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IT’S EXPECTED DUBLIN radio station Phantom 105.2 will be rechristened in the coming weeks, as the station is restructured and its schedule chopped back.
A raft of job losses were confirmed at the rock and indie broadcaster last week — eight full-time positions are being cut, with on-air, marketing and sales staff all affected. A number of part-time and weekend presenters are also being dropped.
Communicorp, which has executive control of the station, confirmed last weekend that the BAI had granted shareholders permission to restructure “in order to ensure its long-term viability”.
A statement said the station’s niche market had been “disproportionately affected by ongoing reductions in advertising revenue in an increasingly competitive market”.
TheJournal.ie understands that several new station names are being considered by Communicorp executives in order to help achieve their stated aim of continuing “to deliver an alternative music service for young Dubliners”.
The doman name xfm.ie was registered by the company’s Chief Technical Officer Pat Balfe earlier this month. However, radio industry sources say that name is no longer being considered, and that several other options are now on the table.
The name change is expected to happen sometime in April.
Phantom FM has been part of the radio landscape in Dublin for the best part of 15 years. Initially set up as a pirate operation, the team behind the station gradually built up a dedicated listenership — occasionally going off air to bid for broadcast licences, before finally being granted one in 2004.
A legal challenge meant the legal incarnation was delayed from going on air until late 2006. However, the effects of the downturn led to financial strains by 2009, and a year later Communicorp came on board as shareholders. Most of the original ‘pirate’ team have since parted company with the station.
The staff given notice last week will finish up in three week’s time.
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Probably not, but it should be redistributed so it’s not the same groups getting hit over and over…
At the end if the day it has been the working class on down that has suffered the most thru austerity .. Spread the pain around.
Austerity isn’t working people !!
have to disagree. the middle class have been hit harder. the ones who work and earn between €30,000 to €50,000 get hit by property taxes of €375 while working class is €75. any tax increases or mortgage hikes hit the middle class harder too. anyone lucky enough to have a govt job get a pension related deduction hit (mine is €3,500 of my take home) per year to pay the pensions of those the govt can’t afford to pay for already. any more austerity will hit this group again and again and we have absolutely no chance of any waiver or medical card.
I would like to see an example from any of the no voters that the path of austerity we are taking is doing anything more than suppressing the domestic economy to the point of choking it. Look at Vat returns, they’re dismal. Very few have money to spend, so the governments way to deal with that , raise vat , result people buy even less… = VAT behind target.
And VAT too hits the less well off disproportionately.
Stan
The middle class are still working the majority of people on the dole are the working class , your not entitled to a medical card as you are working.
Thank you. Someone with a bit of reason.
The working class was a huge part of the backbone of society and when it all went pear shaped they are thrown to the wolves so everyone else could just about keep there head above water and that’s how it is.
There’s no doubt the middle class is as breaking point. Soon we’ll have water charges introduced too. We can expect much talking up of the property market in the next few months also.
Niall
Maybe that’s what it will take , the middle class to reach breaking point to see serious change in this country.
I can’t see it happening Chopstix. Passive people and servile media = no unity, leadership, and inaction.
Are the majority of people on the dole working class Chopstix? I’d imagine a fair number were raised working class, strove to middle class by hard work for many years, and now find themselves back to square one since the crash.
@Stan. Just saying but if you are earning between 30 & 50k you are entitled to a doctors visit only card which means you just pay for your prescriptions.
The working classes pay the same property tax.
Sympathy for people in well-paid public service jobs with increments – increments! – and gigantic public-funded pensions is not high.
Niall
As you said a fair number but not the majority , not from what I have seen.
Unfortunately, we voted in FF for ten+ years of pro-cyclical public spending increases and construction bubble inflation. The fiscal mess left as a result means that the only alternative to austerity is default (and the abrupt austerity that would go along with it).
We could have defaulted were it not for the Timothy Geithner of Obama’s administration. Yet, there’s no shortage of flag waving people in this country that would line the streets for a glimpse of him.
