Archive for the ‘Ireland Economy’ Category
Survey says Irish Employee’s amongst worse in world for “Sticky Fingers “.
According to United Kingdom’s Retail Research centre (as published by Sunday Times 15th November ), Irish employee’s are rated the most light fingered in Europe. The centre estimates that nearly 40% of all missing goods are taken by employee’s. Which in the Irish context is nearly €170 million worth of goods.
Ireland however is ranked only 11th in actual shoplifting, you can find out who took that record here- World News. It’s good that we didn’t come first for that as well !! The poor state of the economy as well as low wages and the general malaise if politicians and solicitors can do it so can we mentality.
Don’t think it is good for the country to have a record like that, it could effect investment by foreign companies, employment and so on.
Do you think this report is justified are other nations more honest than the Irish or the Irish dishonest ??
Or is it a piece of “paddy-bashing” by an English newspaper ???
” Get Up Stand Up “
Just noticed a letter that arrrived lately from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions ( ICTU ) on their ” Get Up Stand Up ” campaign. It’s in opposition to the planned Government cut-backs in services in the December 9th budget and other measures planned throught-out the year .
The Government seemingly found it prudent to borrow a massive €54 billion to bail out property speculators, I kid you not €54 billion for s-p-e-c-u-l-a-t-o-r-s , not for a swanky new metro for Dublin or light rail for Cork or Limerick, upgraded public transport to finally bring it to Western european standards or other measures to generate employment.
No it’s €54 billion for s-p-e-c-u-l-a-t-o-r-s.
To hide the disaster ( and the fact that basically the national debt has been doubled), they have created a new agency called the National Asset Management Agency ( NAMA ). It’s not like the Government wasn’t warned of property bubble imploding, it’s been flagged for years. Nama is likely to go on for ten to fifteen years with no indication of any possible claw back by sale of assets etc…
The people who are been asked to pickup the tab are mainly people who were bypassed by the boom. They are also going be asked to bear the brunt of government imposed cutbacks. Charming What ?
Links of interest
National Asset Management Agency ( NAMA )
Protest Marches are planned for Friday 6th.
IBOA says staff are under Relentless pressure.
Just noticed this on MSN news, just says that all the pressure on staff to sell all kinds of financial products to customers, has contributed in no small way to the current crisis in the banking sector.
Budget 2009 ?
Brian Cowen and the “Sheriff of Nottingham” 2009 Budget.
Or How we blew the Boom.
2 Budgets within six months isn’t good and here is Brian Cowen to explain —
There you have it Budget 2009 and it’s nasty. Basically loads of cuts and more taxes.
- The halving of the childcare allowance and it’s scraping by the end of the year.
- Children’s allowance to be means tested from next year on.
- Income Levies doubled 2% @ €15,000, 4% @ €75,000 and 6% @ €175,000.
- Jobseekers allowance to be halved for under 20’s.
- Health levies increased and employee prsi ceiling raised to €75,000
- Mortgage interest relief is to be of seven years duration only.
- No “Christmas Bonus” this year and possible reduction in social welfare rates in future years.
- 25 cent on a packet of cigarettes and 5 cent on a litre of diesel.
There is no solutions on how to put the economy on track and get people working again. It’s a “batten down the hatches” budget and its very anti-people and lacking in idea’s.
Here some of my earlier postings.
Bleak Outlook for 2009 II & Postive Idea’s.
The unemployment rate continues to rise, there is now 327,000 people out of work in the country and the figure is expected to rise to 400,000 by the end of the year. What actions are we (the people) expecting the Government to take to alleviate the crisis ? Generally I think the Government are panicking and steering the country into a steep reccession. I would take a gamble (that’s me !) that the outlook will be better in 2010 and borrow what the negative balance is for this year and review the situation at the year’s end. We need to get the revenues growing again and what I suggest is that
- Bring back the scrap-age scheme for cars eight years or more (they are doing this in Germany ).
