Irish laments

Sinéad Pentony: Today’s editorial in The Guardian highlights the dangers for the UK in pursuing Ireland’s policy of austerity measures. As we head into what is being clearly flagged as our fourth austerity budget, the contraction in the economy caused by the financial and economic crises, and exacerbated by Government policy, has succeed in shrinking the economy to the point where there are growing concerns about the capacity of the economy to sustain the costs associated with bailing out the banks. This was reflected in the cost of borrowing reaching a new (and unsustainable) high in the bond auction earlier this week. When you couple this with the latest unemployment figures, acceleration in migration and a lifeless domestic economy - the impact of government policy, which is protecting the banks and the bondholders at the expense of the country and the economy’s capacity to recover, is painfully clear.