ACCORDING to our professional social policy elites, from NGOs and trade unionists to political opposition, we live in a society labouring under the strains of growing poverty, inequality, sexism and racism, globalisation and environmental threats. We have lost our way, the story goes, having traded the communal happiness of the past for an unhappy neo-liberal present.

Last week, a new Eurobarometer poll provided fresh insights into our perceptions of the quality of life in Ireland. According to the poll, 94% of Irish respondents say they are generally happy - placing us in third place in Europe after Denmark (97%) and the Netherlands (95%) and on a par with Belgium and Sweden. Ireland is the second-happiest country in the EU25, with 46% of respondents saying they were very happy in their lives - slightly below Denmark (49%).

Meanwhile, 92% of Irish residents are satisfied with their standard of living (sixth-highest in the EU) and 94% are satisfied with the quality of life in the country (third-highest). The fact that our measure of collective wellbeing was above our personal satisfaction suggests we do not perceive Ireland's quality of life is unequally distributed.

Work is considered important by fewer people than the EU average in Ireland (69%). This cannot be interpreted as a lack of priority on job creation policies. Instead, it must be viewed as an indication that people tend to value less what they have in abundance, but they dislike much more intensely any loss of what they have.

There is more to this than a simple scarcity argument. At 69%, those who consider work important represent almost exactly the percentage of those who are either employed, studying, looking for a job or who would like to look for one if conditions were right.

This hardly gives credence to our welfare NGOs and politicos who argue that jobs and economic growth must give way to other aspects of our social development.

Opposition parties, trade unions and other social activists have been vociferous about the alleged decline in workplace standards, wages and working conditions. Yet, when asked about various characteristics of their workplace environment, Irish respondents showed some of the lowest concern in the EU with all negative aspects of the workplace. Likewise, Irish respondents showed the secondhighest level of confidence in their ability to keep their job in the near future. Despite having one of the lowest rates of on-the-job training, Irish workers report the second-highest likelihood of finding a new job. This flies in the face of those who argue that job displacement is a real problem in voters' eyes.

Another finding that challenges our quangonoid consensus is that Irish people are concerned with rising inequality. If this were true, one would expect people to assign a importance to the need to help others. Only 63% of Irish respondents (second-lowest in the EU25) value such actions. At the same time, 51% thought existent social welfare provision levels meet our social needs. The gap between rich and poor was of concern to only 12% of the Irish population - well below the EU15 average.

Likewise, there is little overlap between the rhetoric of our state intervention gurus and the views of voters. In Ireland, only 10% of the population were concerned with the environment. The same applies to globalisation (3%), integration of foreigners (8%), and immigration (6%).

The priorities of the respondents were divorced from those promoted by the left: education (16% concerned), crime (50%), cost of living (49%), and healthcare (59%). All of these represent the state failure to provide public services on the back of escalating public expenditure.

There is more damning evidence in the poll to argue that our social policy talking heads are out of touch with reality. According to the gurus of political correctness, cronyism, family wealth and being a man should all contribute significantly to one's ability to get ahead. After all, were this not the case, our equality gurus and vast swathes of the media and academia would have spent their entire lives fighting imaginary villains. They have.

Only 19% of Irish people believe knowing the right people is a means to success. A tiny minority, 5%, claim that being born into wealth drives success and 3% believe being a man helps one to get ahead. In the real world, Ireland is the society based on merit, as 60% - the second-highest proportion in the EU25 - of Irish people believe success is predicated on working hard.

Overall, Ireland is the number one EU15 country in terms of positive perception of social wellbeing in the last five years and optimism for the future.

It appears the more the skies darken in the warped world of our socialist policy heads, the more the sun smiles on the real voters.

Dr Constantin Gurdgiev is an economist and editor of Business & Financemagazine constantin@tribune. ie www. businessand"nance. ie