WE LIVE in one another's shadows and, at a time like this, social solidarity becomes an invaluable resource. Taking into account the needs and short-term difficulties of business clients is as important as responding generously to the immediate problems of neighbours and friends. Making space for people and offering a helping hand can make the difference between a short-run recession and communal desolation. In economic terms, there is always a tendency to over-shoot on the way down. So any action that helps to shorten or reduce the impact of recession will benefit us all.
A series of articles in this newspaper by Carl O'Brien charted the growing financial difficulties facing families, particularly in recently developed satellite towns around Dublin. Unemployment has come calling, not just by way of the construction industry but through a weakening services sector. Repayments on mortgages and cars have become extremely difficult. A recent reduction in interest rates has offered temporary relief to struggling families. But these people will need time and a flexible response by financial institutions to resolve their particular difficulties.
On the basis of recent public protests and special interest group agitation, there is still an unwillingness to accept that the days of plenty and of open-handed government are over. Ministers must confront this issue as a matter of urgency. In spite of recent cutbacks, an unprecedented collapse in tax receipts has made current public spending levels unsustainable. There will be more pain in the new year and, on this occasion, the reductions should be carefully targeted. Crude, across-the-board percentage cuts are not an acceptable response.
Sharing the pain of recession is also likely to move centre stage. Wealthy individuals who grew rich during the boom years should contribute equitably. Last year, the banks estimated that more than 3,000 cash-rich millionaires lived in the State, but the Revenue Commissioners have records for only a few hundred. The situation carried echoes of the house property tax in the 1980s and a failure by authorities at the time to collect it. Former taoiseach Albert Reynolds famously remarked that a messenger boy on a bicycle would identify more eligible homes in an afternoon than those on the official database. Such a situation cannot be allowed to recur.
In the same way, public servants whose jobs and pensions are protected from the chaos that is devastating the world economy should not expect to receive special treatment. Traditional sick days, antiquated work practices and issues of productivity need to be addressed. Benchmarking was introduced to compensate them when private sector salaries raced ahead six years ago. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, a resumption of talks between the Government and the social partners could usefully consider a rebalancing of interests. Greater productivity within the public and private sectors is required. And profiteering within the retail sector must end. But, as a recent OECD report suggested, if we do things right and pull together, these problems can be surmounted.