This post takes a step back and looks at progress being made in relation to closing the Irish Exchequer deficit. Unfortunately, the focus of spending cuts so far has been on low-hanging fruit, meaning the painful adjustment is still ahead of us. Worryingly, neither the Croke Park Agreement nor recent figures by the Department of Finance show any appreciation of the scale of savings needed. The new Government needs to use Budget 2012 to stamp its authority – and some realism – on its finances.
A popular myth has emerged that Ireland is overflowing with oil and gas but is allowing foreign companies to get it for free. While Ireland probably does have about one trillion dollars worth of oil and gas off its shores, it is not as simple as just cashing it in. This post examines the facts behind Ireland’s oil and gas and outlines the three options open to the country.
This post reviews the Programme for Government agreed by Ireland’s new coalition partners, across three headings. The first is the urgent problem of Ireland’s debt burden, the second is the more medium-term issue of the deficit, while the final heading covers the long-term issues of mortgage arrears and unemployment. While there are many things to be welcomed in the new Programme for Government, on these headings at least, there is an alarming lack of coherence and detail.
The most important General Election in Ireland’s recent history takes place on Friday. RTE have published an overview of the five main parties’ policies across the ten most important policy areas, as chosen by their audience. Eight of these policy areas are economic. This post goes through the parties’ policies in each of the eight major economic policy areas and scores them out of five in each. While the criteria for scoring parties is unlikely to be populist, hopefully it will be of use to those voting later this week.
Ireland’s general election is ten days away. This post outlines the two most important economic policy questions that people should ask their candidates. One is about banking debt and outlines a solution that saves EU face as well as Irish money. The second is about the deficit, which still dwarves the banking crisis and means tax rises and spending cuts are a necessary evil.
With the general atmosphere in the country so depressing, the Leaving Cert Class of 2011 could be forgiven for thinking they are a bit unlucky. However, as they get ready to submit their CAO options, a little perspective should reveal that they are incredibly lucky, not just compared to their counterparts who picked courses at the height of the boom, but also compared to pretty much every previous generation. This post reminds the Class of 2011 which has the chance to choose future-proof skills of just how lucky they are. It outlines two key areas, one for those who like numbers, one for those who like words, where Ireland will have huge demand for skills over the coming years.
This post outlines 11 reasons to be cheerful about Ireland. The country is not bust, some key sectors – including agriculture and our exporters had a very good 2010, and our tourism sector has got two big thumbs-up for the year ahead. Indeed our service exports are booming, not least thanks to vastly improved cost competitiveness. The IDA continues to find jobs for Ireland, while our spirit of enterprise means we have emerging players in ICT, life sciences and education to be proud of.
This post examines Budget 2011. It goes behind the predictable public anger about “poor paying for the mistakes of the rich” to see what the Budget actually brought in. About one third of the €6bn in savings comes from important income tax reform, but another third comes from one-off windfalls that cannot be replicated. The final third comes from savings in public expenditure, but this is below expectations, more than likely due to the restrictions of the Croke Park Deal. While I am more optimistic now than before about reaching 2015 targets, it is in the area of current expenditure that the toughest work lies ahead.
This post outlines how Ireland got into its economic mess, how deep the hole is and what the country must do to get out of the hole. Understanding what mistakes were made is a key part of the problem: this post outlines five, four of which date from entry into the eurozone. The fifth, the blanket guarantee in 2008, has given us a €60bn problem but we should not forget that it’s only half the size of the deficit problem. The post then outlines three questions voters should ask politicians who knock on their door over the coming weeks.
This blog post takes the form of an open letter to Commissioner Olli Rehn, who has twice in successive months pronounced that Ireland must give up its status as a “low tax economy”. The letter goes through the government’s revenues, heading by heading, and argues Ireland already is a normal tax country. Indeed, with corporate tax revenues almost twice as large in Ireland as in Germany, the mooted doubling of Ireland’s corporate tax rate is one of the last “solutions” the country needs.
