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THE FORMER HEAD of the IMF mission to Ireland has advised that there should be a move away from austerity in order to encourage and stimulate growth in the economy.
Speaking to RTÉ Radio One’s This Week programme today, Ashoka Mody called for a “very much more open mind” as Ireland approaches the end of the Troika programme.
“I think it has become orthodoxy that the only way to establish credibility is by continuing to pursue the current course and the evidence, such as it is, is telling us that Ireland is not growing,” he said, questioning why this is the case.
“It is hard for me to believe that austerity is not contributing to this.”
According to the ex-IMF official and architect of this country’s bailout, to continue with austerity as the ‘main, central and only piece of policy’ would mean “continuous years” of no growth.
There is a need for a fresh, innovative and aggressive approach, he said, noting that the pressing question is about what the alternative is.
At the very least, the €1 billion windfall from the IBRC prom note deal should be used to reduce the impact of this year’s Budget, he told the radio station.
“We have gone through five years of austerity and there has been progress. And to those who have done this … a lot of kudos are deserved, not least to the Irish population…
But it is time now to turn that around and to make the claim that moving away from austerity at this stage, given how much has been achieved, is a sensible course of action.
“I am talking about a possibility that the extent of austerity that is currently planned be scaled back considerably and therefore take a breather in the extent of fiscal consolidation planned.”
Commenting on the mooted €3.1 billion adjustment for Budget 2013, Mody called for that figure to be lowered “considerably”.
“Why can we not imagine and consider the possibility for the next three years, as an experiment, there will be no more fiscal consolidation? I’m not saying that that is the right way, I am saying that if this is done, there is a possibility that Ireland moves from zero or negative growth to 1 or 2 per cent of growth.”
He also said the likelihood that legacy debt of failed banks will be financed by the ESM is “almost zero”, telling Ireland that is has to live within the “political realities of the system”.
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Great article . Well done .
Thumb is scrolled off me
@Minamino: funny!!!
Incredible article!!!! Definitely a day that will never be forgotten..
Well done this article might not seem important now as were still living through it but in time it will.
Major failures. Not restricting travel from Northern Italy,.
Allowing travel to Cheltenham. Abandoning people in nursing homes and care institutions.
@Ger O’Reilly: wow imagine being able to state the obvious after it happened your ready good
@Tony Lyons: many people were stating this once the italy game was cancelled. yet people like you think its hindsight you think the government were making decisions but most of them were too late. our chief medical officer has a catalogue of mistakes and incompetence behind him. why should I think hes done anything except cover his a** now ? people like you are the problem not bringing these people to account.
@ed w: And ‘people like you’ had the answers, the context, the impact analysis all along and would have been much faster at making significant, life-changing decisions in a rapidly changing environment? It’s funny that a lot of the ‘many people’ who were saying to close the borders are fans of closed borders at the best of times. Yet another all-ireland champion hurler from the ditch talking about ‘bringing people to account’ in the court of social media. Delusional.
@Tony Lyons: wow image if this wasn’t really important and people lost their lives as a result of the failure. Then your comment wouldn’t make you look like such a AH
@Tony Lyons: you would not say that if you had listen to the WHO recommendations and alarms
Fantastic read! Nice to see Tony Holohan speak like that too. He’ll have a big role in Ireland’s future (if he wants it after all this)
@Eoin O Shea: god I hope not the man’s a walking disaster cervical check anyone
@Eoin O Shea: censored the mayo journalist for asking a fair and important question. Definitely not the kind of person we need we have enough sweet talking snakes already.
I don’t comment often but felt compelled as i agree that it’s a great article. Very human, you get most of it by reading as much of it as possible, even though it’s longer than most.
My baby boy was born 12.03.2020. Add that to the madness!
Can this country’s media talk about something else I mean it’s obsessed with the virus pandemic. There are other things happening like.
@WanderlyWagon: not a lot in fairness
@WanderlyWagon: ok how about racism? Oh wait!
@WanderlyWagon: exactly I didn’t actually read this article, it’s like being brainwashed cos there’s been virtually nothing else in the media and even the supermarket for the last three months. Only listen to news twice a day, morning and evening now, it’s head wrecking.
Propaganda!
@Hello DAVE!:
Hello Gemma….
@Hello DAVE!:
Hello Gemma….
Excellent article
Fact that it was all rehearsed,refined, and planned in Event 201 last year, seems to have escaped all of these peoples notice
@Martin Mason:
Tune in next month folks when Martin will proffer further laser sharp observations on the 51st anniversary of the moon landing hoax. I for one can barely contain myself.
Did SuperHolo get is Cervical check yet?
@Hello DAVE!: his
A lot of journalists with sore backs to day
Oh to the one who looks for glory
Self praise is No praise
This is a great article. Thanks for this.
Brilliant, brilliant article. The Tesco piece about 1m people through the doors that week with not a single incident of bad behaviour makes you proud. Well done Journal.
Really enjoyable read, got goosebumps remembering some of the specific events!
Brilliant article,I think the thing that stands out was people going into the pub being uncomfortable…if it’s uncomfortable stay the f*** out
Great article/timeline well done .
That is a brilliant article have emailed it to myself as I don’t want to lose what happened and how. Well done so glad to support you as a news outlet
A wonderful article. Well worth reading.
Event 201 indeed predicted the vast preparedness gap. All the powers that be have blood on their hands for this. Too quick to splurge money on hosting soccer tournaments, olympics etc #f*¥ktheeurovision
Just a tad of re writing history maybe..
Brilliant article
This is a written history. Not an oral history.
Great article “ lest we forget”
The shite that never hit the fan.
@Hello DAVE!: Because of action taken.
@Paul Mcnevin: … which weren’t fully thought through have a reopening plan that can’t educate children, provide medical care for many other things, have a broken economy, many people unemployed, an increase in suicide related call in helplines, increase in domestic violence…
Has anyone else in Ireland experienced the Pandemic apart from Leo Varadkar, Tony Holohan, De Gascun, and the other Irish Pandemic celebrities?
@Gombeen Island https://gombeenisland.wordpress.com:
Explain yourself man!
Powerful stuff Who would ever think we would be here in this crisisj
|This is only the irish history of covid 19
But the true history has been written by the World Health Organisation with it first report on early January :
https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/27-04-2020-who-timeline—covid-19
If only all the countries in the world had been wise enough to listen to the WHO we would not be now in this position and many lives would have been saved
Did you write a book??
have your say