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To Ireland NewsAn Opinionated Overview of Irish News of Importance to Folks Moving Here.
July & August 2008
In This Issue: Personal Energy Conservation Units; The Big House Solution; Currency Rip-off; Government Deficits & Sunny Talk; Recessions Past and Future; Lie Down Lisbon; Ireland's Progress; Diamond Anniversary
PERSONAL ENERGY CONSERVATION UNITS
We cut our home heating use by 40pc this past winter yet stayed toasty warm.
Our secret weapon?
We used a remarkable energy conserving device. The apparatus consists of miracle fibres entwined in complex patterns and fashioned into body hugging containment devices. The whole contrivance is designed to fit in a suitcase when travelling.
These Geothermal Articulated Nonrigid Stabile Yarn units – GANSY’s for short – can be found in most Irish clothes shops. Buy the dark ones, they absorb heat better.
THE BIG HOUSE SOLUTION
You’ll note that I didn’t say we’d cut our heating bill, only our oil use. Piling on the sweaters reduced our total outlay not one bit. As oil prices gush upwards, cutting back merely keeps us even.
One other trick we used was to close rooms not in use during the day and turn off the radiators in those rooms. This was the solution chosen by the last owners of Strokestown Park House, a gigantic 18th century mansion located in County Roscommon. When times were good, this huge Big House employed dozens of servants and the fires were kept well stoked.
But, by the 1960’s, the last valuable painting had been sold and the Lord and Lady of the manor were reduced to living almost entirely in one large sitting room. There was no hope of heating the rest of the pile, but at least this one den-bedroom-dining-utility room could be kept warm.
Hundreds of thousands of new homes were built in Ireland built during the Nineties and Naughties. The government deliberately held back from raising insulation standards to keep houses affordable.
And now? Ireland is covered with the wrong houses in the wrong places – too scattered for mass transit and too expensive to heat. As I pass all the newly overbuilt McMansions, I wonder how long it will be before the Strokestown solution forces the owners to migrate entirely to their sun rooms.
You can find out more about Strokestown Park House at http://www.strokestownpark.ie The house is nearly unique in that it retains all its original furnishings and it also features a restored walled pleasure garden with the longest herbaceous border in Ireland and the UK. And the national Famine Museum is located there. Well worth a visit!
LOST IN CURRENCY TRANSLATION
In which the Irish people rediscover the meaning of the R word.
Hard on a visit to California, I returned to Ireland to the exact same headlines. House prices dropping, rising unemployment, drooping banks and tight lending. In a peculiarly cruel twist, the European Central Bank raised interest rates by a quarter percent to 4.25pc to try to contain inflation. How this will lower energy and food prices is a mystery known only to the inner brotherhood of central bankers, I guess.
Over the past year, the Euro has risen by more than 18pc against the dollar and sterling. Nearly half of all Irish goods come from the US and UK, yet the prices of items from these countries are still going up. One economist at the Irish Times – http://www.irishtimes.com - delicately states it thus: “The potential gains to Irish consumers appear to have been lost in currency translation.”
Translation: rip-off.
THE YAWNING PIT
New Taoiseach/Prime Minister Brian Cowen has a 3 billion euro government deficit to fund and falling tax revenues to fund it with. The US doesn’t bat an eye when it finances its deficit with the proceeds of its great-grandchildren’s’ income, but for the rest of us a 5pc shortfall spells trouble.
The government will get through this year by borrowing and making some cuts in spending. Next year, though, will be the crunch. The great hope is just that – hope that times will get better.
In the meantime: 10,000 more unemployed in June, inflation up at 4.7pc, food prices up double the rate of inflation and milk, cheese and eggs up 22pc!!! The housing market continues to fall and the airwaves are filled with a swell of woeful economic news.
LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
The Taoiseach insists that talking up the bad news is bad policy. Ireland, he points out, is in a much better position to weather the storm than it was back in the 1980’s.
And he’s right! The roads, trains and buses have improved tremendously, though much remains to be done. Truly substandard housing has almost disappeared and though people might have to wear sweaters and close off some unused rooms, there is insulation in those walls where there used to be none. Automobile ownership is high and cutting back on unnecessary trips won’t be too much of a burden for most.
But, for the poor who are already at the edge and for the young families stuck with massive mortgages times will get noticeably rougher. And for everyone else disposable income will shrink while we fund trips to Vegas for oil sheiks and Russian bazillionaires.
THE COMERAGH MOUNTAIN GURU
One good thing that comes with growing older, besides growing older, is that you’ve seen it all before. I’ve lived through a bunch of recessions and they’re always the same.
First, the vested interests like estate agents and government ministers pooh-pooh the idea. Then they start talking about a bottom. Then things get worse and everyone panics. And then suddenly one day a piece of good news hits the media, everybody smells roses and the sun shines.
