Irlanda (Continuación)

EuropaUnión EuropeaEconomía,

Can a government be re-elected after imposing harsh austerity on its citizens? If you were to pick one to succeed, it would surely be Enda Kenny’s centre-right coalition in Ireland. It came to power in 2011 and pushed through big cuts in welfare, health, education and policing. It raised taxes and raided pension funds. But over the past year, the Irish economy has palpably improved. Growth is the highest in the European Union. Emigration has slowed down. At least in Dublin and the other main cities, the buzz of boomtime Ireland is back.

The governing Fine Gael and Labour parties are promising to reverse some of the tax increases and begin to repair the damage to public services.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Considerable surprise has been expressed around the world about the fact that traditionally conservative and Catholic Ireland approved same-sex marriage in a referendum May 22 by a majority of nearly two to one.

The fact is, Ireland is no longer a Catholic country in the old sense. Much of the state's urban population is what we call here "cultural Catholics" -- that is, they like to have baptisms and funerals in the local Catholic church, but are no longer regular mass-goers.

And the true believers who still make up a sizable portion of the population no longer feel obliged to obey the edicts of the bishops, who last Sunday opposed the "yes" vote from the pulpits.…  Seguir leyendo »

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The Irish have become the first people in the world to legalize same-sex marriage by referendum. It’s an astonishing statement about the pace of cultural change in a country where more than 80 percent of residents identify as Catholic. It’s also a hopeful development for gays and lesbians in other nations: Countries with strong religious opposition to homosexuality can evolve.

The Irish referendum is notable for another reason: It further erodes the original justification for partition between a Protestant majority in the north and a Catholic majority in the south. In the decade before the island was split in 1920, northern Protestants threatened to take up arms against the British government if it granted Ireland the kind of home-rule powers that many in Scotland now seek.…  Seguir leyendo »

Ireland’s Marriage Equality Moment

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On a Sunday in May, a reporter for The Irish Times went looking for religious people who might be expected to oppose same-sex marriage. The issue is a hot topic in Ireland because on Friday the nation votes in a referendum that, if passed, will enshrine marriage equality in the Constitution.

The reporter engaged an older woman after Mass at Dublin’s main Catholic cathedral. “I’m just going to vote for gay people because I have nothing against them,” the woman, Rita O’Connor, told the journalist. “I can’t understand why anybody is against it.” And she dismissed the church’s opposition: “It’s a stupid carry-on.”…  Seguir leyendo »

The Irish Rebellion Over Water

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In the west of Ireland, they say that if you can see the mountain, it’s going to rain. And if you can’t see the mountain? It’s raining.

Ireland may have its troubles, but drought isn’t one of them. Which may be why proposed charges for household water have brought tens of thousands into the streets in protests that have deeply unnerved the political order.

If the Irish are finally catching the mood of anti-austerity anger that has been rolling across much of the European Union, it may be a case not so much of the straw that broke the camel’s back as the drop that caused the dam to burst.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión EuropeaEconomía

I was talking just before Christmas to a young man who sells shoes in a department store in Dublin. He told me that a television news crew had filmed interviews in the store the previous day. They wanted to know if sales were picking up during the vital holiday period, indicating that the battered Irish economy was, after five grim years, on the rise at last.

Most of his colleagues said that, actually, sales were rather sluggish. One was more hopeful and said that there were signs of improvement. When the young man watched the TV news that night, he was not entirely surprised to find that the only interview that had made the cut was the one with the optimist.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Irlanda acaba de liberarse del marco de rescate a cambio de austeridad establecido por la Troika (la Comisión Europea, el Banco Central Europeo y el Fondo Monetario Internacional) para los países endeudados de la zona del euro y encabeza la recuperación económica de la unión monetaria. Las autoridades europeas, incluido Jean-Claude Trichet, ex Presidente del BCE, han indicado que el perseverante compromiso de Irlanda con la austeridad es un modelo para otros países.

¿De verdad es así? No hace mucho que se consideró también un modelo el milagro económico de Irlanda –lo que The Economist llamó en 1997 “la brillante luz de Europa”, que atrajo a admiradores tan diversos y distantes como China e Israel.…  Seguir leyendo »

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In Ireland, ancestry means everything. Yet to an increasing number of Irish people — immigrants and the children of immigrants — Irish ancestry remains painfully elusive. In May this harsh fact confronted Una-Minh Kavanagh on the streets of Dublin. A 22-year-old woman who was adopted by an Irish woman from her native Vietnam when she was just six weeks old, Ms. Kavanagh is thoroughly Irish, down to her thick County Kerry accent and her mastery of the Irish language, which only 10 percent of the country speaks fluently.

