It’s official.  The Government’s employment policy is failing.  This finding comes from the Government itself, in the form of projections contained in yesterday’s Medium Term Fiscal Framework.  The projections are…

We are constantly assured (warned) that ‘everything is on the table’.  All manner of tax increases and spending cuts are being considered, and none are ruled out in principle.  So,…

From the wonderfully subversive Conor McCabe.

Just when you though it couldn’t get any worse, along comes the EU Commission with their projections for the Irish economy.  It will make grim reading for the Government.  All…

Let’s assume the Government comes up with the best house-property tax ever devised – truly progressive, taking into account all the social factors such as unemployment, low-income, arrears, and mortgage…

Is there no limit to the extent to which poverty deniers will twist and misrepresent facts to fit their agenda?   If Eilis O’Hanlon’s piece in the Sunday Independent is anything…

A new report is out – Constructing a Food Poverty Indicator for Ireland.  It estimates that one in ten people experienced ‘food poverty’ in 2010.  In other words, hunger.  I…

According to leaks, the Government is apparently ‘considering’ proposals from a Department of Social Protection working group to reform Child Benefit payments.  There is something profoundly manipulative about this debate. …

The Government claims that ‘everything is on the table’.  If so, let’s put the findings of the ESRI paper, ‘Emerging From Recession?’  by John Bradley and Gerhard Untiedt in the…

The Nevin Economic Research Institute, ICTU’s think-tank, has looked into the budgetary future and finds there is a better way of doing things.  They have utilised all the tools of…

We’re really lucky to have public sector workers to kick around – what with all their allowances and increments.   If we didn’t, media and commentary would have to give more…

In the final quarter of last year there was a glimmer of hope.  Employment rose, suggesting that the labour market was ‘bottoming-out’ and maybe, just maybe, we could start to…

Minister Brian Hayes is on safari, looking for big game to hunt down.  Who does he have in his sights?  ‘I think we need to realise that the one group…

Sometimes you just want to pick up the radio and shake it until the tiny little people inside start talking sense.  Take Minister Frances Fitzgerald on the Pat Kenny show…

It’s open season on the Croke Park Agreement and public sector workers in particular.  It should be scrapped, torn-up, renegotiated, whatever – just cut wages.  Some of the arguments are…

The Exchequer figures are out.  And they are not good.  Coming into this year, the Government had a strong wind at its back, with €1 billion being carried forward from…

It is commonly asserted by progressives that Ireland is a ‘low-tax’ regime.  Therefore, goes the argument, we should focus on tax increases rather than spending cuts – if we aspire…

I will be taking a break for the remainder of August.  However, come September I will be back again.  There will be lots to discuss – the continuing recession in…

It is hard work tracking the real impact of a Government announcement, rather than relying on press handouts, Departmental briefing notes and Ministerial statements.  Take the Government’s Infrastructure Stimulus announcement…

In a previous post we looked at how our rich are richer than the rich of other European countries.  Our rich grab a higher proportion of disposable income.  That’s one…