I fully agree with you. A abilout does not solve Ireland's problems. Ireland's problem is that it is saddled with too much debt. A bailout does nothing to reduce that unmanageable load. Default is the only sensible thing to do.In my opinion, if the German banks were stupid enough to lend to Seanie and co, then they should get burned. Our Government should take a stand on this issue and say that the Irish taxpayer will not carry the can for wreakless Germans.
You hit the nail on the head there, but it could be interpreted as an insult to Mugabe ;-)Yes the EU contributed by having lower interest rates than were appropriate for us. But guess what, we didn't join the Euro over night! Politicians and civil servants debated this point for 10 years! The decision was made to go in, then our entire goverment and beaurocracy got drunk and ran our country with a skill more apropriate to Mugabe than a civilised nation.
How will we ever have a better government when we don’t have a politically educated electorate? We don’t even teach civics in school. We don’t teach our kids about the constitution and where executive power resides or what the function of the different houses of the Oireachtas are. We don’t teach them what their duties are as citizens or what the President does or where the Supreme Court fits into things. Then the tin hat on top of all that is our stupid electoral system and our stupid (non)separation of powers between the executive and the legislature. How the hell can we expect anything other than the bunch of parochial glorified county councillors that we have running the country now?
Whether we get a bailout from the EU/IMF or not there will have to be cuts and emigration. There are no two ways about this. We spend more than we take in. This is the fault of the people who overspent and who voted in those who promised everything and delivered nothing while bankrupting the country.
I don't get all this nationalistic jargon at this point in time. We corrupted ourselves. Nobody else is at fault here. Until we learn to grow up and elect those who will govern properly and not for their own vested interests nothing will change. That won't happen unless we have someone of vision who will change the whole establishment and the way it works, that is parliament, lower and upper house, legal system etc. But for that we need a people that are behind a fundamental change in the structure of Irish society. And if a revolution is needed for that so be it.
Meanwhile, in case there is no revolution, we need to get real and be prepared to deal with spending cuts, higher taxes and emigration. The positives are that we have done it before, we've come through worse recessions and if everyone does their bit there is no reason why we cannot become a stronger better nation. I for one am not proud of the celtic tiger generation and the sooner we leave it behind the better.
I suspect the Department of Education would not agree with the above.
Curriculum:
Source: cspe.slss.ie
Marion
Totally agree with you onekeano. The decisons have already been made and what you have outlined above is the most likely result. They simply aren't telling us yet and it might be quite some time for them to finally do so.
There is a strong need for us all to ensure whatever money goes into the banks from the EU is not considered to be an Irish debt but instead is regarded as a Bank to Bank loan. We as a people have wasted enough money on these black holes that we still call Banks.
in my opinion, if the german banks were stupid enough to lend to seanie and co, then they should get burned. Our government should take a stand on this issue and say that the irish taxpayer will not carry the can for wreakless germans.
While at early stages in this crisis, the impression was given that anglo is systemic to the irish bank system. This appears to have been incorrect. Its becoming increasingly clear that anglo was a bank that got money from german pensioners and lend it out to builders for overpriced crazy landmark schemes in london - hence why the uk government has suddenly started announcing that it is willing to contribute to a bail out.
If we dont dance to the eu tune, german pensions and the london property market are toast. Germans and uk are trying to call the shots to protect themselves. We should cut anglo lose and tell them to sort their own mess out.
I have heard that public servants have not yet suffered a reduction in their net pay.
the case of the health service where the government wants a 30 % cut....yet 70 % of the health budget consists of wages and salaries.
Well the croke part agreement means no cuts in pay. There was the pension levy ,thats true.
My point is the government knew the scale of our problems 2 years ago and cuts should have started from that date.Instead the exact opposite was done with the croke park agreement.It is quite clear that the government is very resistant to cuts to well paid public servants.It will have less problems hitting the easy targets like cuts to frontline services. By the way I am opposed to job cuts and in favor of job sharing .
Take the case of the health service where the government wants a 30 % cut....yet 70 % of the health budget consists of wages and salaries, some of them on very large salaries .
Well the croke part agreement means no cuts in pay. There was the pension levy ,thats true.
My point is the government knew the scale of our problems 2 years ago and cuts should have started from that date.Instead the exact opposite was done withi the croke park agreement.It is quite clear that the government is very resistant to cuts to well paid public servants.It will have less problems hitting the easy targets like cuts to frontline services. By the way I am opposed to job cuts and in favor of job sharing .
Take the case of the health service where the government wants a 30 % cut....yet 70 % of the health budget consists of wages and salaries, some of them on very large salaries .
People keep quoting the 70% figure as if it's evidence of some kind of problem. Health services are labour intensive. That's the nature of the business.
They may be higher than our European competitors, but so is the cost of living here, particularly property (rent or buy). Unless you have a magic teleport machine that allows people to live in UK/France/Germany while working here as teachers or building control inspectors or environmental inspectors, then they need the income that will allow them to live and work here.r the pension levy as a pay cut...it was a perk that is now being paid for. The fact is that public sector salaries are much higher here than our european competitors and all financed by borrowing and they must be at a realistic level to protect jobs and services.
My point is and I think it is fairly obvious is simply how can a huge cut be made to the health service and yet the 70 % of the health service budget that consists of wages and salaries cannot be touched.
I don`t consider the pension levy as a pay cut...it was a perk that is now being paid for.
My point is and I think it is fairly obvious is simply how can a huge cut be made to the health service and yet the 70 % of the health service budget that consists of wages and salaries cannot be touched.
I don`t consider the pension levy as a pay cut...it was a perk that is now being paid for. The fact is that public sector salaries are much higher here than our european competitors and all financed by borrowing and they must be at a realistic level to protect jobs and services.
I know that economics isn't your strongest area so just to let you know; there is a link between pay and costs.They may be higher than our European competitors, but so is the cost of living here, particularly property (rent or buy). Unless you have a magic teleport machine that allows people to live in UK/France/Germany while working here as teachers or building control inspectors or environmental inspectors, then they need the income that will allow them to live and work here.
That's right, it's all her faultThis '70% of budget can't be cut' is a big PR lie from Mary Harney designed to distract attention from her own personal abysmal failure to provide a half-decent health service. Don't fall for the spin.
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