But the group of Irish teenagers who accosted her that afternoon only saw her Asian features.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión EuropeaEconomía

En termes de traitement de choc pour réduire les déficits publics, le ''bon élève de l'Europe'' semble avoir une longueur d'avance sur le gouvernement de Jean Marc Ayrault.

L'Irlande a lancé en octobre 2012 un plan intitulé "Putting People First'' ayant l'ambition de faire économiser 420 millions d'euros aux collectivités locales au cours des quatre prochaines années soit 10 % de leur budget (il succède à un premier plan de rigueur ayant réduit de 17% leurs recettes entre 2008 et 2012).

Par exemple, l'effort financier de 1,5 milliard d'euros demandé aux collectivités territoriales (CT) françaises au titre de l'année 2014 représente moins de 1% de leurs recettes.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Ambas partes en el debate sobre la austeridad que apasiona a los economistas y responsables de políticas ofrecen la experiencia irlandesa como evidencia para sus justificaciones. Pero, no importa cuánto intenten posicionar al país como un caso emblemático, ninguna de las ellas es capaz de convencer a la otra. Sin embargo este juego de tira y afloja es importante, porque ilustra la compleja variedad de argumentos en juego. También demuestra por qué está resultando tan difícil implementar políticas económicas más concluyentes.

Veamos un rápido recordatorio de la reciente y triste historia económica irlandesa. Confiados por la amplia oferta de financiamiento artificialmente barato, los bancos irlandeses se abandonaron a la complacencia y al exceso, y se dieron un festín crediticio.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión EuropeaEconomía,

Tras la reestructuración de la deuda griega en marzo de 2012, que llevó a los tenedores privados de deuda pública a aceptar “voluntariamente” una quita de alrededor del 70% de su inversión, las instituciones europeas proclamaron que el caso griego era único e irrepetible. La lógica, entonces, era que generalizar las quitas en la Zona Euro (ZE) provocaría un nivel de contagio imposible de frenar, que podría poner en riesgo la supervivencia del euro. Las deudas se pagan, se decía; Grecia ha sido sólo la excepción que confirma la regla.

Ya entonces, desde distintos ámbitos, se insistía en que, para superar definitivamente la crisis, otros países de la ZE también deberían realizar impagos parciales a sus acreedores.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Al asumir la Presidencia rotativa del Consejo de la Unión Europea, el rumbo de Irlanda hacia la recuperación económica está claramente delineado. Como la de España y otros países, nuestra experiencia de los últimos años ha sido especialmente difícil. Aunque, precisamente debido a esa experiencia, Irlanda está bien situada para asumir la labor de la Presidencia al comenzar 2013.

Los temas fundamentales de nuestra Presidencia están claros: estabilidad, empleo y crecimiento. Son tiempos desafiantes para Irlanda y para la Unión, y se siguen sintiendo las réplicas de la crisis económica. La UE continúa trabajando las difíciles cuestiones que se le presentan a la moneda única, y la economía europea lucha por crear empleo y un buen nivel de vida para sus ciudadanos.…  Seguir leyendo »

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When I argued a case challenging Ireland's ban on abortion before the European Court of Human Rights in 2009, I told the story of my client, "Ms. C," who had been battling cancer when she became pregnant. Ms. C's doctors in Ireland, where abortion is illegal and lifesaving abortion is largely unavailable, refused to provide her with even basic information about the risk that continuation of pregnancy posed to her life, and so she had no option but to travel to England to obtain an abortion.

The human rights court found this to be a clear violation of my client's rights under the European Convention on Human Rights and in 2010 demanded that Ireland reform its abortion laws.…  Seguir leyendo »

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In late October, Savita Halappanavar, a 31-year-old dentist who was 17 weeks pregnant, was admitted to a hospital in Galway, Ireland, in severe pain. Doctors acknowledged that she was having a miscarriage, but over the course of three days, they reportedly refused to terminate the pregnancy and end her suffering because they could detect a fetal heartbeat. Citing Roman Catholic Ireland’s near-total ban on abortion as the reason, the physicians denied Dr. Halappanavar a procedure that most likely would have saved her life. She died Oct. 28.

