Country Report in Limbo - Village Magazine

3 0 April 2016

POLITICS

t’s hard to remember now. It is more than a

month ago. Who remembers the delayed

European Commission Country Report on

Ireland, the one that got postponed until

after the February election so it would not

inﬂuence the voters? There was all sorts of hype

about the timing and what the European Com-

mission was or was not up to. There was little

about the content of its report and nothing

about why the European Commission was pub-

lishing it.

As the European policy process grinds on,

there is now complete silence as the time

approaches for Ireland to respond to the report.

That is, of course, if we have an Ireland, in the

form of a working Government, that can respond.

The report was part of the ten-year 'Europe

2020 Strategy' for smart, sustainable and inclu-

sive growth.

Each year, in February, the European Commis-

sion publishes Country Reports on each

Member State. These assess the overall eco-

nomic situation in the country and highlight

issues to be dealt with. In April of each year the

Member States submit a National Reform Pro-

gramme setting out the steps they are taking to

address the targets of the Europe 2020 strat-

egy, taking into consideration the issues

highlighted by the European Commission. In

April the European Commission presents Coun-

try Speciﬁc Recommendations to each Member

State after assessing their National Reform

Programmes.

It is all a bit tedious. But wait! The aims of the

Europe 2020 Strategy are to increase the employ-

ment rate, to reduce the rate of early school

leaving and to increase the numbers completing

third-level education, to reduce the number of

people living in poverty, to increase investment

in research and development, and to reduce

greenhouse-gas emissions.

These ambitions surely merit public scrutiny

and debate.

The Country Report on Ireland opens with a

round of backslapping for all concerned. The

“remarkable economic rebound” is applauded.

The successful implementation of an “ambi-

tious series of reforms”, austerity in other

words, “with the support of the EU- IMF pro

gramme of ﬁnancial assistance” is lauded.

Turning “Ireland into the fastest growing econ-

omy in the European Union in 2014 and 2015”

is a success story.

It goes gently downhill after that with posi-

tive steps taken by Ireland celebrated in the

report but ongoing vulnerabilities grimly laid

out. The vulnerabilities include quaintly termed

“legacy issues’ of “private and public debt, and

ﬁnancial sector repair”.

There is an unenthusiastic nod to “some pro-

gress” being made by Ireland on last year’s

Country Speciﬁc Recommendations. These

addressed the need to reduce the deﬁcit,

increase the cost-effectiveness of health provi-

sion, increase the work intensity of households

and reduce child poverty, and resolve the mort-

gage arrears issues. We heard nothing about

these last year.

It would seem, however, that we are more

compliant when it comes to taking ownership

of austerity reforms from the EU, IMF and ECB

troika than when it comes to implementing

more positive policy strategies.

We get good marks in the report for our per-

formance on the employment-rate target and

the early-school-leaving target of the Europe

2020 Strategy. We get a polite “more effort is

needed” mark when it comes to the targets for

investment in research and development,

reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, increas-

ing the share of renewable energy, improving

energy efﬁciency, reducing poverty, and com-

pletion of tertiary education.

A wide range of issues needs addressing, it

says: unemployment, infrastructure and health

are of particular interest from an equality and

sustainability perspective.

Long-term unemployment is highlighted as a

concern. The report identiﬁes skills mismatches

and skills shortages. It suggests a lack of inclu-

sive growth, a polite reference to poverty and

inequality.

It makes particular reference to inactivity

traps for certain households, the high propor-

tion of people living in households with very

low work-intensity, child poverty and the lack

of access to affordable, full-time and quality

childcare.

Infrastructure emerges as a difﬁculty. It is

acknowledged that “seven years of sharply

reduced government investment have taken a

toll on the quality and adequacy of infrastruc-

ture”. The big infrastructure issues identiﬁed

are inadequacies in housing, water, public

transport and climate change mitigation capac-

ity. When it comes to healthcare,

cost-effectiveness, equal access and sustain-

ability are identiﬁed as being at issue.

So now April has arrived and Ireland must

submit its National Reform Programme. Incred-

ibly the ﬁrst barrier to this is the lack of a

Government, and that particular barrier does

not look like being resolved any time soon.

That’s still the easy part. The next step is to

secure a National Reform Programme that intro-

duces new measures to address these issues

from the report.

Some progress was

made on last year’s

recommendations but we

need to: reduce deﬁcit,

increase cost-effectiveness

of health provision, increase

household work intensity,

reduce child poverty, and

tackle mortgage arrears

Country Report

in Limbo

Response to EU Commission’s

Strategy for smart, sustainable

and inclusive growth depends on

new government

by Niall Crowley

All the EU boys dreaded March