Michael Burke, writing in the Guardian, points out that it will not be the Irish people but banks who own Irish government debt which will be the beneficiaries of last week's EU/IMF £77bn bail out: http://m.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/nov/26/banks-benefit-from-irelands-bailout?cat=commentisfree&type=article
On the other hand the Irish people face a further round of ruthless austerity measures - a failed repeat prescription which will have dire economic and social consequences:
'Real spending on education will fall by 7.5% over the next four years, while health spending will plunge 12.5%. Given the rising numbers of the elderly, the real fall in spending per patient will be deeper. Expenditure on other programmes will drop by an average of 27.5%.
Altogether the government plans to cut spending and raise taxes by €15bn over the next four years – or more than €3,000 on average for every child, woman and man. But the effects will be felt unevenly. Women and the poorest will be hardest hit, given the focus on welfare and social provision. This comes in the wake of five budgets or "emergency" measures since the end of 2008, with a nearly identical list of cuts and tax increases.'
