Just saw RTE news there and he’s playing word games again.
He said its €2.5bn, BUT, when taken with other savings measures the total would not be far off the €3.1bn.

I read that as at least €600million in stealth taxes is to be expected. The publicity stunt is convincing people it a €2.5bn adjustment.

Noonan red thumbed me

and of course it gives us all something to talk about on the day the doctors are on strike….

Don’t let the facts get in the way of your assertions. Clearly none of it going to subsidise welfare, public sector, or pensions.

The total stupidity of taxing people off the road,If we all stopped driving where will the money come from.

Mistakes of a few? Which few are you referring to? Do you not realise that every month the Government is still borrowing massive amounts of money for it’s day to day expenditure, that’s Teachers, Garda, Social Welfare Recipients, Healthcare, TD’s, Old Age Pension and everything else they pay for (not having a go at any of the above by the way). Forgetting bondholders, bankers et. al. for one moment and the fact of the matter is that we’re still hopelessly broke. We spend far more money than we take in so I don’t agree that this is the mistakes of a few unless the few you refer to are FF who threw money at every group while things were good and left us in a completely hopeless position.

Ted,
Most countries run a budget deficit most of the time. The deficit only becomes a serious problem when you are unable to finance it as in Ireland’s case now. Ordinarily countries finance their deficits by borrowing the money in the market. Or if they control their own currency, they can create new money by buying their own government’s bonds etc (Quantitative easing as the Yanks call it). Even in the depths of the 1980s recession, Ireland was always able to go to the market to fund the budget deficit until Brian Lenihan bailed out the banks in 2008. The markets then realised Ireland would not be able to cover the massive banking losses and pay them back and so the interest rate they demanded rose to an unaffordable level. This pushed us into the tender Troika embrace who now lend us the money and charge interest so that we can pay the banking debt as well as our budget deficit.
The fundamental underlying reason that the markets can now dictate to Ireland is that when we joined the monetary union we relinquished the authority to create our own currency to the ECB and they have been acting contrary to Ireland’s national interests ever since. True sovereign nations like the U.S. or U.K. don’t have to borrow their own currency in the market, they can simply create it at will by pressing keys on a computer in their central banks. The markets understand this perfectly and so if these countries do choose to borrow in the market, the interest they will pay on sovereign debt is close to zero and always will be.

Dear Angela

It would save a lot of Garda time breaking up fights on a sat night if people were mellowed out.

Over 50 % of criminal convictions in Ireland are drug related. So 50% savings overall on policing may be recorded.

Just noted I said half a million instead of half a billion. Support Luke Mings cannabis regulation bill on the 6th of November.

@ kevin higgins, lovely round number you give there as regards criminal convictions, annual court reports however make them out to be a lovely handy percentage not based in fact to impress people with a waste of garda resources, try real statistics.

Didn’t the firemen find €500k in the safe of that headshop that burned down on Capel St. a few years back. So I think it’s safe to say it would be a hell of a lot more than half a million it would bring in, in tax.

Kevin: Isn’t the Dail vote on legalisation of cannabis on October 29th?

@Gerry I do not have the funding and Irish institutions do not have the statistics to get even close to that answer.

@Andrew new official date is 6th of November and this date is final – https://www.facebook.com/events/183146295195987/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming

@ Kevin, Neither do I, try googling the court reports, very informative, gives breakdowns by crime heading and result. Much better than makey uppey figures. At least make an effort when trying to sway an argument. Unless you are suggesting that many of the other offences like assault, public order are because of drugs. Which would nullify your suggestion.

Im sure cannabis itself funds many other criminal activities. I had made several famous crime boses over the past few years alone and its the most common consumed illicit drug in Ireland. It accounts for 62% of all drug offenses.

I have the court reports in physical copy however they do not help paint a clear economic picture.

@ Kevin, I think you will find you are now trying to change what you’re saying , you made a definitive statement that over 50% of all convictions are drug related. Now you’re saying no one can state how much drugs affects other crimes. So therefore you can’t either by that logic. And I doubt they have the influence and the figures you claim as the largest crimes are public order/assault, theft and drink driving, none of which I see being driven by the cannibas trade. Saving 50% on policing is also a false figure as these are gardai already on duty, their supports already in place and therefore savings made would be nowhere near the number you claim.

I said allowing police time and resources which does not equate to 50% savings in policing. I said it may equate to it but we will not know until we end prohibition. To say that the police can never save money is a joke. If crime in 100 years time is half the problem we should be spending half the money. Its like when you reduce army numbers because there are no wars left to fight.

Can you prove my statement wrong? Trends in other countries which do record statistics properly show as much as 80% of conviction are drug related and 60% above usually are for simple possession.

Would you be of the opinion cannabis should remain illegal?

50% saving cannot be achieved in anything except by halving your work force as the most direct route, are you suggesting that in 100 years time that if crime is half what it is now that they will half the Gardai or do you not think that the deterrent requirement is there. Have our army numbers been reduced substantially even though we do not fight wars?

So you are now satyying that the court reports are not recording crime properly, even though it is broken down under all the main headings, 15858 drugs offences at district court level out of 400911 total offences in is a long way off 50%. 9599 recorded convictions of some type for drugs out of a total number of convictions of 172619 is a long way from 50% as well. even marrying in a percentage of the thefts and assaults and the murders in as ” drug related” you come nowhere near the statistic you’re trying to get people to swallow

Cannibas is a much more harmless drug than alcohol, I was open minded on the debate but as Holland began to roll back on its openess and they have experience I would have qualms about decriminalisation again. Then again, my view is matterless, I am merely tilting against lazy figures.