Perfectly said, no more disposable income floating around, we need an injection of money into the economy to kick start it again. Having their kind of incomes I guess they have no idea of what is happening on the ground. A successful business man/woman to run the country is what is needed, they won’t have any fear of clearing out the cobwebs, and dead weight in the civil service and beyond.
Chopstix, If you are on the dole, how can you be considered “working” class? The State or taxpayer, whichever you prefer is supporting you as you are not working. Therefore you are not “working” class
Jimmy
As usual you don’t get what is been said on here try reading what people have been saying “slowly” you might understand then.
There’s a recession Jimmy, so honest working class people are on the dole. I dont think its fair to lump people who have recently been out of work with those who never even looked for work during the boom.
Let Michael O’Leary run the country for 2 years
Let’s not have any of this “middle class are hit harder than working class ” nonsense or public vs private, this sort of debate on serves to divide those who one way or another are getting screwed. And it helps to distract from the real cause if our combined misery namely the super rich bankers, bond holders, speculators and their likes and of course the people who furnish them with their low tax high income lifestyles the political establishment puppets! Workers unite! It’s time to take out the trash
Well said Conor
Austerity only hits the poor.
By definition, it’s an unfair policy.
Not really Chopstix, I have the thread and your comment and I don’t agree. Your terminology is incorrect. If you are unemployed and in receeipt of social welfare you cannot be considered working class, middle class or upper class or any other “class” .You are unemployed.
There must be more ‘well off’ people in this country than I thought!! who are the (currently) 44% of people saying the Government shouldn’t ease off on austere measures in the budget?? is it the politician’s minions? I am in shock looking at the poll!! People are committing suicide, becoming homeless, living on meagre rations,the country is in total shite why or why would any sane person think austere measures should continue? Unless we have lost so much confidence we actually WANT to be punished for something we did not create….
I think there is a lot of people not really struggling. There are of course some who are and as you mentioned suicide is up and some people are really feeling it bad but I really think there must be lots who say they are suffering but not really that bad just don’t have it as good as before because if we really are as bad as we make out as a country we wouldn’t be taking it. But we carry on…..
We ‘carry on’ because what choice do we have? I work part time, every cent I make is accounted for to the very last one in my wage pack – my husband is the same, we are far better off than a lot of people I see and come across through my work who are relying on St Vincent de Paul and handouts from relatives to pay the bills…this isn’t fiction this is real life….the people most effected, unfortunately aren’t reading this right now and s aren’t voting…if they were the outcome would be a lot lot different I can assure you.
Well said Conor!
Not really since they’ll be buying less
Austerity is reducing the disposable income of many both poor & lower middle earners – and incomes of €30-50,000 are really only a tad above the poverty line – nice work if you can get it, but also very much in the line of #Austerity fire.
The reduction of low incomes (€120, say) are far less likely to have such an effect, as personal disposable income is much less proportionately affected & less likely to be withdrawn from the domestic economy.
On the basis of this evidence, a practical person should be averse to any measure that further reduces incomes lower than about €60k. We might at least try to preserve what’s left of our local & domestic economies & make a concerted attempt to stem the flight of capable & willing taxpayers at great cost.
There is also a moral & simple justice argument, but practicality should be persuasive enough as the evidence gathers than current austerity policies are piling ruin on top of wreckage.
Problem is the entitlement class.. Won’t work have babies want the state to pay for housing healthcare etc huge waste on lazy people within the social welfare system in Ireland …. Then blame the government for cutting back on their “entitlements”
dont forget our childcare costs because we are so lucky to have a job we get to pay over half our wages to a creche
Pro-rata pensions for TD’s, if they complete 40 years as a TD they are then entitled to a full pension. Do 4 years and they get a 10th (approx) like every other pensionable job.
If they don’t like it then get out and let somebody loyal to Ireland and the voters take the position.
I like it. Much too sensible to ever happen though.
Turkeys don’t vote for Christmas ;-(
They will if we let them know that it will influence our decision on which turkeys we’re going to feast on at the next election.
Great idea but will have an absolutely tiny effect on reducing our deficit.
They should impose austerity on RTE by abolishing the TV license. Let RTE sink or swim.
That’s €160 a year back into every household (that pays it)
hear hear
Abolish RTE as well !
