It’s a strange feeling. There is usually a lot of fun to be had at this time of the year looking back. What was the best book you read? What was the sporting highlight? What was the movie that had most impact? What was your album of the year?
This time around it doesn’t feel so much like fun. In innumerable ways the good has been sucked from the things that give us pleasure. Workers have been losing their jobs. The dole queues have been lengthening. For far too many people, every day is a battle. Families are struggling to pay their bills. A lot of young mothers and fathers are finding it difficult to put food on the table. And unless something changes dramatically, it ain’t going to get any easier in the short term...

On an ordinary human level, the provisions of the budget represented bad news heaped on bad news. The poorest and the most vulnerable were hit disproportionately. And there was little in the economic medicine which seemed to offer any hope whatsoever of an uplift. With the euro teetering on the brink of collapse, it isn’t easy to plot a way forward. But even after two days debate in the Dáil, you were left asking: what ever happened to the vision thing? 
In so many ways the Occupy Wall Street protestors are right. The last 12 months have confirmed that the world is run effectively for the benefit of the small number of powerful vested interests, who pull the strings in global finance. When banks started to collapse, governments stepped in and took on their debts, immunising the biggest players against losses. In Ireland’s case, the Fianna Fáil-led coalition government guaranteed that they – or rather we – would cover the obligations of Irish banks to bond-holders. Thus, losses incurred privately were heaped onto the shoulders of ordinary citizens, who are being forced to pay for the folly of others. That this is a perversion of the fundamental dynamic of capitalism seems obvious. Surely, if you take the rewards when they are going, then you also have to suffer the losses. But that didn’t happen. Instead, approximately €20,000 of debt was dumped on every Irish citizen.
That commitment having been wrung from the politicians – without a mandate – what did the moneymen do? They refused to make any more cash available to countries like Ireland, unless a specific and hugely onerous set of conditions were met in relation to reducing sovereign debt and cutting State expenditure. We have not just been left with a gigantic bill to pay: we have been left without the money we need to go about our day to day business.
If this experience were confined to Ireland, you’d have to acknowledge that we were the class dunces, who had got what was coming to us. But no. With the exception of Germany, and to an extent France and Britain, every country in Europe has come under the same kind of pressure. Across the continent, draconian ‘austerity measures’ have been introduced. The euro is under threat. And it is the very vested interests in the markets, whose gambling debts were covered by ordinary people, that are turning the screw. By any standards, it is an outrage. And it should be opposed. But governments all over Europe have shirked that challenge.
It is difficult right now to see how justice can prevail. To get from where we are to a global repudiation of imposed debt – and a unified rejection of the resulting austerity cuts – seems an impossible ask. And so, while working for the common good, we also have to think of the immediate welfare of Irish citizens.
There are just six million people on the island of Ireland and 4.6 million in the Republic. If we play our cards well, it will not be impossible to provide a decent standard of living, of health care and of social welfare for all of those people. There are issues about taxation and the redistribution of wealth involved. But, leaving those issues aside for now, it would not require a huge upsurge in our fortunes to attain the goal of creating sufficient wealth to go around.
We need to create jobs. To establish new businesses. To attract visitors. To make Ireland a centre of excellence in education, in science, in technology, in music, in movies, in the creative industries. All of this is attainable. With such a small population, there is no excuse for resembling the Titanic. With the right kind of leadership and co-operation, we should be able to make the changes necessary to realise our potential in all of these areas.
It is in my nature to be optimistic. We have a heritage and an ability in the arts, and in music in particular, that is very special. Much like Irish whiskey, if it is distilled correctly, it can be turned into work, productivity, success, revenue and growth.
It is down to doing the right things, to encouraging creativity, to pursuing policies that free people to innovate – and to selling ourselves, and what we are good at, effectively to the world. So let’s look at some of the positives. Michael D. Higgins is President. U2 are still the biggest band in the world. Once is being turned into a Broadway musical. Our film-makers are capable of turning out something as brilliant as The Guard on a shoe-string. Our writers are producing works of extraordinary power and resonance. Our exports are up. In many ways we have a competitive advantage in relation to IT, the internet, social networking, smart industries and the knowledge economy.
But all of that potential has to be unlocked effectively. No matter what your politics, getting these things flowing makes sense. Which is where the vision thing comes in. Now, about the album of the year – Childish Gambino’s Camp has to be a late contender... 
Have fun reading the rest of the Hot Press Annual – and have a great New Year.

Here’s to it...