Basic Income is being discussed more and more.  It will be discussed at this weekend’s Basic Income Ireland seminar.  Basic Income is a weekly payment from the state to every…

Remember back to the renegotiation of the debt repayments on the Anglo-Irish promissory note last year?  Amidst the sound of champagne corks popping we were told we would get a…

Today is International Fast Food Day.  It started in the US where workers in the fast-food industry are staging protests nationwide, seeking a $15 per hour wage (the Federal minimum…

We have a housing crisis.  90,000 on the social housing waiting list of which 60 percent have been waiting for two years or longer.  The private rental sector is not…

Let’s start with the conclusion: if by this time next year if there are people still homeless, it’s because the Government made a policy choice.  And the policy choice was…

Keep these people in mind when reading this post:  Mary, a single parent working a part-time minimum wage job as a cleaner in Dublin hotel; John, a long-term unemployed construction…

Do you really believe that 2015 is the last year of austerity?  If you believe that fiscal pigs will fly, then, yes, 2015 will be the last year of austerity. …

1,230,000. This number should be burned into the debate.  This the approximate number of people included in the CSO’s enforced deprivation rate.  This is the number of people who suffered…

The Government’s paper on Ireland’s effective corporate tax rate confirms what the dogs in the street have known for a long-time:  Ireland has a low,extremely low, corporate tax rate.  There…

This is a guest post by Niall MacSuibhne, a former civil servant. Well, well, the Department of Finance have decided to issue a "Technical Paper" to back up the myth…

Take a very quick look at the green line on the chart below.  Very quick – the green line represents Irish labour costs. On a quick look, it appears that…

This is a guest post by Michael Burke.  Michael works as an economic consultant. He was previously senior international economist with Citibank in London. He blogs regularly at Socialist Economic…

The Universal Social Charge (USC) is a great tax.  Many progressives were critical of its introduction and rightfully so.  In replacing the Income and Health Contribution levies, the USC ended…

Some commentators are celebrating our ‘recovery’.  Some have even said that we have recovered relatively quickly, after a dramatic fall.  Here we go again – rewriting history, distorting the current…

There’s a lot of confusion out there.  IBEC found the recent fall in consumer spending ‘puzzling ‘ – what with all the increase in employment.  Others have found it strange,…

RTE’s David Murphy described the Quarterly National Account numbers as ‘really good’.  Professor John Fitzgerald said the numbers showed a ‘reasonably robust recovery’.   We are told the actual numbers  aren’t…

The Youth Guarantee programme is potentially a positive development.  To prevent long-term youth unemployment, the Government launched a programme that would guarantee young people either a place in education, training…

The Live Register has fallen below 400,000 – the first time since May 2009.  While the Live Register is not an official measurement, the Seasonally Adjusted Standardised Unemployment Rate shows…

There is one stat that stands out this week.  3 Years This Sunday the Ballyhea Says No campaign will be celebrating their 3rd year of protest – marching every Sunday…

According to Finfacts: 'Michael Noonan, finance minister, signalled in a statement last Thursday that his Department is preparing a report on the corporation tax rate that is expected to be…