So, ‘curbing’ public spending growth is the only option. Thus spake Paul Tansey in last Friday’s Irish Times. Working from figures supplied by the Department of Finance, he attempts to show how public spending has ‘ballooned’ and now it has to be popped.
Let’s go through his apocalyptic presentation of numbers and see if [...]

It is a well-known fact that public sector workers are (a) greedy, (b) not productive (in fact they’re anti-productive), (c) over-paid and under-worked with big fat pensions, and (d) the single most important cause behind our recession and the poor showing of the Irish football team.  How do I know all this? Because I read the [...]

You know its recession time - the unemployed are getting hammered. Mary Hanafin, straight from slashing the education system in her previous portfolio, is now getting her hooks into those who have been thrown out of work. Why? To save money. Apparently, there are queues of people ripping off the social welfare system. Let’s go [...]

It gets worser and worser. Davy has just issued their predictions for the economy. One always has to treat Davy with a large grain of salt. They tend to be quite pessimistic; if there’s a downside they’ve been to the bottom and gone looking for new depths to plummet. That’s what [...]

What better way to spend a lazy afternoon than reading National Competitiveness Council reports, in particular its submission to the Commission on Taxation? The NCC is full of information but they do have a particular agenda and damn the facts. For instance, Ireland’s low tax rate has driven
‘ . . . . entrepreneurship, [...]

In these recession days we will be inundated with a carnival numbers and percentages. They will come so thick and fast it will be almost impossible to deal with every sleight-of-hand and three-card trick. But we have to start setting the record straight somewhere so I want to start with Fine Gael’s manipulative use [...]

Ah, the haute bourgeoisie - I know the old Scotsman warned us against letting them talk to each other. This is wise counsel but I have found that they can be amazingly open, almost innocent in their discussions. Take the Merrill Lynch Survey of Fund Managers July: never mind the amusing language - [...]

Here’s a thought courtesy of Cllr. Eric Byrne - a suggestion so common-sensical its’ frightening. Immediately after Bernard McNamara did a runner on the PPPs in Dublin city, Cllr. Byrne proposed that the City Council scrap all such ‘partnership’ proposals and do the following:
Dublin City Council already owns the sites in question. The Council [...]

Sometimes, it’s the little things that get up your wick. The Sunday Business Post produced one of those little calculations to suggest how expensive it is, how draining on our pockets it is, to increase public sector pay:
‘Each 1 per cent rise in the public pay bill costs the government almost €200 million.’
Geez, that [...]

 
Our man from Ongar, Leo Varadkar, TD, is in madness mode. At a debate on the Future of Social Partnership at the Young Fine Gael Summer School he demanded:
‘ . . . a moderate pay deal that taxpayers can afford. . . This must include major concessions by the unions on business competition.’
Now, [...]