In a well written article in last Sunday’s Sunday Business Post, Journalist and author, David McWilliams analyses the ‘Strokeonomics’ rampant in Ireland.
“Strokeonomics. It is economics Irish style, when the local government and the local politicians join forces to build infrastructure based on electoral boundaries rather than engineering logic. What other country has roads determined by county boundaries?”
”Strokeonomics enfeebles all of us because the tax money of the central government is used to prop up the ambitions of the little emperors who masquerade as politicians in Ireland.”
While McWilliams is writing about the incompetence, jobs for the boys, Gombeenism, greed and political favouritism rampant in road building.
The same points could be made about health, education, police, politics, legal system, civil service, in fact, about any area of Irish public life.
The article is well worth reading.
Strokeonomics – why create a neologisme when a clearer and simpler term would be “Fianna Fail policy”.
As a point of information many other countries build infrastructure to satisfy politicians egos and to ensure local political gain. I can cite examples from France (roads between two neighbouring regions are never a priority) and Italy. Ireland is in no way unique in this respect.
Gordon