Events - Eddie Hobbs

On 6 October 2009, celebrity accountant Eddie Hobbs gave a presentation on the recession and the future to the UCC Greens.

He began with a story to illustrate how credit works. A customer pays a €100 deposit. The deposit is used to pay a debt. That money is in turn used to pay another debt, and so on until the €100 is goes back to where it came from (to pay another debt) and is used to refund the deposit.

Peak oil

Eddie said that there are compelling economic reasons for us to get our energy from alternatives to fossil fuels.

He called oil the "base commodity" for our economic activity and said that we are quickly running out of cheap oil. He also argued that the problem of oil is nothing new. "The last four major world recessions were caused by rising oil prices."

Energy Security

He argued that Ireland needs do more to inter-connect its electricity grid with other countries and that we should build an inter-connector to continental Europe.

He referred to the Spirit of Ireland idea, which was well received by many political parties, particularly Fine Gael. Spirit of Ireland are proposing to use U-shaped valleys on the west coast of Ireland to build hydro storage reservoirs. These reservoirs would store surplus energy from the grid, like rechargeable batteries, to provide of electricity when renewables are unproductive (because of calm weather). The UCC Greens invited a speaker from Spirit of Ireland to an information evening on renewable energy three weeks later.

Economic Recovery

Eddie wasn't sure whether we were heading for recovery or "another leg down". The indicator to look for that would suggest a recovery is an increase in retail sales.

For every 1% improvement in the US economy, the Irish economy improves by 1.5%.

He expects the green economy to be an important source of many jobs for young people in Ireland.

Budget Cuts

Eddie said that major cuts in the December budget were going to be necessary, because "we are hemorrhaging half a billion a week."

He predicted that we are facing a confrontation between the government and public sector unions. It will be difficult - many of us have close friends and family in the public sector. Eddie hopes the government will win and that those on social welfare would not be hit too hard. Public sector pay in Ireland is 40% higher than the European norm. He described the attitude of the public sector unions as "Narnian economics".

On the reintroduction of third level fees, he commented, "I have four children so I have my own views on that".

Change of Government

With the Green Party due to hold a convention to decide whether to stay in government in four days, there was a real chance that the government would fall. Eddie said that he couldn't see the political gain for the Green Party staying in government.

The UCC Greens attended the convention on the revised programme for government.