Forget the Whataboutery, the stakes are too high.
John Hume shared the Nobel peace prize with David Trimble for his part in establishing the fragile peace in Northern Ireland. He introduced the word Whataboutery to the language in Norther Ireland. He identified that those who engage in Whataboutery offer very little to solving problems and are more likely to be counterproductive and part of the problem. "What about the killing of such and such", for example, was used as an excuse for not acting to stop the cycle of violence. Judging from what passes for political debate on the state of the national finances south of the border this lesson has been forgotten. The negative whataboutist bitching between individual politicians and political parties is only deepening the economic hole we are digging for our selves. There has to be political unity on agreeing a way from our current financial mess. As a Green I could engage in the whataboutery by saying that we were not responsible for the circumstances which has our economy one of the most exposed to the current global downturn. We didn't lay the eggs that hatched the chickens that are coming home to roost now. However, this will solve nothing. Also, it is not currently productive to identify who laid these eggs. It would be like investigating the cause of a plane crash while the plane is still burning and victims requiring rescuing.

This realisation was brought home to me at a recent presentation by Prof. Kevin O Rourke, Head of Economics at Trinity College Dublin. His summary was that with the Irish property and labour cost bubble, we priced ourselves out of the European labour market. This on it’s own meant that the Irish crisis was inevitable. The lessons from other financial crisis including the great depression were not learnt in Ireland by any of the political parties and whataboutery is not going to correct the mistakes of the past. Comparisons of the current downturn with the great depression makes for stark reading, for example, the volume of world trade fell by a little over 25% during 1929-32. World trade fell by 6% during November 2008 alone. Air freight (about a third of total world trade) was 22.6% lower in December 2008 than in December 2007.
Consequences for Ireland of the dramatic decline in world trade is emigration, which is less of a safety valve than previously when Ireland had rising dole queues. There are smaller export markets for Irish industry and the possibility of protectionist policies such as being announced in America at the moment will close down export markets further. However, on the positive side, due to the economic down turn there would be lower interest rates, lower fuel costs, and the possibility of Europe-wide responses as a benefit of European membership.
The positive aspect of being in the Eurozone is that there is no currency crises in Ireland On the down side, Ireland cannot devalue to regain competitiveness. The Theory of 'optimal currency areas' says we can adjust to a financial shock by introducing wage cuts, (which is difficult), resorting to emigration which as explained above is less of an option or request financial aid from Brussels.
Irelands involvement in the EMU(European Monetary Union) is shielding our little economy from the more severe impacts of the economic woes to come. There are voices calling for Irelands withdrawal from involvement in the single currency. O’Rourke stated there was a lot of disagreement among economists in the 1990's on Irelands entry into EMU. He did not agree with our participation in EMU but was very clear that at the moment there is unanimity among academic economists that to leave the Euro Zone and EMU would be catastrophic. "Leaving requires preparation, which gives markets time to react to anticipated devaluation (and partial default?)" Serious consideration of leaving EMU by Ireland would cause an immediate economy-wide bank run and a collapse of the banking system, an immediate sell-off of Irish government debt and long term damage to Irelands international reputation.
Solutions proposed by Prof. O'Rourke to the current crisis included absolute clarity about a five year fiscal Strategy, which may worsen unemployment figures but is better than bankruptcy. Undoing the "madness of the last few years" reducing labour and energy costs, acknowledging the extent of bad bank debt and making the right decision about who pays for that debt. Getting all the information out in to the open, making the necessary changes getting property prices to bottom out will remove uncertainty allowing households to no longer anticipate wage cuts, tax rises, and unemployment.
So lets forget the whataboutery for now and I stress for now. It is important that mistakes are not repeated so when the whataboutery begins lets have real whataboutery and examine the consequences of cheap loans which paid the property taxes the Government became addicted to. My blood boils when I hear Government Ministers saying that government revenue came from the construction sector but now every one will have to play their part. It is the poor sods that borrowed to pay the property taxes on inflated property prices whose incomes will now be further eroded with tax hikes but yet in many cases are still paying for the expensive property. That is proper whataboutery and I will leave it alone ... For Now