OPINION: The decisions ordinary people make in their daily lives are what really shape a country, writes MICHAEL MORIARTY
I’M 29 years old. I’m a chartered accountant with no children and no mortgage. I am born and raised in Ireland, but, thanks to an earlier wave of emigration, I have the luxury of a US passport.
Some friends have been trickling out of the country recently. More will follow. The next budget (and the following three) will tax me more, while cutting services and benefits. And my career prospects would surely be better in the US than they would here.
At a time when even the Government is acknowledging that the quality of life will fall, I am constantly being bombarded with a simple question: what am I still doing here?
Well, here is why I am staying in Ireland. Yes, I have friends and family here. Yes, I have a job, which provides both personal satisfaction and a reasonable income, but it is more than that.
Ireland is changing rapidly. It feels like the country is on a rollercoaster track. And the more I think about, the more I realise that the most compelling reason is that those of us who stay here are the ones that will decide what happens next for Ireland.
Over about 12 years we rose to dizzying heights, and now suddenly we’ve passed the peak and are plunging downwards. But that isn’t the true picture. As a nation, we are not fixed on some predetermined track. We, the Irish people, can and will determine the future of the nation. I’m staying because I want to be part of the generation that shapes this new Ireland.
It’s not just for those who stand for political office, those who lead protests or those who make the headlines. It is the cumulative weight of the thousands of decisions made by each of us ordinary citizens that is the tide that drives the direction of this country.
The jobs we choose to work, and what we do with them, how we spend our money and our free time, how we interact with our families, our neighbours, our communities – these are the choices that define Ireland. Even the choice to remain in the country during difficult times has an impact.
Sometimes it seems that we ordinary citizens are powerless to change things; that all the major decisions are made by an elite of politicians, businessmen, trade union leaders. It certainly seemed that way on the morning of September 30th, 2008 when we woke to discover that during the night a multibillion euro bet on the solvency of Irish banks had been made on our behalf.
Now, the talk is all about how Brussels is holding the reins. But we ordinary Irish people are not powerless in managing our own affairs and we never will be.
Yes, those in leadership positions make key decisions that change the direction of the country, but those decisions are not made in a vacuum. The great successes and great failures in Ireland in the last 20 years are our great successes and our great failures. The property bubble and bust was not just the work of developers and the bankers. Nor was the peace process in Northern Ireland just to the credit of those who physically signed the Belfast Agreement.
Ireland’s long-standing commitment to the developing world isn’t just the work of missionaries and aid workers. Multinational companies don’t base their European headquarters here solely for a 12.5 per cent tax rate. The country did not become more diverse and tolerant of diversity just because certain pieces of equality legislation were signed or because our borders were opened to workers from new EU member states.
Our generation is facing very challenging questions. As a nation, we are debating how best to reduce the exchequer deficit.
Where should the axe fall? Can we stretch the adjustment over a longer period? Should we even try a stimulus programme hoping that it will create enough growth in the economy to reduce the relative size of the deficit?
There are other great matters which we have barely begun to discuss. How do we replace the hundreds of thousands of jobs that used to be provided by the property sector? To what extent can we and to what extent should we give assistance to those in negative equity? And ultimately what kind of society do we want when we emerge from the devastation caused by the collapse of the Celtic Tiger?
I’m sure many have been tempted as I have been to leave Ireland and stay away until the better times return. But how will those better times come about and what will they look like? I have my own views of what I want the future of Ireland to look like. So I choose to stay here and to live my life here.
To those who choose to leave or who feel compelled to leave, best of luck to them. Hopefully as they make new lives in Australia, Britain, across the Atlantic or elsewhere, they will maintain strong ties with Ireland. Hopefully someday most of them will feel that they can come home and not just for a visit.
For those of us who stay we must remember that every choice we make, including the very act of staying makes a difference.
As we struggle through our own personal challenges, we should strive to place our paintbrushes on the bigger canvas. We each have our own different views of what kind of country we would like Ireland to be.
Ireland is still a small country where ordinary people make an impact. Together we are the ones who will shape Ireland’s future.
Michael Moriarty lives in Dublin and works for an overseas development non-governmental organisation