Agreed.
RTE is basically the Dave channel – plus a tv licence fee.
Agree 100%
Is austerity working or are we just being told that it’s working by people who are immune to it?
It’s not working Dermot…it never does. You can’t take money over and over from people and expect an economy to thrive. Some austerity is needed but the time scale to get the deficit below 3% is ridiculously short and is drives by Europe and the German hawks. Pounding a nation into the ground and expecting us to recover is a no brainer….which I suppose is why FG/Lab are carrying it out.
You’re spot on Tony.
Many a quote can be attributed to current imposed austerity by FG/Lab…..
“For a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.”
Winston Churchill.
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Albert Einstein
VAT receipts are right down, which means people aren’t spending on anything other than the absolute essentials. Our brave little local computer-mending shop has just closed, joining the many local shops that have shuttered up in the last year.
According the the former head of the IMF austerity never works. He was quoted from a speech he gave in Ireland last year.
Reading these comments I am at a loss to understand just WHO is saying the Politicians should be carrying on with austere measures in the next budget….they certainly don’t seem to be commenting yet people ARE disliking comments from people who are anti austerity and the ‘no’ vote is ahead……Im curious…very curious….
Don’t believe this poll,just a P.R. pre budget spin doctor nonsense to detract from Govt. inaction
There is only so much blood you can get from a stone
@tax slave I didn’t think you could get any blood from a stone
You can’t take the knickers off a bare arse….
blood from a stone , comes from when miners used break open rocks which may have had tiny cracks which frogs and such had grown inside ,
they may have used a reference in the bible too with that guy moses, just to make it sound like another miricial in those fairy tales
feck , 3 red thumbs down ? , i really did not think i was offending anyone with a little education , but there you go ,
no wonder the country is in the state tis in , when you have people disliking a harmless comment like that or maybe tis just my spelling that rattled someones cage
The ESRI have been calling for continued austerity. They are part of the problem not the solution. During the Celtic Tiger they predicted 15 years of growth. They are a waste of space and resources – like RTE.
RTE is ours. why should we surrender our media channels and allow private business/owners to control the airwaves. RTE may be flawed and constant debate about its future/role is healthy but it is ours. Look at the censorship of Sam Smith when he wrote about O’Brien and Lowry.
Really the night of the Prom note, TV 3 covered the event.RTE showed Dinner for Schmucks real public service boardcasting that.
No. The sooner we exit the bailout, the better. I’d welcome the novel return of economic sovereignty.
You do know the Fiscal Treaty was passed, so what you are hoping is gone for good.
Do you really think we’ll ever have economic sovereignty again?
We lost our sovereignty the moment we signed up for the euro and allowed this country go bankrupt in order to protect the euro and the real masters – the banks.
I think the eurozone crisis has demonstrated the need for a more fiscally interconnected continent but that’s a completely separate issue from troika supervision and instructions from on high. Our exit from the bailout would also lift eurozone confidence and the value of the currency because rather a lot is hanging on us. Ireland is seen as one of the “good” countries and a lot is riding on our successful return to normality.
A fiscally interconnected continent is the furthest point from economic sovereignty.
Feral. This exiting the bailout is being seen by some as a great achievement. The truth of the matter is that it will make no difference to the less well off. We still have to pay back the loans, so if by some miracle we achieve a surplus in the near future, that money will be spent on paying back the loans. Austerity for the less well off is permanent!
And yet we’re still one of the 20 wealthiest countries per capita, living in one of the most freest, safest countries in the world, with one of the highest standards of living going.
@Fergal I’m sure all patrons of the Twist soup kitchens would wholeheartedly again with your comment.
Sssshhh Fergal. Many on here don’t like to hear the truth.
Normality? Ha ha ha
Explain ‘the truth” Matt….
I hope you’re not suggesting that any exit from the bailout will see a return to this mythical economic sovereignty..the much beloved dogma of the FG/Lab quislings is “the truth”?
It is nothing more than a catchy soundbite used with alarming proficiency by FG/Lab.
@Matt or spin, shocking huh?
Fergal just did Dermo. Im sitting here by the pool in Canary islands. Lots of Irish here.
