Dependence on multinationals leaves Ireland exposed - Collison commissioned report - Main Topics - Laois Nationalist
The report claims that "urgent" Government action is needed to secure economic growth
John Collison: Government-by-Agency corner
- Thread starter odyssey06
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I bet the state agencies ESRI etc will not be too happy about the Collisons waiding into their "territory" and coming up with the diagnosis that there is too much state interferance, regulations and hurdles stifling irish domestic and technology start ups.
The sad news is that a few years ago the ERSI were capable of saying the same thing.
The ESRI is not a state agency.
They still do, don't they?
Hare or tortoise? Productivity and growth of Irish domestic firms
Over 20 years ago, Honohan and Walsh (2002) unravelled the key drivers behind the dramatic growth of the Irish economy after decades of underperformance. The role of multinationals was a critical element in the convergence with other EU Member States. Even at this stage, however, multinational...
www.esri.ie
It gets most of its funding from the government and state bodies, effectively its a state agency with the veneer of independence. It would never produce a report like the Collisons have comissioned with the fingers of blame pointed back at government and state agencies for the lack of progress building infrastructure and domestic technology companies despite the huge windfall taxation received from multinationals.
RTE also gets much of its funding from the State through a licence fee and it certainly isn't pro Government.
My problem with the ERSI is their lack of intellectual rigor and my suspicion is that they increasingly tend to seek evidence to confirm their own views rather than looking at the evidence and then drawing a conclusion.
Howth Head
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Yes, I remember during the Covid period whenever there was talk of bringing in more unpopular and controversial restrictions the ESRI would turn up on the media having done a quick "survey" which confirmed and no doubt bolstered NPHET's wishes. (It was never the other way round.)
Most people want more, not fewer, restrictions, survey shows – ESRI expert
Opposition to Covid-19 measures ‘miles off’ quiet majority’s view, says Prof Pete Lunn
This particular one was downright bizarre:
Unvaccinated people 'finding places they can get in'
Head of the Economic and Social Research Institute's behavioural research unit has said its research suggests there are more unvaccinated people going to pubs and restaurants than one might think.
To my knowledge they didn't do a survey that showed how most people vastly over-estimated the risks of Covid and their chances of falling ill, being hospitalised or worse.
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Sister Sara
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This is the Professor Aherne report commissioned by Collison brothers.
Sister Sara
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It links into other useful reports that suggest the issues highlighted in the Aherne report have been on the radar of Department of Enterprise and Trade for a few years now. It's not clear if the political will is there act upon these reports.
exactly, they always come up with reports that back up what the government or the state agencies are going to do anyway.
Another thing they are always treated with deferential reverence by the media and their "reports" are never properly challenged or debated, its as if they come down on tablets of stone from Moses.
Last week Alan Barrett an "economist" from ESRI was on newstalk discussing the potential government response to the fuel crises. Predictably he was against reducing fuel taxes or excise duties but his reasons were actually ridiculous because they would benefit the rich essentially. He mentioned nothing about inflationary pressures on fuel being a powerful reason for reducing fuel taxes and that is what most other governments are doing.
He wasn't challenged by the interviewer at all, the only push back came from text messages sent in saying that cuts in fuel taxes also benefit the poor and crucially the people like van drivers and workers crucial to keep the gears of the economy working.
Essentially Alan Barret wasn't talking like a bone fida economist but a socialist, they should rename ESRI as just the SRI after that.
Add to that their recent nonsense report about school absenteeism and they really do look like just another left wing lobby group. They sound more and more like the https://www.nerinstitute.net/ (Nevin Economic Research Institute), a Union funded body tasked with producing left wing economic research. I suppose both are full of people who have only ever been paid by the State so it's not surprising that they have a similar perspective.
This remarkable badly thought out article, which is full of false premises, completely misrepresents Patrick Collison's activities, ambitions and ideological views when it comes to Ireland and the EU.
I can only assume it's a form of click-bait.
I can only assume it's a form of click-bait.
Sean Sweeney, the ex-MetroLink chief, was in the news over the weekend. He gave a telling quote to the NZ Herald about how along with EU procurement rules, the Dept. of Finance here is also responsible for slowing down infrastructure delivery.
"Ireland is also deeply haunted by the GFC [global financial crisis]. As a result of that, the treasury placed a series of rules to slow down the ability to spend public money.
This has had an unintended consequence of basically doubling the time projects take to get built there"
https://www.businesspost.ie/companies/ex-metrolink-chief-sweeney-says-he-was-oversold-project/
"Ireland is also deeply haunted by the GFC [global financial crisis]. As a result of that, the treasury placed a series of rules to slow down the ability to spend public money.
This has had an unintended consequence of basically doubling the time projects take to get built there"
https://www.businesspost.ie/companies/ex-metrolink-chief-sweeney-says-he-was-oversold-project/
The gov seem to have no such problems spending in other areas
Buying votes with pay and welfare increases is easy and gets governments reelected. Infrastructure projects are difficult, expensive and have longer term returns so don't influence the election cycle.The gov seem to have no such problems spending in other areas
Exactly, and the issues the country faces will take infrastructure investment spanning the terms of multiple governments to deliver.
The CS are realistically the only people who can see these projects through to completion, but they defer all decisions (and the PR) to the minister/government of the day, so there's little or no incentive on their side to deliver either.
Anyone fancy trying a dictatorship??
And history has shown us that governments that act responsibly get kicked out of office by our economically illiterate electorate.
They are generally worse over time.