Since the crash bottomed out in 2012, employment growth has been substantial – 377,000 according to the CSO.  This is a strong performance by any standard.  But there is some…

Is there an argument for a new housing market model?   The data from the CSO and Eurostat shows that between 1997 and 2016: Average wages grew by 86 percent…

Deputy Brendan Howlin made a surprising announcement during his leader’s speech to the Labour Party conference last weekend:  Labour will support the EU’s digital services tax.   Labour is the first…

The worrying thing about Peter Casey’s campaign was that it was unplanned.  Having spent weeks hovering around two percent, he stumbled into his controversy on the Travelling community.  Such was…

Many people will have many reasons for supporting President Higgins.  I would like to highlight one small example which, for me, encapsulates the President’s service to the country – a…

After all the post-budget commentary – the articles, interviews, studio debates – I’ll attempt to summarise the broad direction of the budget with three charts based on the detailed tables…

The orthodoxy is running loose, we are being frog-marched into another round of depressed spending and progressives are nowhere to be seen.  Fiscal policy can put a lot of people…

Will be taking a break over the next couple of weeks.  But will be back by mid-September.  

We need to broaden our tax base, keep taxes on the productive economy as low as possible and shift taxation on to unproductive capital, unearned income and environmentally-degrading activities.That’s why…

Last year the CSO introduced an innovative measure of national output in order to remove the distorting effects of multi-national activity (re-domiciled companies, R&D and aircraft leasing).  It was called…

What great fun following President Donald Trump’s global tutorial on how to win friends and influence people.  Particularly intriguing is Trump’s claim that European members of NATO are not spending…

Billy Kelleher, TD, has done a service by asking each Minister the cost of implementing a living wage of €11.90 per hour for all employees directly employed in his/her Department,…

Put the cat out, pop the popcorn and pull up a chair:  the great pre-budget tax debate is commencing.  For the past few years we have heard that our income…

The Living Wage Technical Group has today produced the hourly Living Wage for 2018:  €11.90 – a 20 cents rise over last year.  Since the Living Wage was first launched…

The Government in its Summer Economic Statement has confirmed what they set out in the National Development Plan – a substantial increase in public investment.   The Government intends to increase…

The Revenue Commissioners have produced some interesting data relating to incomes over the period of the recession and the beginning of the recovery.  What’s noteworthy is the reversal of fortunes…

 Just a few quick thoughts on the Summer Economic Statement released Tuesday. 1.    €900 million won’t be Spent In the name of preventing ‘over-heating’ the Government is not going to spend…

People are rightly questioning whether the measurement of national output– GDP –actually measures the real worth of economic activity.  President Sarkozy even set up a commission – the Commission on…

The Government is planning to introduce a Rainy Day fund – a fund to be used when the economy starts to slow down or enters a slump.  This sounds very…

Is the economy over-heating?  Are we reaching full capacity?  Are we in danger of slipping into heighted inflation and balance of payments deficits?  The problem is we may not know…