@Matt lots of people in some of the poorest countries in the world have luxurious lifestyles, so what are you trying to imply?
Yet anytime we speak of getting out of the euro people are very opposed…
…I never got this
They don’t know if they are coming or going. No wonder the country is a mess. They never learn. I bet FF will be back in power next election.
Has to stop . Gas increase , road tax will probably go up in budget etc …. Who can afford it anymore
Yes, if they want Ireland to survive we need to see some money circulating here.
Austerity does not work. You cannot rebuild an economy when the majority of the people have no money to spend! We should have copied Iceland, they sorted out their economic problems in a short period by punishing the people that caused it and not hammering the ordinary person. We dont have any politicans in this country with balls though an from the comments I ‘ve seen on other posts alot of the people are just as bad with their backward thinking so it looks like we ‘ll have to suck it up again..unless we unite as people and stand up to them nothing will change and at this stage it’a our own fault because we are letting them screw us!
Comparing us with Iceland is silly, far too many differences such as the fact they have their own currency, a much smaller population, proportionally greater natural resources, etc etc.
Not silly at all.. All you need is politicans that actually work for their employers -the people! not banks, bondholders an the Germans! Population and currency could have been worked around all it takes is abit of forward thinking and someone not afraid of the big bad wolf and we have our own natural resources but guess what they sold out on that too!
If you say austerity doesn’t work, let’s look at the alternative.
Spend and more debt. Do you advocate crushing the next generation with either/both:
a) high inflation
b) default and crazy high interest rates
Look, I know the medicine is painful, but we gotta take it.
@Michael how large a dosage are you taking?
This austerity is gonna destroy this country financially for the middle and lower and socially full stop, people are now so stuck up there own with this me fein attitude that its turning people against one another but the government don’t see this or the EU or these overpaid expert groups because all we are to them is a number on a balance sheet and if your not making them money through taxes or work then your seen a burden. Its time to get real the only thing that has benefited from austerity has been the greed of the banks, the virtual scot-free escape of those who helped create the mess and the eroding of wage and workers rights for employers and big business, the unions are too powerless now to stop this cos the cosy love in for years with previous governments and the huge wages they get from it have totally detached them from the workers they represent. And even if we do exit the bailout and 5 years down the road we get a recovery going does anyone seriously think the government will reverse the water and property taxes hell no if anything they will increase
Tax his land,
Tax his bed,
Tax the table
At which he’s fed.
Tax his tractor,
Tax his mule,
Teach him taxes
Are the rule.
Tax his cow,
Tax his goat,
Tax his pants,
Tax his coat.
Tax his ties,
Tax his shirt,
Tax his work,
Tax his dirt.
Tax his tobacco,
Tax his drink,
Tax him if he
Tries to think.
Tax his cigars,
Tax his beers,
If he cries, then
Tax his tears.
Tax his car,
Tax his gas,
Find other ways
To tax his ass
Tax all he has
Then let him know
That you won’t be done
Till he has no dough.
When he screams and hollers,
Then tax him some more,
Tax him till
He’s good and sore.
Then tax his coffin ,
Tax his grave,
Tax the sod in
Which he’s laid.
Put these words
upon his tomb,
” Taxes drove me
to my doom…”
When he’s gone,
Do not relax,
Its time to apply
The inheritance tax.
Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax
CDL license Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Dog License Tax
Excise Taxes
FuelTax
Inheritance Tax
Liquor Tax
Personal Property Tax
Property Tax
Service Charge Tax
Social Security Tax
Road Tax
VAT
State Income Tax
Utility Taxes
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
You sir are a poet !
Mmmmm. Madam you are a poet ,!
If we taxed your poem our problems would be solved :}
What a stupid question. Austerity has brought misery for the elderly during the winter months, it has taken from the Carers and Disabled. Ultimately it has robbed the family home to the point children are going to school without a nourishing meal while returning home to a €4.59 frozen pizza? The Labour Parties proposal and their behaviour in government is fundamentally perverse!
Let’s not have austerity and go bankrupt then.
Taking medicine is tough.
It’s Labours way or…………….