- Reintroduce the first time buyer’s grant for a limited period say a grant of €10,000- € 15,000 just to get people buying again.
- Tax Shell, no reason not to do this.
- Use the remainder of the pension fund to build motorways, improve public transport, build extra hospitals not subside private ones.
- Encourage people to start their own business/enterprises.
That’s a few of my idea’s, maybe they might not be many ” Irish beggars ” on foreign streets if we tried to help ourselves.
Sour Grapes at Ryanair.
I see that Ryanair has cut its services at Shannon, just about two weeks after their ridiculous offer for Aer Lingus was thrown out. Fancy this they put in a offer for a company with at least €760 m in the bank ( +42 planes and buildings worth another €916m according to the Sunday Business Post) and landing/take-off slots at Heathrow airport ( which are nearly impossible to get) of €748 m !!! I mean Micheal O’ Leary wanted a bargain there, less than half price !! I am not a fan of Aer lingus but Ryanair wanted the “Sale of the century” just to suit them. Good thing it didn’t happen.
Dell to let go 1900 employee’s.
It has finally been announced that Dell is to shed 1,900 of its staff in Limerick, its a move that has been long expected but none the less doesn’t soften the blow for the people concerned. Layoffs are to start in April from what I gather and are to be completed by January 2010. The effect on suppliers and subcontractors of Dell and their likely additional layoffs is not yet quantified. Its a very worrying time for everyone involved. I wouldn’t fancy having to try and sell a house in Limerick at the moment. Now that the “s**t has hit the fan” , what does one do next ? Is it out of bounds to suggest a Workers co-op ? Dell is after all just a badge. Would the IDA/Shannon Development back it ? It is difficult to see anything else coming on the horizon at least for a year or two. Generally the “cost aspect ” of Ireland has to be looked at, in the last five or six years the cost of doing anything in this country is sky high and just about every business feels it. I do believe that it is time to put the price tags back on all goods in the shops too.
Ryanair makes its move on Aer Lingus.
Ryanair has renewed its attempt of a hostile takeover of Aer Lingus with its offer of €1.40/share or €748million for the Airline. Aer Lingus with over €1 billion (free gift from Irish public supposely to buy planes) in its bank account is a very juicy acquisition. Don’t think the move is in the interests of the Irish economy but its a good move for Ryanair. When Aer Lingus is eventually taken over and I believe that it is a case of When. How will our rulers explain their actions ? This is another privisation that has gone sour … despite the €1 billion gift from the Irish public (don’t forget all the other bailouts) Aer Lingus did little or nothing for the Irish economy, it yanked the Heathrow slots from Shannon and put loads of jobs at risk and then proceeded to “yellow pack” its workforce (fire existing employees and hire cheaper new one with worse pay & conditions).
Definitely I would like to see how the politicians/ government justify their sale of Aer Lingus now. They won’t of course mark my words.
Boom to Bust II /Operation “Bail out Fat Cats”.
Just noticed some of the debates on the financial crisis on the t.v, RTE’s Prime time & Ireland Am. All seem to be of the view that we have to ” recapitalize the Irish Banks ” with the money from the pension fund. On Prime time there was a business man basically pleading for the banks to be given the money !!
Many business are complaining of a credit squeeze ( which is not uncommon during a recession) and expect the banks to be a lot more ready to dole out taxpayer’s money. On Ireland Am they had Jill Kirby saying that we couldn’t expect shareholders in banks to take the loss !! Now I remember once having a dabble in stocks & shares with a company called Eircom ok I invested the princely sum of £500 but I ended up really getting burned when Valenina compulsory purchased the shares. I got about £160 back of the £500 put in, there’s a man who will not be dabbling in stocks & shares in any hurry. Are former shareholders in Eircom any different from Bank shareholders ? Who do I send the writ to ? It should be possible to Lend Banks money but they would have to repay it with interest of course. Don’t think Banks should expect to make record profits and everyone else to bail them out when they don’t.
