Dublin Opinion

Michael Taft has asked a question that was buzzing around my head while watching the budget coverage.

So the real question is: how are we going to pull ourselves out?

With all this talk of being patriotic, and spreading the ‘pain’, the crap about helping the vulnerable and creating sustainable growth for the future, there is bog all being said about what Fianna Fail plan to do.

Like the bank bail out, they’re crossing their fingers and saying a hail mary.

Or as Michael says:

Fianna Fail has no answers, no hope, no strategy, no bloody idea. All they can give us are fantasy projections going forward: the economy returning to growth in 2010, with growth of nearly 4 percent by 2011; and with that our fiscal problems are solved. Yeah, right.
As one Department of Finance official told me shortly after the Minister finished his budget statement - ‘We can always hope for more emigration.’ Back to the old standby when Irish governments get into fiscal trouble.

So over the next few days, when commentators, Opposition spokespersons and social organisations start delving into the details to reveal more horrors, just keep an eye on the medium-term: Fianna Fail has not only deflated our economy, it has deflated our hopes for a way out. And in the meantime has fiddled numbers beyond recognition to any resembling planet Ireland.

At the dead end of the no-hope room, what a party we will have with Fianna Fail.