PAY CUTS or shorter earning hours are preferable to the loss of jobs in the current economic crisis, according to the architect of the modern Irish economy, Dr TK Whitaker.
“During the present difficult phase it is a social obligation to explore every alternative to loss of employment. Shorter earning hours, acceptance of a drop in pay may be much more tolerable than dependence on the dole,” he said.
In an introduction to the first session of the Lemass International Forum in Dublin, of which he is patron, Dr Whitaker stressed the need to restore competitiveness to the Irish economy.
“In the midst of a worldwide recession, as we await a revival of incomes and demand in the major economies, we cannot afford to forget that we will benefit from a global economy only if our goods and services are competitive in price and quality. The greater part of our income as a nation comes from exports of goods and services, so incomes and jobs are vitally dependent on competitiveness,” said Dr Whitaker.
He said that Seán Lemass was a dynamic patriot who had the insight and the courage to steer his party towards a total reversal of policy, involving the abandonment of protectionism and entry into the free trading area which is now the European Union.
In a paper about the relevance of the Lemass-Whitaker legacy for today’s challenges Prof Gary Murphy of Dublin City University said the lesson for current policy makers dealing with the economic crisis was that leadership and political decision-making mattered.
“Even when the general populace seems to be unmoved by or actually unaware of major policy initiatives, it is the responsibility of political leaders to argue for them and drive them through. Politics might be about power but it also leads to apathy among a significant section of all electorates. That apathy can only be overcome through engaged citizenship but such engaged citizenship must be spurred on by political leadership,” said Prof Murphy.
Prof Murphy said that the road to EEC application on which Lemass set out involved integrating Ireland into the wider world economically and increasingly politically. He said that in the late 1950s Lemass and Whitaker recognised the damage a “psychological blight” was doing to the country and set about rectifying it.
“A similar psychological blight is in danger of sinking contemporary Ireland,” said Prof Murphy who said the main legacy of Lemass-Whitaker was that this could only be changed through active economic management involving the Government, social partners and the public.