When I heard the news, an alarm sounded inside. I was born and raised in Ireland, and although I now live in San Francisco, my home country’s antiquated anti-abortion laws have always rankled me.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión Europea,

In the historic sense, Ireland's long love affair with the Catholic church was, as Ella Fitzgerald once sang, "too hot not to cool down". Catholicism was once so all-pervading in Irish life that it seemed a definition of Irishness: but now, according to a survey by the pollsters Red C, the Irish are losing their faith quicker than most: seven years ago, 69% of Irish people described themselves as "religious": this has now fallen more than 20 points to 47%.

Something had to give, and even before the clerical scandals broke into the public realm – in the 1990s – this intermingling of faith and fatherland was in decline.…  Seguir leyendo »

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En un referéndum celebrado el 31 de mayo, el pueblo irlandés votó a favor del Tratado Europeo de Estabilidad. No nos equivoquemos. No se trata de un voto a favor de la austeridad, sino una reivindicación de volver a una prosperidad económica basada en un crecimiento bien gestionado y sostenible.

Irlanda ha cubierto ya dos tercios de un proceso de consolidación fiscal necesario y doloroso. Hemos cumplido gran parte del programa de ayuda financiera, alcanzando todas las metas fijadas por nuestros socios en Europa y el Fondo Monetario Internacional.

Apoyando la ratificación de este Tratado, el pueblo irlandés hace una contundente declaración del compromiso de asumir sus dificultades económicas.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión EuropeaConvención y Tratados

Yesterday, in a referendum, the Irish people voted yes to the European fiscal stability treaty. There should be no misunderstanding: this result was a call for growth in the European economic zone, not austerity.

In supporting ratification of the European fiscal stability treaty, the Irish people have endorsed the government's strategy of restoring fiscal and economic stability as a platform for sustainable growth and job creation. In Ireland, as in the eurozone as a whole, stability is a necessary but not sufficient condition for growth. And growth, of course, is essential to any path out of the current economic crisis.

Ireland is now more than two thirds of the way through what is a necessary but painful fiscal consolidation process, and midway through a three-year financial assistance programme that has seen it meet all of the targets set by our funding partners in Europe and the International Monetary Fund.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión EuropeaConvención y Tratados

Ireland's tempestuous love affair with European treaty referendums is set for another date on 31 May. That leaves eight long weeks of debate before the public votes on the fiscal compact treaty. Over the past two, ambassadors, academics, politicians and interest groups have presented their views on the treaty to a parliamentary subcommittee.

The meandering name of that body – the subcommittee on the referendum on the intergovernmental treaty on stability, co-ordination and governance in the economic and monetary union – underlines the treaty's complexity and the extent to which it's seen as a turn-off. The Irish public have largely ignored the committee hearings and, with less than two months to go to polls, this has to be worrying for the government.…  Seguir leyendo »

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In an early memory of mine, if it is a real memory, I was taken one smoky winter afternoon by my Uncle Tom to Rosslare Harbor, some 10 miles from our hometown of Wexford in the southeast corner of Ireland. It was the early 1950s, and I would have been 6 or 7 years old. At the harbor’s pier, the ferry to Britain was preparing to depart. Memory magnifies, and the vessel I recall is the size of an ocean liner, its sheer flank beetling over the dock, its mighty smokestacks puffing out great gray cumuli and its hooter shaking the air with its deep-throated bellowings.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión EuropeaEconomía

Tal como España, Irlanda apoya una mayor gobernanza económica, sobre todo en la eurozona. Nuestros dos países, como toda Europa, necesitan acción inmediata con el fin de atajar la inestabilidad. Esta semana los dirigentes europeos deberán tomar claras decisiones para demostrar la determinación compartida de proteger nuestra moneda. Si no es así, la confianza y la inversión internacional en Europa seguirán cayendo.

En Irlanda estamos reformando nuestros trámites presupuestarios para dar lugar a una gobernanza económica sólida. Estamos logrando el restablecimiento de la confianza y la reconstrucción de la economía. Ayer presenté los presupuestos nacionales que asegurarán que cumplamos con nuestras metas fiscales para 2012, tal y como se acordó en el Programa UE/FMI.…  Seguir leyendo »