Ronan Lyons | Personal Website
Ronan Lyons | Personal Website

December 2011

Fixing or just another fix? Budget 2012 and the property market

Ireland’s Budget 2012, announced earlier this month, contained a number of property-related measures. This post reviews them. One would hope at this time that any measures would be the bold actions of a government with a large majority trying to create a sustainable property market. Instead, they seem like the actions of an addict who just can’t give up. Unsustainably cheap credit can never be the answer, boosting confidence and finance has to be. Read more

Higher VAT is not about Northern Ireland, it’s about the Republic

Ireland’s Budget 2012 is being released this week, over two days. The principal measure in relation to taxation is a two-percentage point increase in the standard rate of VAT, from 21% to 23%. This post separates out the reasons why this is a bad idea from the commonly cited fear about people going to buy “up North”. This is not about diverting consumption, this is about destroying it. Read more