Labour suddenly wanting to ease the burden, I wonder why?….oh wait 8% consistently in the polls Gilmore even more unpopular than Cowen ever was.Local/European elections in 2014 anyone see the connection?
The slower we cut the deficit the more likely we are to need further assistance from the Troika.
That assistance will not come without strings.
Less austerity means more borrowing.
Bob
In fact, as the IMF in a recent study have admitted, the opposite is true.
This was what they referred to as the ‘fiscal multipliers’. It’s the debt to GDP +ratio+ that’s important, & measures that either reduce or stagnate GDP – such as budget cuts – do not help the situation.
Besides that, we need GDP growth to begin reducing the mass unemployment, which will itself increase the country’s overall prosperity and ability to service debt – both public and private.
As Keynes said 80 years ago, ‘…address the unemployment (by stimulus) and the deficit and debt ratios will look after themselves…’.
Because of the ‘deal’ on the Promissory Notes (not requiring such rapid repayment of the principal) we have more room for manoeuvre within the agreement with the Troika. As I said it’s deficit and debt to GDP ratios that are the key conditions, and because reduced austerity will help growth, these ratios will either come out no worse, or likely be improved.
Reducing austerity is the right policy. This is +macro+ economics & these principles, as with government debt dynamics, do not work the same way as with ‘household’ budget thinking.
This isn’t ‘new’, but has been known for 80 years after the same mistakes were made following the 1929 financial crash. The IMF’s economists have reaffirmed these facts +again+ having studied the effects of Troika style austerity policy (of numerous countries) over the last 5 years. Just as the (mainly) non-mainstream economists, critical of these policies, said it would.
The fact that the Euro system all but makes illegal such needed ‘counter cyclical’ measures by member states, is a very serious flaw that needs correcting if more countries are not to go down the catastrophic path demonstrated by Greece.
Such counter cyclical measures are readily available to countries like US, UK, Japan etc. who have retained sovereignty over their currencies, placing Euro members at a significant disadvantage. The exact reason why Euro zone unemployment & debt situation & all associated costs (huge) have remained far worse. (Euro area ‘official’ unemployment is still 12% – real lack of jobs higher again.)
But, the costs are near all being borne by ordinary citizens, not the top few percent who are running it. Democracy working? No, I don’t think so.
Ease it up on it? Its needs to be reversed. Its a self defeating cycle. Austerity budget increases deficit and yet more austerity increases deficit. Whats the definition of insanity! Of course it does benefit a certain few very wealthy and thats exactly why it will continue unless we do something about it ourselves. We need a movement that joins all the groups fighting austerity and democratically decide how we can fight the cuts and for an alternative to making ordinary people pay for the crisis of the rich. Come join groups like People Before Profit, Unite, Mandate, The Womens Council of Ireland, Single Parents Acting for the Rights of Kids (SPARK), Socialist Workers Party Sinn Fein Donegal Action Against Austerity West Cork Community Alliance and others in a Peoples Assembly at the Dail 6PM Wednesday Sept 18th.
Bring back Rates, they were a fair system. They were only done away with to get the FFers elected and to please their mates in the big mansions.
You forgot to blame Fianna Fáil for everything that went wrong in your childhood.
Seanie you’re really an FG/Lab supporter, c’mon tell the truth now.Even a real FF voter would never spout the bs you do, they’d know it does more harm than good.
Norman. People have been living in a bubble of self pity for the last few years. If this country is to return to growth then people need to face up to that. I have been listening to this palaver for 4 years and i’m sick of the blame game.
@Seanie having read your comments the only blame you seem to be sick of is the blame people rightly place at the feet of every FF politician who helped destroy this country.
Your constant derision of peoples lives which has been ruined by FF policies is frankly disgusting.
Only a spoiled little tw@ would say the stuff he says.
He wouldn’t know a hard days works if it kicked him in the shins.
It’s simple next election vote “Direct Democracy” get these sham’s out of the Dáil . These are making a mockery of our country . They take all the money & live a lavish life , while we pay the price & work hard just to survive . Ireland is a State of the people , so why don’t the people have say in these big decision’s . It’s sad really . Everything is going up … Rates , Gas , Electricity , tax this tax that ….
