters concreted into our footpaths to realise what a disaster that project was .

When the IMF comes to town, it doesn’t talk to ordinary people; instead it communes with the civil service and central banking elites, who reinforce the IMF belief that squeezing workers is still the easiest and quickest way of raising even more money.

You can be guaranteed that the IMF’s representatives here, who also advocated an increase in fuel and property taxes, didn’t experience the daily traffic gridlock that is robbing young families of precious time.

You can be guaranteed its representatives did not encounter any of the young families who depend on their small cars to transport their children in the early hours to expensive childcare.

Nor did they see them manhandle the children’s buggies from the roof box as they dash back into the heavy traffic to work – with those slightly above the average industrial wage paying over 50% in income tax to the State each week.

No doubt the IMF didn’t even cop – as it calls for more price hikes in the forecourts – that a litre of petrol is nudging towards €1.50. Between draconian fuel taxes, VRT, insurance levies and tolls, the Irish family motorist is among the highest-taxed in Europe.

Of course the IMF is a big supporter of the penal Universal Social Charge. Its argument in support of it lacks logic. It simply says the USC cannot be reduced because it raises so much money! But it only raises so much because it is so high, especially on middle-income earners. This support for the USC is the view echoed by civil servants and Government politicians.

Any hope of hard-pressed families getting any relief in October’s budget has now been firmly dashed. In the infamous words of Captain Bligh from Mutiny on the Bounty: ‘The beatings will continue until morale improves.’