How much will we owe in 2012? Ireland’s Debt/GDP reached a record low of 25% in 2006. At the end of 2009, it stood at 66%, as the government went on a borrowing spree to bail out banks while tax revenues plummeted. Our gross debt ratio is projected to rise to 84% by end 2010.… Continue reading Confidence in action
Tag: cutbacks
Natural Causes
Christopher O’Driscoll was seventeen. The HSE knew about him since he was ten. Since then, he had been in and out of care facilities, an when they were full, bed and breakfasts, or hotels. On May Day weekend last year, he had nowhere to go. The administrators had shut down their computers, closed their offices,… Continue reading Natural Causes
An Cúige
David Cameron has let the cat out of the bag. Northern Ireland costs too much. Wikipedia puts the cost to the British exchequer at five billion quid in 2006. That’s one fifth of all economic output. Annually. Despite this, the North remains an economic basketcase. By contrast, the Republic benefited from a EU investment in… Continue reading An Cúige
Rock Bottom
Anyone seeking for a metaphor for all that is wrong with Ireland at the moment need look no farther than the Dublin docklands. There, you will find the proposed new headquarters for Anglo Irish Bank, a building planned in happier days, before the bank imploded and was nationalised. A government strapped for cash as tax… Continue reading Rock Bottom
News Management
Remember back when when all those junior ministers lined up to declare they were willing to lose their positions, and we really didn’t need twenty of them? It was all part of the Share The Pain the government has been spreading in order to condition the rest of us for pay cuts. After all, if… Continue reading News Management
FUD
Brian Cowen can’t even rely on the weather these days. Since the talks with unions and employers broke down this morning, it was clear he would have to go it alone, announcing cutbacks without the protective cover of the social partners. At 4pm, he stood to address the Dáil, announcing two billion in cutbacks, including… Continue reading FUD