Then you have Job seekers , disability , pensions etc all been cut in the budget . It don’t makes sense , really doesn’t . But the worst thing of all is TD’s don’t take a cut , don’t have to sacrifice anything .
I looked at Direct Democracy’s website.
Lots of populist slogans and not much else.
Michael McGrath has been calling for this all year yet Noonan refuses to listen to him.
Pot kettle black?
Would that Michael McGrath of FF…the crowd who drove us in the cliff face to begin with??
I’d laugh if it wasn’t so serious a matter.
Did FF crash all the banks. How do you reckon they did that. Did they force people to buy houses, did they force people to live on the pigs back with no care or thought of tomorrow. FF gave this state the highest employment that it ever had. The banks and the people themselves made of that what they did.
Answer is yes.
FF and economics don’t mix.
A better question would be this: Did FF vote with the government to nationalise all private banking gambling debt and when in power what did they do to stop said banks and developers playing monopoly with real people?
“Michael McGrath has been calling for this all year yet Noonan refuses to listen to him”
every opposition TD has. The hint is in the name – opposition….
People can’t blame others for their own failings.
@Seanie. Fianna Fáil may not have forced people to buy a house or second house…THEY ADVISED US TO BUY PROPERTY AS AN INVESTMENT AND ENCOURAGED US TO GET ON THE PROPERTY LADDER. As the leaders of our country why would we not take Bertie Ahern an Co advice? You are now condemning those for acting on that advice and you try to remove blame from Fianna Fáil!
No, but you can blame a government for mismanaging a country Seanie.
No, but these are not simply ‘others’ as you so succinctly put it. These are people elected to a republic to look after the common good instead of their cronies and well connected friends.
Do you not realize Seanie in your zeal to deflect due responsibility from FF, you too are blaming others?
Our leader basically told us, if you don’t like our policies, then you should go off and commit suicide! That same leader is collecting upwards of €150,000 per year for sitting in his free house all day gambling on the horses.
@Seanie. Fianna Fail created tax incentives for property development and openly encouraged it. They allowed property prices to rise. The main reason for this austerity is down to the ridiculous loans given to the property developers by certain banks. It was all done on Fianna Fails watch as was the spriralling Public Sector wages. So yes kinda is their fault.
I really worry for our future when spoilt little brats like seanie still vote for who ever daddy tells him to.
“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it” - George Santayana
Not to know of history is to forever remain a child – Cicero.
When will people learn, the only way out is through growth!
We are just lying down and accepting a lower standard of living when we don’t have too.
But that’s where you are wrong, we were living on credit and that can’t go on indefinitely in a world of finite resources. At some stage a balancing of the books needs to happen.
I think we’re looking at this the wrong way, we borrowed close to €100 billion in debt to bail out bloated banks. €85b and nothing to show for it but a slow transformation into a stagnant culture of politics and corruption. How many young people will be gone in 10 years? The government is cutting back on education because they aren’t seeing the benefit in return, brain drain is occuring where young are getting the benefits of a subsidsied third level college education and leaving the country and the government is losing this investment. A lot of money is pumped into education and if we want to get out of this for the better we’re going to have to pump a lot more into it. Finland’s economy next to collapsed after the fall of the soviet union, and they invested in education. They built up their information infrastructure, and now they have an excellent thriving smart economy and are ranked 3rd in the world with Maths results, after Hong Kong and South Korea.
Cutting out budget is not going to fix this, we are sick and need nutrients, that means investment and innovation, austerity would be the equivalent of starving yourself to lose weight, it’s an unhealthy approach and shows underlying problems. This debt may be a burden we all carry for years to come, and it may nbot be our fault, but because of who we elected and the banking crisis this is now what we are left with, our little legacy. And I want to see the country turn this into an oppurtunity, a place where businesses can come because the country itself is on the cusp of technological innovation. We still have Big pharma companies staying and the same with tech giants, Google, Facebook and such. And we can grow talent at home quite easily.
