Over on Progressive Economy Michael Taft provides his second thorough examination of the data on social welfare and the arguments behind the demands for cuts in the forthcoming budget (part one here). He looks beyond the payments themselves and includes the other benefits in kind, including rent supplement, school and clothing allowances, and medical cards [...]

Does the thought of NAMA concern you? And is the economic crisis and the proposed part solution, the McCarthy Report, a source of anxiety? Are you a bit puzzled as to the rhetoric surrounding it, after all the principals involved seem somewhat hazy on precisely what the effects of the implementation of both those will [...]

‘There are people who are working right now, who are looking at the possibility of losing their jobs, they cannot save, they cannot build up the savings to cushion potential loss, or potential risk of their job.  And, yet, they are paying increasing rates of taxation in order to sustain what is in effect, as [...]

So, Sarah Carey has apologised to Irish Times readers for deceiving them about Irish social welfare payments being the ‘most generous in the EU’, and made a correction in her column, saying, as Michael Taft argued, that they are not even ‘among the highest in the EU’, as the document she used to base the [...]

Boy, was Senator Fergal Quinn taken in. Or was he? In his recent column, ‘Getting people work a priority’ he attempts to make two real-life comparisons - one based on a letter he received and one from what he read in the paper. Senator Quinn forgot the first universal rule of life: don’t believe everything [...]

Updated on 5th of May 2009 to take account of the fact that I have since verified that the explanation about OECD tables being ‘problematic’ was provided to Sarah by a press officer in the Dept. of Finance. I have also modified a section which may have implied that the other claims about Ireland’s generous [...]

Yes, it does look rather one-sided. IBEC, representing some of the most powerful financial and corporate interests, have called for payments to the weakest interests in society to be cut, i.e. cuts in social welfare. It’s like a bunch of ruffians getting tanked up in a pub on Saturday night and then going out to [...]

Dear Sarah
I read with interest your recent Irish Times column - ‘Nemesis for decades of cosy consensus on tax‘. I was particularly struck by the following:
‘When asked who should pay tax so that there’s enough money to fund the most generous social welfare payments in the EU, we are back to - you’ve guessed it [...]