The only question is how soon will the clouds part.
THE GOOD NEWS GOSPEL
I believe this one’s different. My own non-economist’s view is that we’ve started to bump against the long predicted Wall a generation earlier than anyone expected. Too many people on the planet, stupid waste of resources, scarcer oil – well, something’s gotta give. And what’s just barely beginning to give is our ability to foolishly waste on a gargantuan scale.
People and economies have to rapidly adjust to reality and that means conservation. Well insulated homes, big mileage to the gallon, mass transit, solar and wind energy, sustainable farming and fishing, water conservation, the works.
I really have hope. Finally, finally, commodity prices are beginning to get high enough that the properly greedy, piggish and selfishly capitalist thing to do is to conserve. Maybe at last, the market is on the side of sustainability.
And when there’s money to be made, I’m willing to bet that changes will be fast. If oil hits 500 dollars a barrel then the transformations will quicken! If oil falls back well below 100 dollars, then the next and inevitable hit will be even worse.
So, I say hooray! The end of the world may be nigh! Now, let’s make some money from it.
LISBON NAO*
* European language lesson number 1: Nao means No in Portuguese.
** European language lesson number 2: Portuguese has two u’s.
You all know that the Lisbon Treaty was defeated by Irish voters. What now for the EU?
France is President of the EU for the next 6 months. Nicolas Sarkozy says that his top priority will be spending more time with his new wife… no, wait, it’s to deal with energy and global warming.
Since Ireland is the most dependent economy in the EU on imported energy, we can only hope that we didn’t scuttle our future. Without Lisbon all 27 nations must agree on contentious energy issues. For starters, the former Soviet bloc nations are overly dependent on coal and someone will have to help pay for them to switch to cleaner technologies.
What next for Europe? Probably, most of the other countries in the EU will continue to ratify the treaty. Probably, the Irish government will lick its wounds and resubmit the treaty with a few minor clarifications to the Irish people again.
LIE DOWN LISBON
Why was the Treaty defeated? For one, the No campaign was profligate in its lies, raising totally baseless fears about abortion, Irish neutrality, conscription and higher taxes. There were many principled arguments against the treaty that carried weight, but the tsunami of fear-mongering meant that a lot of people were unsure. And when unsure, they voted no.
The overwhelming support of business, government and political parties did not reassure. And it was only after defeat that the Yes side turned on the fear, venting spleen by regaling voters with the disastrous consequences of their action.
I think a deeper unease about European integration was also central to the treaty’s defeat. A wave of eastern European and international immigrants have moved to Ireland since 2004. With times getting tighter, there’s been a sense of disquiet about the pace of change and Ireland’s control of its own destiny. Result – no.
The actual document on which we voted was lawyerly gibberish with not a clear English sentence in the document. It was all strike clause seven, paragraph 3.2 of Amendment 18….
If Lisbon Two does come round for another vote, my advice for the Yes campaigners is to make it real clear in language the modern generation understands. Texting.
“No aborshin.
No eu armee.
No taxz.
Erin go bra.”
MEASURING IRELAND’S PROGRESS
The Central Statistics Office – http://www.cso.ie - has published a report comparing our situation with our EU partners.
Here’s one: we have more children and less old people than any other European country except Macedonia. That bodes well for those of us who will retire when there’s still a load of youngsters to carry the can for our well padded pensions.
After France, Ireland has the highest fertility rate in the EU. We like kids. (See previous paragraph.)
The purchasing power per head of our population is fifth highest in Europe. A good thing too, because we pay 18pc more than the rest of Western Europe for the same products.
That’s partly balanced by ripping off Europe to the tune of 2 billion a year, while contributing only 500 million to the EU annually. And we get to kick them in the rear by voting No to Lisbon!
What a great place! Except that we’re one of the worst offenders in exceeding Kyoto emission levels. Remember, anything but conserve! And we’re the third most profligate waste-makers with 1,000 pounds of garbage heading to the landfills for every one of us. It must be all those baby diapers.
We love to have kids, but we stuff them into overcrowded classrooms at primary level. Nonetheless, Ireland boasts the highest level of third level training in Western Europe. And that’s good, because we’re counting on the youngsters to carry us older profligates along.
See paragraph 1.
60TH ANNIVERSARY EXCUSES
This newsletter is late because I spent several weeks in California visiting family and celebrating my parents’ 60th wedding anniversary. That’s the diamond anniversary and no doubt, Aerlingus - http://www.aerlingus.com - airline executives will be purchasing diamonds for their spouses thanks to the family funds bestowed upon them.
Anyway, I’ll get the next mailing out right on time. And that time will be September because conservation starts at home. Accordingly, I will be conserving the August Bank Holiday Weekend for a full 31 days, reusing it daily and not wasting a drop.
Scott