HEART BEAT:Spring has sprung in the garden but the Government policy on the economy has yet to take root, writes MAURICE NELIGAN
LAST WEEK I wrote that there was snow on the ground. Today spring has come to Kerry.
The house is surrounded by daffodils emerging from all the unlikely places where the Highest Authority decreed they should be planted. There are no prizes for guessing who wielded the spade.
As this is a yearly ritual, I had taken some precautions. This time I had a secret weapon. As our little caravan moved off on planting day I sprang my surprise. It was a rather simple device in which you placed the bulb then stuck it in the ground, opened the handles and the job was done; on to the next site.
It had been demonstrated to me in the garden centre and was simplicity itself. No more spadework, I would be a latter-day Johnny Appleseed with tulip bulbs.
There turned out to be a problem. It didn’t work in the wild. The HA, having watched my fruitless efforts, uttered the dreaded “give me that”. I prayed fervently that it wouldn’t work for her either. My prayer was answered and the useless instrument was consigned to the sorry history of my gardening endeavours.
She said the episode reminded her of the time I had bought a gadget guaranteed to produce an omelette from one egg.
I know I started writing about a beautiful spring day, but I have to get this off my chest. Is there something in the male DNA that makes us lead continually with our chin?
A very nice lady here in Kerry asked me to contribute a recipe to a book being compiled for a charity in the county. No problem, said I. Advice was sought from the HA and she did not hesitate; “take one tea bag, place same in mug and boil the kettle”. Little does she know that I can also open a can of sardines.
There is little wind and the daffodils are swaying indolently. The tide has turned and the pools in the sandy expanse of the estuary are beginning to coalesce. The Caragh River flowing through the centre begins to spread its banks as it meets the incoming sea.
The cormorants returning from their fishing expeditions stand drying their wings on the vanishing sandbanks. A pair of Shelducks and varied waders, feeding interrupted by the spreading waters, take flight to do whatever they do when they’re not eating.
It’s all so peaceful and so familiar. It is where our family grew up around us, where we formed firm friendships, some interrupted by the passage of the years.
Sometimes the recollections are too bittersweet to entertain for long but they are part of our lives, as we must lead them.
This is more than a holiday house. It is a second home.
Call it what we will, it is now going to be taxed and we do not really have a problem with that, providing that the rate is fair. I do however have a question. Is it proposed to tax second homes or investment properties overseas?
If this is not the case then it clearly discriminates against those of us who chose to spend our money among our own people and purchase our goods and services in the local economy. It simply would not be fair.
It was mooted that such tax collected would devolve to the local authority, in this case Kerry County Council.
The road on which this little community is based is not recognised by the council and the residents have to maintain it at their own expense. Not all can easily afford to do this.
As we do not exist we do not get services like refuse collection. That also is at our own expense. Forgive this unworthy little gripe; I had forgotten that this is a low-cost economy.
It would be totally miserably minded to point out that others use the road at will to access Dooks beach frequently to the detriment of those who live here. We get to clean up and try to keep the road in repair.
There is an answer of course, but we try to be good, and in Mr Lenihan’s words, “patriotic citizens”.
These are little points as weighed against the backdrop of increasing national insolvency. The European Union has told us that the measures being adopted by the Government to deal with this crisis are confused and inadequate.
Yes they are where they can be discerned at all. One thing is certain, more taxes are on the way. I am slightly bemused by the pension levy furore and suggestions that an increase in income tax would be fairer. Maybe that is correct, but let us not delude ourselves, such increase is coming anyway.
It will hit everybody including those previously levied. The basic message is that we will suffer a decrease in living standards right across all elements of society. Striking in an endeavour to maintain such standards will only make a bad situation worse.
There is no hope that some Horation “deus ex machina” will materialise and somehow we will all live happily ever after.
We should not forget that not all fairy stories begin with “once upon a time”; many start with “if I am elected I promise”.
Maurice Neligan is a cardiac surgeon