Who benefits from Austerity? We on the Island of Ireland should know the answer to this but if we do, we are being hampered greatly by a Troika that is using us as a guinea pig to expedite a solution to the Euro crisis. It is nice and neat to call us “exemplary” but then to penalise us and not waiver debt/bailout costs is surely unacceptable. An 80 year old billionaire has written an essay featured in the New York Review of Books about the tragedy of the European Union and how to resolve it. Expertise and experience of men like George Soros http://www.georgesoros.com/essays/page/6/ is worth exploring.

David McWilliams today writes an article in the Independent which every concerned Irish citizen on the Island of Ireland ought to read to re-activate the thinking process that is needed to survive this economic crisis. Title: ‘As we forge deeper ties in Europe we are forgetting our closest ally’.

McWilliams hits the heart today. The Irish and Britain. 1950’s Ireland destitute from the concept of ‘self sufficiency’, De Valera and FF provided the education that exported our doctors and nurses to the UK along with those who built Britain, the construction workers. McWilliams talks about the newest wave of emigrants that London welcomes that takes me back to the late 1980’s Ireland and no work here and the opportunity of work in the UK. When you add to this Ryanair and cheap fares; this forged an economic growth that is often ignored.

The ties that bind us according to Williams: ‘whether our top civil servants and politicians like it or not, is Britain, and neither Germany nor France, will remain the natural home for Irish products investment and people. Why? McWilliams states the most interesting facts for consideration:

9.8 million people in 2011 flew between the Republic and Britain ie 186,000 per week (note Ryanairs profits this year). Apparently only 400,000 travelled from Germany.

Euro and Sterling – 30 years down the road with part of Ireland in Sterling and the rest aligned to Euro, the fact is we still cannot equal the trade we have with Britain which is Ireland’s second largest export partner. We send £14.265bn of goods / £15,052bn worth of services per year to the UK. According to McWilliams article, Ireland imports more from Britain than from the whole of Europe combined. What does this say? For me it explains that sense of void when one enters EU House on Dawson Street and get that feeling that despite all the data/publications provided by the EU gravy train bureaucracy, nobody is really interested that much in Europe because they know Britain albeit via colonialism and 700 years of history.

Bord Bia states that the UK is Ireland’s key export partner for food. Irish beef accounts for 60% of the British market. The UK has a food deficit which Ireland can supply (what has changed!). Ireland uses and contributes greatly to the UK ports. Then there is the fact that 40% Northern Ireland exports go south of the border.

1973 and our entry to the EEC opened up opportunities for our small Island but we must take account of why the EEC considered our entry with a degree of favour. It is and still remains the fact that Island status surrounded by sea gives a certain geo-political status. Exploration oil and gas are too the fore again as resources.

Too add to this, we now know that there is a huge potential in the area of energy between our two countries. Renewable energy is on the way with an East-West Interconnector.

The challenge is ours. Cameron is paving the way to give the British people the option at Referendum of an EU Exit. We need to ask what this would really mean for Ireland? Does this mean that if Britain holds a referendum, that we will follow suit? We speak English, in the US – they speak English. The upwardly mobile Chinese seek education in the US and the UK, the law is Common Law.

Ireland should not be cowed down for its small size and for the fear of being a precedent to other PIIGs, Troika, have some honour when making decisions about our future and our young generation.  We need a debt write down.  We need to follow the National Debt clock http://www.nationaldebtclocks.org/debtclock/ireland

by Michelle Clarke

Prompted by Mr David Norris speaking in the senate about certain school children whose parents could not pay the fees for bus rides to school who were earmarked and left standing on the road. Shame on us.

This is bias. This is damaging. This is bullying.

Negotiate the debt down is what I say to Government. Ireland is an Island – stop the nonsense that the powers that be don’t want to make a precedent. Iceland is now considering saying no to the EU. We can learn from this. Our waters are about potential reserves which could be real wealth to Ireland like happened in Norway.

Students need to be heard. You are the now but also the future. Do you want debt in your name before you earn a day’s pay?

by Michelle Clarke (Observer)

Today, Mr Architect, I am going to heed what you have said and I am going to target Mr Central Bank Governor, Patrick Honohan. Why because I have read his “Speech” in the weekly edition of the Sunday Business Post. The title alone states Change is ahead. There are no examples to follow. “The Unprecedented financial distress’ speech by Mr Honohan will send shivers up the spines of those who are blighted by the property deluge created by the Celtic Tiger and added to by the global financial crisis. What we need to grasp is that there are in existence extraordinary rates of arrears where people are failing to service their mortgages/debts and in particular where homes are owner occupied.

Mr Honohan states that while most borrowers continue to service their loans that the general proposition is summed up in a quote from a recent authority on the need for debtor-friendly insolvency arrangements: “debtors should fulfill their obligations if at all possible, and freedom from legitimately incurred obligations, is a privilege, potentially subject to abuse, that therefore should be a carefully guarded last resort”. What this is saying is that debt forgiveness has a strong moral component. If there is to be long-term debt modification that involves permanent debt relief related to the arrears, it will only apply for cases of over indebtedness involving or bordering on insolvency. The train is now on the tracks – Insolvency legislation is due to be in place by April and the Troika via our Central Bank is stoking the fires for action by our banks with time-tables, targets and it is action driven.

Mr Honohan goes on to say that to date the banks have dealt with the loans crisis using two devices: a) capitalisation of arrears b) a temporary interest only payment schedule. This buys cash flow for some people only but for others if they veer off schedule and enlist the spiral of debt returns, then something else needs to be done.

Mr Architect: I think you could interact now because it seems apparent that debt-wise related to property, Ireland Inc is now in un-chartered territory. Embracing change and moving people who once worked in the private sector into the like of NAMA is part of the new remedy which is only presently being drafted. To quote Mr. Honohan “What is the best way of operationalising better decision rules for banks enabling and impelling them to triage the loans that are unsustainable from those that can come back on track?” Your vast experience as an architect and your ideas re Sub-Urban imply the loss of the social element of the property transactions that must now form part of what is known as social entrepreneurship and the revival of a sense of hope going forward.

Connecticut, America. This week there is a court case. NAMA sues Sean Dunne but this clever property magician has played a hand of cards that puts his property Irish speculative brain into that of his columnist wife and re-plays the game but in America. He now lives in an elitist enclosure with rent in excess of US£20,000 per month, having ventured into speculative property transactions which it appears have created profits. The US courts have to decide either in favour of NAMA or Dunne’s wife, Gayle. These are the larger stakes that NAMA must play out and invariably in foreign courts and at phenomenal costs. This means we need to ask the question as to what happens now post the liquidation of IBRC. What will happen for instance re the Quinn group? NAMA now becomes the monolith, the monopoly driver to resolution but people have a responsibility to be informed, to keep informed and ensure that there is transparency, no insider dealing, court resolution, if there is, and keep making demands that developers who breached our laws pay the full cost or at least are disciplined via bankruptcy under the new Personal Insolvency Act. We need a clear picture.

Stormy seas ahead and we will all know people who are indebted. Earlier postings suggested that those who had bought properties since 2006 and paid excessively high stamp duty should petition the Government for repayment of stamp duty appear to have had no support. The banks should have supported their mortgage holders in this request. A repayment of say £60,000 stamp duty off capital would delete some people at least from the crisis status of the Personal Insolvency Act. After all some banks have begun to think creatively and they will re-structure the loan, taking responsibility for waving credit card debts, credit union loans, car loans etc.

by Michelle Clarke