Paying the Piper

I am a europhile. I am committed to good relations between European neighbours, as well as cooperation in areas of mutual benefit -especially the Single Market and all of its offshoots.

However, I have never been seized by the Euro. Though I did not really comprehend the difficulties that could arise from a common currency (now laid bare for all to see), there was enough negative commentary to assure me that it was far from a secure venture. Most of all, the benefits of having a stable currency regime always seemed overhyped and the whole thing seemed to have been thrown together with limited vision for how it would work in practice.

Which brings us to the present day. I am living in a country which has really borne an incredible burden on behalf of this common currency. When the Irish banks began to implode, the ECB (a European institution with a mandate to safeguard Eurozone interests) forbade the collapse of any banks in Ireland -regardless of how insolvent they were. The cost of the necessary support however was to come from the Irish State and Irish taxpayers.

While I have no objection to the ECB looking after the European interest and having the power to make decisions in the interest of the currency -this becomes problematic when individual Member States end up paying the bill (in this case -a disastrous bill which has plunged us into 3 years of depression with no recovery in sight). It seems obvious that the people who make the decisions should bear the consequences. If the Eurozone has the power to make us support the banks, then the Eurozone must pay for this support. If Ireland must pay for the bailouts then the Irish authorities must have the power to decide their own policy. But instead we have a clearly broken model where the ECB decides what's best for the eurozone and individual Member States (in this case, one of the smallest Member States) bear the burden.

Since we have been forced to seek IMF/EZ assistance, we have heard a great deal from Eurozone media-hacks about "he who pays the piper calls the tune" -i.e. swingeing reforms and cuts must follow from their assistance. Apart from the bloody-minded arrogance entailed in this dismissal of our quite extraordinary cuts to vital services, there is a fundamental hypocricy. We were never allowed to call the tune when bailing out the banks, but we were forced to pay. Now, in our national bailout talks it is the same people calling the tune, and it is debatable how much they are really contributing to our recovery.

It is impossible for us to leave the Eurozone right now, but once recovery happens (if it ever does), we should leave at the first opportunity. I am still a committed europhile and wish us many years of happy cooperation with our european partners in the EU proper -but the Eurozone is not a cooperative, it is clearly a disfunctional organisation, and no place for a small Member State.

All this austerity has been for nothing.