Solutions to Problems

I have to assume that Ajai Chopra is a man who is very careful with his words.  It came as a bit of a surprise that he said the following when discussing the EU/IMF rescue package after quarterly review in April.

“It represents an Irish solution to an Irish problem and it enjoys our support. In the root of the problem was a deep banking crisis and that’s where the emphasis of this programme is. The new government is making good headway on this front.”

It is very unlikely that Chopra would have used the phrase “Irish solution to an Irish problem” without knowing the local context of the phrase.

Chopra revisited the phrase in a manner this week when he returned for the third quarterly review.

“The problems that Ireland faces are not just an Irish problem.  They’re a shared European problem. What we need and what’s lacking so far is a European solution to a European problem.”