Who are the heroes who have helped us out of recession?
David Bloch, MD of the Brightwater Group comments:
Who are the Heroes of the recession? The business community seem to overwhelmingly feel it is “The People” with the vote as follows: The People 62%, Rest of World 25% and the Irish Government 13%.
For me, there is no doubt that “the people” have been fantastic (South and North). They have worked harder and for less money than they could have imagined. They have carried pressure, stress and responsibility. The private sector in particular has taken pay cuts, redundancies, diminishing benefits and job security. They haven’t gone on strike and brought the country to its knees, and in general, they have tried to work with their companies to find a way through the recession as a team. In fact, I believe the Irish people (even more than the UK) have won the respect of the whole world - particularly when compared with some other countries, like Greece. The respect they’ve gained worldwide will mean more companies trusting in Ireland and more investors putting their money into Ireland.
The “rest of the world” did their bit at the crucial moment. When the world was looking at oblivion, the various governments spent money to keep the economies ticking along until GDP picked-up of its own accord. Keynesian economics works in the long run, but at the moment it has meant massive debts for many countries (including the UK). Ireland and the world would be in a much, much worse state if not for their dynamic response to the crisis and it is to be hoped that Northern Ireland’s Public Sector doesn’t suffer over-much as a result.
The Irish Government are clearly not well respected within Ireland (more respected outside Ireland) and I think that’s unfair. The question was ‘who are the heroes of the recession’, but suspect many people were looking back at the cause of the recession, rather than the Government’s response to the recession. Yes, there is no doubt Fianna Fail are partly culpable for the crisis we’ve just been through, but I believe they have been very courageous since the recession started, with Brian Lenihan in particular making crucial decisions. Yes it’s true, not every decision was right – they’re certainly debatable, but as a whole they have led Ireland out of recession, making more right decisions than wrong. Where I suspect there can be little disagreement, is that Brian Cowen has failed to show the dynamic leadership that we all crave. In the 21st century, good decisions are not enough… Gordon Brown just found that out.
Finally, there has been a lot of attention given to anyone damning Ireland Inc. I believe those people are responsible for exacerbating the formidable problems we still face, and I have been on TV and radio as recently as last week explaining why. If you are interested in the positive news and what I clearly see as a bright future for Ireland Inc, then please see my blog posted on our website and Facebook page.
The next poll: I was recently on the radio and a caller said she was so relieved to have taken a holiday and not be bombarded by recession news. I would be very interested (and will publish the results) in your views on:
Are you fed-up with talk of the recession?