Refomration isn’t going to be easy but its what we’re going to need to pull away from these carcinogenic banks and their greed for money, clawing at anybody who owes them a cent now when we’re a poorer nation and our leaders are making sure they stay in business. We need jobs, good jobs and good opputunities, then we’ll see a new boom, and not one relied upon unstable and shaky dealings and securities but on an open market and us riding the crest of the wave
We didn’t borrow 100billion for the bank bailout, the IMF bailout was to finance public services
Well yeah, not all of it was on banks, but it was to cover what we already spent on the banks, the rest of what the banks needed and then what we needed to actually run the country
austerity – the trait of great self-denial (especially refraining from worldly pleasures)
nonindulgence, asceticism
self-denial, self-discipline – the trait of practicing self discipline
We badly need an efficiency budget instead; public sector is still making the country run at a deficit and reform is too slow. Also business cost (unless you are a multinational) are massive.
Let’s all hope G20 do get a pact on tax avoidance and google and microsoft are prevented from having dual residency; we’d make billions!!
Austerity does NOT create employment!
It’s time for a change of policy.
Even the IMF admits that austerity does not work.
All these if financial advisers earn big money.
Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen and FF refused to listen to George Lee!
Bertie’s said that the “economic advisers” should commit suicide!
What a foolish Taoiseach in hindsight!
Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen still draw big pensions of (I believe) €130,000 PA.
Shame on them!
I wonder how much the difference between tax income and expenditure the nation would have if the readers of The Journal decided the budget !!
Yes.
Why should ordinary people pay for the mistakes of the elite
As we don’t control the ECB, we have no other choice but further austerity. Spending beyond our means got us into this mess in the first place and continuing to do that wont get us out of it. Ideally you would want a dual approach of the central bank printing more money and sustained moderate austerity over a longer period….but we don’t have that option.
No more austerity! Throw out the government and let me run the country! Simple. Lower wages for the people at the top. They do the least work. Higher wages for ground workers! More money to spend will get this this country back on its feet.
Every month the government borrows one thousand million, just to keep the show on the road. We owe two hundred thousand million
About 5,600 million Euro are collected in taxes every year
the government spends too much
The country will never recover while we carry on like this
It will only take one depressed man with a gun to take the government down, and lets face it according to the stats there’s alot of them about!
I wouldn’t be surprised if something like that ends up happening
The Government should push ahead with the planned budget cuts, and let us all see who the cuts will affect.
At least that way when the next election comes it will be still fresh in peoples memory what this Government has done to its people.
Your definitely not one of those pour people who have already lost their house! empathy is something that meny people in this country seem to lack.
We need to stay the path, get it done and exit the bailout. Stopping now would simply be a false dawn, require more borrowing. Calls to use the 1 bn saving on prom note is no less reckless than the nonsense that went on during the boom…
To balance the books, the government should search high and low and take money from every nook and cranny they come across, including the disabled and the pensioners.
Really , why should the people pay for the governments mistakes ??
That’s like me paying your credit card bill … Would be silly …
Why would I , YOU racked up the bill ..
Same circumstances .. That’s how the majority of the irish people feel ….
We have to pay because we the Irish electorate elected FF to run the Country. They made a big mess of it and we still elect them!
Every FF TD gets a big salary and expenses and will get a big pension on exit.
They are laughing all the way to the bank! Pun!
Crazy people!
The majority of TD’s spoon feed their policy’s to the public , literally saying what the public wants to hear , then they go against their policy’s when they are in power . Like Enda . Reassured us that it was not the publics fault it was FF , then gets on the late late & blasts the public saying it was our fault .
They have already hit the disabled several times. Seems like you have a clue and your comments are just to create controversy. Maybe there should be a special tax on people who talk out through their hats ? Might hit you hard though so be prepared.
Your not sure?????
Are you simple minded?
Why answer at all?
Take from the one’s struggling to make ends meet. Raise tax etc. Same shit different day government’s are all for themselves
Who the hell votes no???
What “austerity”? Highest welfare rates in the EU. Highest public sector pay.
Working class middle class lower classic, what about politician class, bare no brunt of anything. We take all the hits while they run the gravy train.
Our taxes will be taxed!
have your say