By Msgr. Noel C. Burtenshaw

(Msgr. Burtenshaw spent a month in Ireland and has written a three-part series on what he found there.)

“How long have you been out of work?”

He grinned nervously as he turned from his steaming cup of coffee to answer my question.

“Oh, not so long.”

“How long?” I persisted.

“About four years.”

He saw the shock in my eyes. “That’s not so long,” he insisted. “There are people out of work a hell of a lot longer than that. And let me tell you, there are young people in Ireland right now who will never get a job.”

Sixty thousand young people graduated from Irish high schools in the summer of 1984. The rest go to the job market, which, at this time in urban Ireland, is almost non-existent.

So what will they do? The question is a terrifying one for the struggling economy of the little republic and its three and a half million people. Most will go on unemployment benefits and some will look to the ports of emigration. Those ports, which accommodated their forefathers so generously in the past, are quickly closing tight.

“Where can you go today?” asks one hopeful trying to search for new horizons. “America is closed, England has gigantic employment problems and Australia invites only those with skills not available on that side of the world. So emigration is almost out.”

In the sixties Ireland found itself in the golden age of economic glory. Foreign investors attracted by good tax benefits flocked to the little island from America and other expanding nations. But the benefit terms ran out, oil jumped a thousand fold and government borrowing mortally mortgaged the nation.

Now it is recovery time and nothing is working right.

“Obviously,” says one economist in Dublin, “we need more foreign investment. We should be able to attract more. We seem to have what investors need. We have a population of young, energetic men and women – almost half the population are under 25 – and we have access to 200 million people in the European community.”

So why won’t foreign investment come.

The answer unfortunately seems to be tragically simple.

Ireland has very severe trade union problems. Strikes are serious and constant. Twice during the summer of 1984, a hasty strike was called by the power company which left thousands without power at home. Bus strikes are regular occurrences (the army helps in Dublin by providing trucks free of charge, but only at rush hour). A couple of years ago the Irish banks closed for almost a year because of a strike.

That kind of job and labor disruption is bad; other practices are almost worse. A company which finds itself in the position of dismissing some staff and placing them on unemployment must pay “redundancy” severance. This payment can be very large since it will have to support the unemployed for some time. Another practice is “disturbance” pay. If employees are “disturbed” at their work by being moved to new offices or workshops, then unions can and do demand disturbance money.

“We have to realize,” says one employer who has tackled many of their labor problems, “that Ireland is one country where foreign investment can go. There are others. American firms can also go to South Korea, Hong Kong and lots of other places where labor is plentiful. We are in competition and we are not winning.”

And so the unemployment percentage grows, presently to over 15 percent. But that’s not the full picture. A young priest in one of Dublin’s inner city parishes makes it most clear. “Over 50 percent of my parish of a thousand families are out of work and most of the young people have no job and no hope of a job.”

Obviously having a young population with little opportunity or economic hope brings the usual results to community life. “Most of these people in the inner city,” says a member of the staff working for a politician, “will end up in jail. They finally burst into terrible anger and destroy, destroy, destroy. Unfortunately it is frequently themselves they destroy.”

His reference is, especially, to the drug epidemic experienced in the city of Dublin over the past few years. “We have become the heroin capitol of Europe,” says the same man, “but thank God we are fighting. We will not surrender our youth. We are winning over the pushers.”

So what can be done if anything. The experts agree that hard times will have to be endured on a larger scale. Government spending will have to decline. This means that generous welfare and unemployment payments will be cut back bringing great pain to the lives of the poor. This has already begun to the protests of many citizens. For example, the Irish government has withdrawn the subsidy on bread – a staple in working class households – sending the cost of a loaf to an all time high of approximately one dollar and fifty cents (in American currency).

But some light is beginning to emerge. With the encouragement of government and sometimes with its financial help, small innovative businesses are being founded and worked successfully. One young man saw that vegetables (including potatoes) were being imported from other European nations so he started his own vegetable growing at home. Now he is selling successfully to local markets. Others have started city messenger services. Tiny clothing manufacturers employing no more than 25 profit-sharing employees have found their feet. The small, well-managed business is beginning to grow.

In this economic fix, when the traditional solution to leave the country is no longer there, the Irish have turned to their own talents and their own ingenuity for the answer.

In some cases they are finding it, in others they are not. The road to economic recovery will be long.

(Next week: The Church)