Four hundred and fifty euros in energy credit payments to households. A €100 one off payment for those in receipt of Child Payments. A lump-sum €300 fuel allowance payment, and €200 for those living alone. A €12 rise in welfare and pension payments from January. An extra child benefit payment before Christmas, with a double welfare and pension payment set to be paid in January.
Interest relief of up to €1,250 on their primary residence for homeowners on tracker and variable mortgages. Childcare fees to be cut by 25% next year. A €250 million fund to support up to 130,000 small and medium-sized businesses who will receive a payment based on the commercial rates they have paid. A one-off €400 payment for people on the Working Family Payment and those receiving the Carer's Allowance and the Disability Allowance. And a €3 billion war chest to invest in climate and nature projects over the remainder of the decade.
These are just some of the measures being introduced in Ireland today to help tackle the cost of living crisis impacting families and businesses across the country. A country of five million people currently facing the challenging task of deciding how to best deploy a budget surplus of €65bn over the next five years.
Of course, Ireland isn’t Scotland. It doesn’t have a world-leading energy sector with vast renewable energy potential. It doesn’t have one of Europe’s leading financial services and fintech sectors. It doesn’t enjoy one of the highest numbers of top universities per head of population in the world, with world-leading research in key technologies.
Nor does it have the strength in the industries of the future that Scotland enjoys: in space, quantum and photonics. And its whiskey exports are barely a sixth those of Scotch.
But despite all of those disadvantages it has managed to build an economy that has made the most of the advantages it does have, with a focused economic strategy designed to suit its own circumstances and maximise opportunities.
Not everything across the water is perfect, far from it – housing and social challenges persist - but when it comes down to having the resources to support families and individuals at this difficult time, and to face into the climate crisis with funds for the transition, it has the ability to deploy resources that Scotland can only dream of. And a strongly-growing population make it better able to face the demographic challenges of the future.
This hasn’t happened overnight, and there have been bumps, and worse, along the road. But it shows clearly the difference that can be made when decisions are made close to home to suit the circumstances in your country and not someone else’s.
And Ireland isn’t alone. The richest, most successful and most equal countries in the world are European nations of the same size as Scotland, none of whom enjoy Scotland’s advantages in terms of natural resources or human talent: Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Switzerland and Austria among them. In the fast-moving modern world economy agility, flexibility and the ability to respond to opportunities and challenges at pace are worth a lot more than so-called "broad shoulders’"
But of course this is only half the story.
The case for Scotland standing on its own feet isn’t an abstract theoretical, constitutional debate.
The Irish experience does present the opportunity to show what this country could be like, but complaining about lack of powers only gets you so far. What people need to see is the ability to deliver with the powers we have. Scotland’s health service performs better than those in England and Wales. But so it should given the additional spending it enjoys. Our performance on waiting times is a long way from where it should be. Likewise across a range of public services.
Focus on what matters to people, deliver, and the rest will fall into place.
Of course continue to make the case about what we could do with more powers, on investment, population, tackling inequalities and creating opportunities. But recognise that is not enough.
Small independent countries are successful not, just because they are small and independent, but because they make people's lives better with the powers they have.
The dry constitutional debate about process will take care of itself when a self-governing future for Scotland is the "settled will" - and that can come a lot sooner than many people think. In the meantime lets focus on what matters to people: efficient government, good public services and a focus on delivery with the power we have. That is the quickest route to Scotland finding itself facing the same budget "challenges" as Ireland is wrestling with this week.
Ivan McKee is an MSP and former Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise
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