Lessons of Blythe and Bruton should not be easily forgotten

Country Living with Francis Farragher

I’m always taken aback a bit when the penny drops with politicians and Governments that maybe the general public aren’t as gullible, or accepting, of dictates that come from above. All of a sudden, we’ve had ministers and TDs in a tizzy about the spiralling cost of living and the emergency measures that need to be put in place, about six months after everyone else around this land realised that there was a problem.

Back nearly 100 years ago, in the 1924 budget, a Minister for Finance called Ernest Blythe came up with the cost-saving measure of cutting the weekly old-age pension by one shilling.

Now, I’m no expert in history, but Blythe was reputedly a fairly able operator who did some good things in his political and artistic life, but a century on he’s never been forgotten – or forgiven in some quarters – for what was considered a despicably miserable act.

We had a little taste of that before the last General Election when all those people who know about such things as fiscal rectitude started telling us all that our pension situation here in Ireland wasn’t good and that the entry-age level might have to go up.

Needless to say this was seized upon with great gusto by the ‘alternative government’ and by the time you’d have uttered the name Jack Robinson, the pension age had been referred back to various committees, probably never to rear its head again as a political reality.

John Bruton did a lot of good things in politics too, both at home and abroad, but to this day he’ll be remembered as the Minister for Finance who back in 1982, when trying to introduce in the Budget an 18% VAT rate on children’s shoes, brought down the government of the day.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App

Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.

Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.

Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite  HERE.

Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.