Well, not quite – but the effect may be the same.  Many international commentators welcomed the Irish Government for ending the infamous ‘double-Irish’ tax scheme.  But just as it shut…

Headlines and sound-bites abound:  ‘austerity is over’, ‘the beginning of the end of austerity’, ‘we beat austerity’ and so on and whatever and sure, why not. Let’s cut to the…

With all this talk about taxation and Budget 2015 (and one of the few doing any plain talking is Fr. Peter McVerry – calling tax cuts for high-income earners ‘outrageous’)…

After a deep recession, after years of stagnation, the Irish economy is growing in leaps in bounds.  The ESRI is projecting by 10 percent growth over this year and next.…

So the Government wants to give relief to the squeezed middle. ‘Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said easing the tax pressure on the “squeezed middle” will be a priority in the…

In the excellent Irish Times series on the Living Wage, Mark Fielding, Director of ISME (Irish Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises) has put it bluntly to workers and the nation: ‘It’s…

IBEC has published a paper entitled ‘Debunking Irish income tax myths’.  At its core it contains misleading, highly selective and ultimately disingenuous arguments.  In short, it is bunk.  Let’s go…

Last night on Prime Time Brendan Burgess, from Ask About Money, stated that high-income earners in Ireland pay more tax than high earners in other countries. ‘We have a very…

The new Global Competitiveness Report is out.  This is produced by the World Economic Forum (the crowd that occupies Davos once a year).  It purports to rank countries by their…

The Sunday Business Post ran four stories last weekend- including a front-page banner headline – attacking not only public sector workers’ living standards, but workers in public enterprise as well. …

Question:  why has employment growth collapsed in the first half of the year after recent claims by the Government that 60,000 jobs per year were being created?  The answer lies…

If you’re into perverse economics, then you’re going to love the debate in the run-up to the budget.  Already we have Minister Simon Harris calling for income tax cuts (didn’t…

Will be away unti late August.  To all readers, have a happy summer break.

IBEC’s pre-budget submission is a tour de force.  In the name of ending austerity it calls for  . . . more austerity; namely, reducing public expenditure in real terms.  This…

Stag-covery (n): a situation where statistical recovery occurs within a persistent economic stagnation   The CSO’s new release shows a statistical recovery and a stagnant economy – a state of…

Irish living standards are now closer to the bottom of the EU-15 countries than to the top; they are closer to Greece than to Germany or Belgium or the UK…

Previously, I discussed the assertions that rising housing costs were caused by over-paid construction workers.  It wasn’t true but that never stops some commentators from trying to find blame –…

The affluent are blessed in their champions.  They have a myriad of commentators fighting their corner.  In the Sunday Independent Colm McCarthy, discussing the benefits or otherwise of a third…

What are we to make of the two headlines this morning?  First, from the Irish Times: ‘Work pays better than welfare for most unemployed, ESRI finds’ And then there’s this…

Do we spend too much on healthcare?  The EU Commission seems to think so.  In their country-specific recommendations for Ireland they state: ‘Even though Ireland has a relatively young population,…