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Updated 11.30am
TODAY’S BUDGET ANNOUNCEMENT must sustain the recovery and reward “the incredible effort of the Irish people”, the Public Expenditure and Reform Minister has said.
Brendan Howlin said today’s Budget announcement will “sustain recovery” as he headed into the final Cabinet meeting before this afternoon’s Dáil proceedings get under way.
Ministers are expected to sign off on the final details of Budget 2015 today including tax measures that include an income tax cut and changes to USC that will be aimed at benefiting low and middle income earners.
“Our objective from the very start, and it was regarded by many as an impossible objective, was to get a deficit below 3 per cent by 2015. We’re going to achieve that and we’re going to achieve that with a margin,” Howlin told reporters this morning.
He said that the Budget has to be done “in a way that sustains and rewards the incredible effort of the Irish people.
“Government has to govern in accordance with the will of the people as well and after seven years of the harshest difficulty people want to see the horizon, they want to see the shape of a better Ireland and that’s what we have to begin today to plan out.”
Howlin said that while it would be impossible to undo the “difficult decisions of the past” he said the “real success” of recent years had been that both ecomomic and social targets have been reached.
He said the government hoped to get unemployment below 10 per cent – it currently stands at 11.1 per cent – by the end of next year.
With much talk of this Budget heralding the end of austerity, the opposition parties have said much will depend on the content of the measures announced today.
Speaking to reporters at Leinster House this morning, Sinn Féin’s Gerry Adams says his party would get rid of property tax and water changes and put money in people’s pockets.
He added: “The fact is people cannot pay these charges and we’re facing into Christmas.”
Also speaking at Leinster House this morning, Sinn Féin’s deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald was adopting a ‘wait and see’ approach.
“There has been a lot made of this end to austerity. The proof of the pudding will be in the eating, as they say. Let’s see what the government come forward with today,” she said.
First published 9.28am
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“He has not offended since” maybe because he was caught and was probably being monitored??
One year he’ll be out. Judge Nolan strikes again.
And to this day Paul begley is still taking therapy for being locked up by judge nolan for Importing garlic instead of apples. Even though he paid the revenue what was owed. Journal change headline to mature student.
@Paul Gorry: Simplistic boIIox. He wasn’t jailed for importing garlic instead of apples. He was jailed for committing a multimillion euro fraud on the citizens/taxpayers of this State. If he couldn’t hack the punishment for his crime, that’s on him.
@Tommy Roche: still got more time than this lad… and he employed people… bottom line is, don’t f*ck with the state’s money… if you do there will be no suspended sentence, anything else is fair game
@Paul Gorry: yeah so true. Sgt. Martin Nolan old scores for someone.
@Stephen Boland: he didnt get more time than this lad. He appealed his sentence and it was drastically reduced.
@Paul Gorry: he’s in therapy eight years after his release? At least his company is making €4K in profits weekly so he can well afford to pay for it.
if this had happened in his own country it would be off with his king ding a ling and probably his head. Here we give him a year tops, probably out in 6 months and no deportation. We have enough numptys of our own without letting this one stay. And can someone in government please for the love of Christ remove this excuse for a judge, Martin Nolan, from his post. The man is unfit for the role.
@Alan Clarke: so your suggestion is to murder people?
@Alan Clarke: he was given 16 months, he’ll get 25% remission which is 4 months off, so he’ll serve 12. Believe it or not that’s actually a decent sentence for this offence here. More often than not they get suspended sentences for first offences when distribution wasn’t involved.
Deport him as soon as he’s out
@Raymond Kelly: deport him first i’d say!
@paddy mulcahy:
“Deport him first”
In other words reward him for his crime with a free plane ticket home??
That is assuming that he is not Irish.
Why is he allowed stay here? I’m confused as to why he wouldn’t be kicked out to be honest?
@Ruby: let him serve his sentence then kick him out
No jail time deport back immediately and let the authories in his country know of antics. I bet he would rather do jail here.
@brendan o connell: ah shur all lives matter ya ya ya
@brendan o connell: we won’t do that because he could face the death penalty in Saudi ..we don’t like doing that… unless of course it’s the USA that asks us …
@Terry Cahill: actually I’d be surprised if there are laws relating to accessing illegal material online in Saudi Arabia. There aren’t in many gulf countries.
Oh Nolan was judge? No surprise there. That lad needs to be removed and investigated. The lad that did this, who’s name reads like a chemical? Chemical castration.
@The Kev in Kevlar: he was investigated, it’s what led to his being charged and sentenced.
This shouldn’t be tolerated in any way and it’s justice served that he was convicted. However, I’d be very interested to know how he was caught. Do the Gardai conduct random searches of people’s search history from certain keywords. Surely GDPR rules prevent the monitoring of people’s search history?
@Dan the man: if you read carefully, the Germans told the Gardaí
@Kevin Feeney: yes I can read. How was Interpol aware of what some lad was searching for from an Irish IP address?
@Dan the man: Think it says it in the article mate. German police alerted Interpol who in turn alerted Gardai. I imagine (and hope) there are state organisations searching out these websites and servers and then monitoring people that access them.
@Ciaran Brady: it doesn’t mate. No mention of how the German’s were randomly looking at the search history of an Irish computer
@Dan the man: the IP address identifies the source computer as based in Ireland.
@Geraldine D’Arcy: well done
@Dan the man: I was referring to how he was caught. Germans informed Interpol who then informed Gardai. The second part of my post is my opinion.
I think we can be sure that German police weren’t looking at random search histories however.
I’m no IT expert but surely it was a site or sites being monitored in order to capture the IP addresses of people accessing. Again, thats just my guess/opinion.
@Dan the man: looking for a way to.covwr your tracks?
@Dan the man: They were probably monitoring German citizens’ activities on particular sites and came across lots of IP addresses in other EU member states and notified the other police forces…..that or they are actively tracking these perverted sites with a view to closing them down.
@Dan the man: Sounds like you could be in bother Danno, ya nonce !
@Dan the man: You’re very interested in finding out how to avoid getting caught, aren’t you?
@Dan the man: Data protection is irrelevant in investigations of this, terrorist and organised crime related natures.
@Dan the man: police monitor places where sex abuse images are posted both on the normal Web and dark Web. Don’t worry their not going to be getting access to your browsing history from virgin media.
@Dan the man: being so concerned with how exactly he was caught is not a good look.
what happened. judge nolan actually sent him to jail. not like him. even with a small sentence
have your say