The phrase "jobless recovery" has sent a shiver down most of our spines as the government, with defensive self-justification, spins growth in exports as the end of the recession and argues that a corner has been turned in terms of economic recovery.

Unfortunately, there will be many more corners before we begin to feel an upturn. The growth in our overall economy is welcome, but domestic business continues to contract. The pain goes on. If "recovery" is the highest unemployment in decades, a structural debt of €20 billion, a state-owned bank with the worst losses in the world, the loss of 800 businesses in the last six months, and the likelihood of more social welfare cuts and higher taxes in a budget that is to deflate the economy by another €3 billion next year, is it any surprise that most of us are not cheering?

The ESRI's John FitzGerald's assessment is far closer to the reality of people's lives than any economic indicator: "We will only really know that we are on the road to recovery when employment starts to rise and that is some distance off, I am afraid."

Understanding this completely, the country watched aghast all last week as the government tore itself apart over a stag-hunting bill that will affect only one hunt in the country, the elite Ward Union, which sets dogs on farmed deer rather than wild ones.

What should have been a short debate over a minor animal cruelty issue became a pointless, time-wasting blood sport between political partners at the very time when they should have been concentrating on job creation strategies.

Long-term unemployment is a real threat to the stability of many communities and a social evil on an individual level. And what we got – from every party, it has to be said – was hypocrisy, gamesmanship and stupidity.

If last week's antics undermined the government in terms of political numbers – Fianna Fáil rebel Mattie McGrath voted against the government on the planning bill too – they also fatally undermined whatever faith was left in this government's ability to work together for national recovery. TDs want to hold onto their jobs, a fact that is making them forget that 450,000 others have lost theirs.

The need for big ideas, for enterprise and for risk-taking was never more acute, but the political establishment's focus seems to narrow by the day. The mood from the top down actively militates against imagination, such is the paucity of ideas for renewal – whether they're on a large scale, community-led or plain average.

Strategies about the smart economy and reports of projected job gains from the IDA and Enterprise Ireland on the sort of job returns we can get from medical multinationals and computer giants are all very well, but we have no clear picture of where growth within our own country is going to occur.

Smaller businesses are floundering despite talk of stabilisation funds, PRSI initiatives and employee incentive schemes. They can't get money from the banks. Insolvency legislation needs reform but at a political level there is no urgency. The plight of subcontractors unpaid by developers being pursued by banks is particularly tough.

We're crying out for people with new ways of doing things and new ideas – people who want to create things, rather than just buy and sell land. Yet they are constantly constricted by the ghosts of past folly.

Last week, news was dominated by the seizure of Bernard McNamara's art collection. It was a humiliating end for a man who now owes over €1.5 billion. Hugh O'Regan finally lost his last remaining asset when Anglo Irish Bank took control of his beloved Morrison Hotel. The fact that loans were thrown at him like confetti was the most extraordinary part of this tragic tale. Anglo forwarded him €22.5 million as late as September 2008 – the very same month of the bank guarantee scheme – to develop Clubko, an exclusive 'gentleman's club' on St Stephen's Green. And just last year, Irish Nationwide lent him €180 million to redevelop a hotel at Kilternan, Co Dublin. Both projects have collapsed.

The stories of the legends of the fall – Liam Carroll, Bernard McNamara, Paddy Kelly, to name just three – are the loud background noise that constantly drowns out the attempts by the new generation of entrepreneurs to be heard. The new generation have no friends in the banks, who are themselves chastened, broke and clueless as to how to assess the risks or supports needed for businesses that don't involve property.

And the top-down impetus from politicians is simply too weak and too intermittent, too easily distracted by diversions like animal welfare, to make a difference.

They talk about streamlining and an end to bureaucracy to encourage business, yet the government does nothing to stem the growth of regulatory non-commercial semi-state bodies. A recent Institute of Public Administration study shows there are now 2,300 board members – political appointees – on the non-commercial bodies alone, costing €32 million. They have a staff of 12,500, which the taxpayer funds to the tune of €600 million. Their functions are so entangled and so far-reaching that the IPA says it is impossible to assess their efficiency any more.

Finland, a country that's had its own bust and isn't exactly booming now, has just given the right to broadband facilities to all citizens. It's a smart 'big-picture' move because it recognises the need for all citizens to engage in smart technology if the 'smart economy' is to be a realisable policy, not just an educated minority elite.

Here, the broadband rollout lumbers on and the service is patchy, expensive, slow and unequal – like so much else to do with this "recovery".