Our National Debt

I am the co-founder and director of a small Irish start-up in the tech sector. A typical funding need for a company similar to  mine would be about 1 million euros to get the company off the ground. With funding of 1 million euros you could relatively easily get matched private funding, employ potentially about 20 people for a year (if we use the average industrial wage as a ball park figure) and grow the company significantly on a global stage.

If we do not tackle our national debt crisis and continue with the delusional notion that we do as we are told in Europe, it is going to cost us a minimum of 5 billion euros per annum to service the debt (that does not mean reducing it - just servicing it) from 2013 onwards. If we seek a second bailout then (which is a stark reality given the global economic crisis around us) this cost grows (the above core cost remains whether we take a bailout or not by the way).

5 billion euros is five thousand million euros. With this money a government could fund five thousand companies like mine for one year and generate the exact same in inward investment whilst creating 100,000 jobs i.e reduce the dole queues by about 20% whilst also reducing social welfare payments by the same amount. Together with increased tax revenue from employment these savings almost match the original 5 billion euros investment!

Instead, we are being told that continuing to pay off a debt that we cannot possibly pay off is the way forward for 'stability' for our economy. It is an insane argument with no logical basis of truth. Look at the figures - they are real. Look at the economic conditions we are in - they are real. Look at the fact that we are paying our bills with borrowed money. Things can only get worse if we carry on this way.

By voting no you give our politicians some opportunity to get a negotiation of bank debt onto the table. By voting yes you do not. In fact you throw away the single biggest bargaining tool to get the country out of the mess it is in.

Ireland has two options. Leave the euro zone and default on its debt. Or stay in the euro zone and renegotiate the debt. The latter is the better option because we are too small to go it alone. These two options have to be at the forefront of all government policy from now on. Everything else is a head in the sand perspective as a tsunami is approaching.

The bottom line is this: Ireland cannot pay back the debt we have taken on. We are bankrupt. We are only keeping our head above the water because we have borrowed money to pay our debts hence our debt is growing. This means its only a matter of time when we will default. Asking us to sign a treaty that asks us to sign into law some book keeping measures to keep our finances 'tidy' is a ludicrous notion given the state of our finances. Its pure folly to do this and shame on the government for scaring its population into thinking they have no choice. There ends democracy.