American conservatives hailed Ireland as a triumph of conservatism. In 2001, Irish voters rejected the Nice Treaty to join the EU. Some people blamed the interference of the American business community in the election. When another EU referendum was held the following year, Ireland joined the EU. The earlier defeat was also blamed on a badly-run campaign on the part of the pro-EU crowd.
The Irish want to maintain military neutrality, something it wants to preserve. This is after being a client state of England and the UK for hundreds of years.
In addition, Prime Minister Brian Cowen of the Fianna Fail party opposes tax harmonization across the EU, which would forfeit Ireland's low corporate tax rate advantage. The low tax rate has been a big drawing card to American businesses who started operating in Ireland back in the 1980s.
PM Brian Cowen is often referred to in the Irish satirical and tabloid media as BIFFO, a pejorative nickname sometimes applied to people from the midlands county of Offaly. BIFFO is widely understood as an acronym for "Big Ignorant Fecker/Fucker]/Fellow from Offaly". Cowen has said that 'BIFFO' stands for "Beautiful Intelligent Fellow From Offaly'. Cowen has also been called GRUFFALO (Grumpy Rude Uncensored Fecker/Fucker/Fellow From Around Laois Offaly).
Brian Cowen is one of the least popular leaders in the EU. His party was unable to get the Lisbon Treaty ratified which made changes to the structure of the EU. This was a big blow to government prestige.
Enda Kenny, leader of Fine Gael, the opposition party, said he would move for a vote of no confidence in the government when the Dail or parliament next meets. His party and the Labor Party made gains in the recent EU election on June 6. But Prime Minister Brian Cowen, hopes to govern until the general election in 2012.
The Irish meltdown
The Irish Republic's Celtic Tiger economy has collapsed. It may contract by more than 9 per cent this year and unemployment may reach 17 per cent by next year.
Many young people who were in college and technical schools thought they would all be millionaires by the time they were 35 because of the construction boom in Ireland.
Now many are now emigrants, living in the UK with four or five other young people in a small apartment.
As a small open economy, Ireland did not escape the global recession. But it did not have to be so bad.
Although Ireland's economy prospered started with proper export-led growth, it switched in 2001 into a consumer boom.
The Irish spent like drunken sailors, particularly on property. They thought the answer to everlasting economic growth was real estate. The Irish bought and sold lots of houses. It was reminiscent of the sub prime meltdown in the US.
The government gave tax breaks for building, renting and buying houses. The Irish banks lent wildly and massively to developers for overpriced sites and property, and pushed 0 per cent down mortgages at anybody that would take them.
House prices in Dublin were higher than in Paris, the cultural capital of Europe. Dublin workers had to commute further out from the capital. Many of the towns workers resided in had no rail line. Workers often required a one to 1-1/2 hour trip to work, something that is common in the US.
Irish farmers could not believe their luck as new houses sprang up in green fields in the middle of farm land. They had never had such a bumper crop like this and the demand for land was incredible. Foreign workers came in by the boatload to help build the houses. Flush with profits developers began to buy property abroad.
The collapse was brutal.
The Irish banking system, just like the one in the US, collapsed. Banks had overextended their reserves on overinflated property deals and had to be rescued by taxpayers. One bank has been fully nationalized and others may follow.
All over the country real estate lies vacant. There are now ghost towns in Ireland.
People who bought a year or two ago are stuck out in the boondocks with big mortgages on houses that have lost more than 40 per cent of their value.
And now the Irish are facing high unemployment which may go above 15 per cent.
But prosperity has done one thing for Ireland. It has taken away the fatalist belief that the Irish would always be poor. Perhaps the greed of American conservatives who had invested in Ireland took hold of the Irish people as well. The luck of the Irish has run out.
Americans can certainly relate to the economic plight of the Irish. We had also been sold a bill of goods by the same conservatives,too, with the 'Bush Ownership Society.' The conservative paradise has disappeared in both countries.
source: Wikipedia
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