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of entitlement, is confined solely to Fianna Fáil. But a suspicion arises that senior figures in the main opposition parties are just waiting in the wings to take their turn with the Mercs and perks. They may not suffer the same disconnect, but there is precious little to suggest they are equipped with what is required at a time of national peril.
    Where are the signs of leadership on the most basic level? For example, what senior opposition figure has the guts to say something like, ‘No member of the next executive should be paid more than €100,000 at this time of great upheaval’? Who is willing to declare that public office now more than ever must be about what can be put in, rather than what can be extracted as a sense of entitlement?
    The old order is rapidly changing. Fianna Fáil and the Catholic Church, as we knew them both, are bound for the knacker’s yard. The worrying thing is nothing has yet been found to replace them. Give us a shout if you hear anything.

It’s not going to be pretty, but in the coming years we’re going to find out a lot about ourselves and our capacity for tolerance when the chips are down
    22 February 2009
    T he flyer came through the door a couple of weeks ago. ‘Are you looking for someone to paint your house? You have found the right people! We are a team of Professional Polish Workers who can cheaply and solidly paint.’ It went on: ‘We also provide high quality tiling services.’
    The phrase ‘Professional Polish Workers’ was highlighted in bold typeface. There are two reasons why tradespeople would highlight their Polish nationality. In the first instance, over the last five years, Polish tradespeople have gained an excellent reputation in the workplace. They are not afraid of work and the combination of enthusiasm and skills generally provide a very satisfactory service. Like generations of Irish exiles before them, they use the hunger of the immigrant to push themselves on.
    There is nothing unique about Poles. Immigrants from other eastern European states within the EU are similarly commended, but Poles are identified by sheer force of numbers. The other reason is cost. Through the bubble years, when the home-improvement market went through the roof, workers from the new EU states provided their trades at very competitive prices.
    Work was plentiful. Many Irish tradespeople sniffed a market in which they could charge exorbitantly, and did so. Canny immigrants realised they could do the job profitably at lesser prices and exploited the fertile territory abandoned by the native boys. Everybody got a slice of the action.
    Not any more. The work has dried up. Prices have come down, and everybody is flailing around in the same shrinking pool. In such an environment, tensions are going to rise and the grind of history has taught us that these tensions will inevitably be wrapped up in race. All the indications are that large numbers who came here when work was plentiful are now staying on. As of last December, 44,600 of those signing on were immigrants, representing about one-fifth of the total unemployed. A report in the Irish Times last Monday from a Polish church in Dublin confirmed that many have decided to stay on and see out the bad times.
    Immigration is a highly mobile business these days with cheap air travel, but at the moment there is nowhere else to go. In any event, many who came here liked what they saw and have decided to nest. For parents of young children, or those at the foothills of family life, moving abroad again to the next job has added complications.
    Handling this new reality is going to be no easy task. If our friends the Polish painters hoover up scarce work on the basis of cheaper pricing, their unemployed Irish counterparts will locate a vent in which to pour frustrations. The plight of PAYE workers is another concern. Through the boom years, employers sang loudly about the benefits immigrants were