Ireland’s now buoyant economy poses several questions as to what this newly found wealth means, and how it should be best spent. MALACHI O'DOHERTY investigates
SUDDENLY Ireland is a rich country. This is not what most of us expected if we lived through the crash of 2008 and the bailout, or if older still, through the calamitous 1980s.
It seems an integral part of Irish self-identification to feel that the home country is poor and that we were as well getting out when we did.
My family left Donegal in the 1950s for the benefits of family allowance and new housing in Northern Ireland and the country has been scattering its youth to the ends of the earth since the Famine and before.
But this year Ireland has a budget surplus of over €10billion and a projected surplus in the next three years of 65 bn. This is close to the size of the UK deficit.
The money has come mostly from corporation tax. You cut that tax, more firms come in and you end up with higher takings.
The big question is how this money is to be spent.
It could go on developing sustainable energy. Massive wind farms in the west of Ireland were described at a conference I attended recently as having the potential to make Ireland the Saudi Arabia of green energy within ten years, harvesting the Atlantic breeze and selling it on as electricity.
Some argue that it is now time for Ireland to give up its military neutrality and build up its forces.
Can it really be regarded as an independent sovereign nation when it relies on Britain to defend its skies against encroaching Russians?
More alarming still, Russian ships have recently been sniffing around the undersea cable that provides us with the internet connection.
It would be easy for the Russians to cut that cable.
So should we not just join NATO, build an air force, army and navy and give up the cheap pride in being peaceful and unaligned while relying on others to keep us safe?
An urgent problem for the country is housing. It is not just a money problem. You have to find people to build the new houses and you need to plan new towns and cities so that they have infrastructure and resources.
When Northern Ireland tried to create a new city between Portadown and Lurgan in the 1970s they ended up with bleak housing estates and roundabouts to nowhere. Thousands of people who got resettlement grants to move there stayed a couple of years and moved back to Belfast again. No one ever says they are going to Craigavon.
Should some of this new money be spent in Northern Ireland?
The government has set up a Shared Island unit with €1billion to spend on joint cross border ventures to improve relationships but with Stormont out of commission the argument is growing for greater Irish government involvement.
Logically, if the Republic wants a stake in the running of Northern Ireland — though for now avoiding the term joint authority for fear of alarming the unionists — shouldn’t it spend some money there?
It withdrew for want of cash from a plan to build the A5, a road that would connect Derry to Dublin. It can now afford to come back to that project.
They could even afford to build the northern section of it.
And perhaps conspicuous material benefits of Irish involvement in the north would sweeten the tempers of some who are instinctively inclined to reject it.
The original unionist grievance at the time of the Home Rule arguments was that the southern part of the country was impoverished and mainly agricultural while the north was an industrial giant. If that balance is now reversed, and it is the south that is wealthy and the north feeble, shouldn’t the argument against unity also be reversed?
Though perhaps people in the south will similarly want to be protective of their resources and keep the poor cousins at bay.
The new money will surely influence the next Dáil election.
The main criticism of Sinn Féin’s policies has been that they are too expensive to implement.
I have even heard northern unionists gloat that Sinn Féin in government would make such a hash of things that they would finish off the discussion on whether Ireland should be united or not.
But if Mary Lou McDonald is the next Taoiseach she will have a lot of money to spend on presenting her government as one that cares for the people.
She may struggle with the logistics of big infrastructure projects but she could cut income tax or distribute real cash to people struggling with rent and mortgages.
For now the money is under the control of the FF-FG coalition and they can start spending it in advance of the election to impress the people with their good intentions.
Whichever way things turn out, the next government of Ireland will have unprecedented resources to start with and using them wisely will secure its future.
