A Mayo woman's view: Worries of war and financial stability

by Barbara Daly

The events in Israel and Gaza are unravelling at incredible speed and the thirst for vengeance is truly shocking.

There is talk of instability spreading through the region.

Meanwhile two million people are essentially under siege in the Gaza Strip. The images and numbers coming out of it are increasingly hard to watch and hear.

At home the talk is of budgets. I have had snippets of conversations with neighbours and colleagues and heard pieces of radio coverage that have surprised and even shocked me.

The importance of the budget to many people would be almost comical if things were not so dire for so many at the moment. It is an event in the Irish calendar that ordinary people get caught up in. I cannot imagine this happening in any other country.

One neighbour told me that he looks forward to Budget Day, sitting with his tea and biscuits ready for the coverage to begin and watching it throughout the day, ending with Prime Time that night for the analysis.

It is an event for him that he greets with anticipation and excitement. He is a single father so I understand his interest to an extent.

Another neighbour told me that her father always takes the day off work on Budget Day to follow proceedings.

This same man smokes 40 cigarettes every day which is now going to cost him almost €300 a week.

Is he going to cut down or give up? No way.

A work colleague was berating the system and the difficulties in claiming benefits for the care of their 16-year-old non-verbal and autistic son.

He said they filled out endless forms this summer and that they are made to feel like beggars. He did not have much hope for Budget Day.

A radio snippet caught my ear regarding the cost of living. It said that a considerable proportion of people, if faced with an unexpected bill of €1,000 or more would be unable to pay it.

I worry about our financial stability should a major crisis hit our family but to realise how many people were in such a precarious state really floored me.

Of course the budget cannot be a silver bullet to every problem and for every person struggling with financial pressure. That is not possible.

But I can’t help wondering why the method of a scatter-gun distribution of small benefits to many is always the approach.

Why not, for just one year, pump the whole lot into ending homelessness for once and for all?

Provide long-term, good-standard accommodation for the 12,000 plus people who are currently homeless, 4,000 of which are children.

That is undoubtedly a naïve thing to suggest but if I were living in emergency accommodation with my family I might not think so.

So how do I feel at the end of this week? Unsettled. There is a lot of uncertainty out there both at home and globally.

It feels like the unimaginable could happen and is happening too often. There are many people in our own country who are barely holding it all together.

We are all at the mercy of so many forces over which we have no control – be it political or other.

We want to be able to control them but we can’t. And maybe that is the key.

Maybe we just have to take nothing for granted, savour as many moments of gratitude as we can and enjoy our good fortune if and when we have it.