Now it's over, where did they go wrong and right?

Delta Kilo

Archimedes wrote: »

Brian Cody is Kilkenny hurling manager. I somehow doubt he's been paid €5 million for his achievements.

You missed the point... he DOSEN'T get paid for it is the posters point!

He is arguing that work should be about doing something to the best of your ability rather than monetary benefit. He is contrasting Brian Cody's achievements, which he does not get paid for, with Brian Cowen's and FF's failures, yet they get exorbitant wages for doing so.

maninasia

lmimmfn wrote: »

they did absolutely nothing to curb jobs hemorrhaging, instead they massively increase taxes, and consider it banked yet we've another few years of global recession to get through, whats gonna happen when another 400,000 are taken out of the 1.5 million( or whatever it is ) PAYE contributors and on the dole? where will the money come from then?

Stg is taking a hammering from the Euro meaning that for multinational companies the UK now has a cheaper hourly rate than we do, this is really going to affect our chances of recovery and they did absolutely nothing.

You can tell it's a budget created by political people and civil servants who are worried about maintaining their current positions and jobs. They are avoiding a confrontation to stay in power. Even the common man realises we've got to create new job opportunities and maintain competitiveness but they don't seem to see it or at least are unwilling to face it to save their own skins for now.

Where are the people with business experience in government, this is what is needed!

Ludo

This budget showed how useless the government are.

What cuts did they make on public spending other than cutting back on payouts to families and the like?

Did they do anything to cut back the massively bloated public service or improve performance?

Toothless effort by a shower who are afraid to tackle the real problems.

This budget has KILLED consumer confidence. No-one will be buying ANYTHING non-essential for the forseeable future. Bye bye retail sector! Bye bye car dealerships! Will simply mean THOUSANDS more on the dole.

NewDubliner

Ludo wrote: »

Did they do anything to cut back the massively bloated public service or improve performance?

A bar on recruitment, non replacement of retirees, no promotions, a voluntary retirement scheme, career breaks, a 10% pay cut, a review of senior management pay an more taxes on the higher paid.

Ludo wrote: »

This budget has KILLED consumer confidence. No-one will be buying ANYTHING non-essential for the forseeable future. Bye bye retail sector! Bye bye car dealerships! Will simply mean THOUSANDS more on the dole.

No more sending money out of the country to pay for non-essential luxury goods.

Buy Irish.

Donkathon

someone needs to take that cheque stamper off the government,

cant seem to get the picture of homer simpson in there place with his stamper

Ludo

NewDubliner wrote: »

A bar on recruitment, non replacement of retirees, no promotions, a voluntary retirement scheme, career breaks, a 10% pay cut, a review of senior management pay an more taxes on the higher paid.

No more sending money out of the country to pay for non-essential luxury goods.

Buy Irish.

Most of what you mention there are not immediate cuts at all. I mean lay offs or pay cuts or NO bonuses of ANY form this year. Actual cuts which will benefit immediately like any company would do.

10% pay cut? Really? Must have missed that one...damn. So all public sector workers took a 10% pay cut yesterday on top of all the other tax rises imposed? Good. Why hasn't there been more said about it?

Luxury goods? A car? Where is the public transport? I see Dublin bud have cut back routes again today.

Buy an Irish car? An Irish TV? What exactly is made in Ireland other than food really.

NewDubliner

Ludo wrote: »

10% pay cut? Really? Must have missed that one...damn. So all public sector workers took a 10% pay cut yesterday on top of all the other tax rises imposed? Good. Why hasn't there been more said about it?

You asked what had been done. I answered your question.The pay cut was done before the budget, they called it a 'pension levy'.

Ludo wrote: »

Buy an Irish car? An Irish TV? What exactly is made in Ireland other than food really.

We've enough TVs already. Instead of importing a new car why not buy a second-hand car, reconditioned/serviced by local labour?

Ludo

NewDubliner wrote: »

You missed a lot. The pay cut was done before the budget, they called it a 'pension levy'.

Oh right...you are not talking about yesterdays budget at all then...figures. I was wondering how I missed that and guess what..I didn't miss anything so you can retract your statement that I did whenever you feel up to it.

MG

Basicly taxing productivity, innovation, achievement and families to pay for the unproductive, non achievers - that's what went wrong.

NewDubliner

Ludo wrote: »

Oh right...you are not talking about yesterdays budget at all then...figures. I was wondering how I missed that and guess what..I didn't miss anything so you can retract your statement that I did whenever you feel up to it.

You asked 'did they do anything', I said what they did. The recent pay cut is relevant although I can see how omitting to mention it reinforces your prejudices.

Zambia

Maybe The lads can ring ocean Finance get all the countrys debts into one managable loan with monthly repayments and in about 64 months be back on track.

7 Pages and have not seen a happy post yet:eek:

Ludo

NewDubliner wrote: »

You asked 'did they do anything', I said what they did. The recent pay cut is relevant although I can see how omitting to mention it reinforces your prejudices.

I asked what they did in this budget...I even started my post with "This budget".

What prejudices? Something needs to be done about a bloated under performing public sector. The dogs on the street can see that. Yet the government are afraid/unable to do it.

I have nothing against public sector employees. All of my family are public sector...but something definitive needs to be done to curtail spending.

Personally, I would half the number of tds and slash thier pay..what the hell do we need them all for? a max of 2 per constituency...job done!

luckat

Superb letter in today's Irish Times:

Madam, – Brian Lenihan had the ability to introduce all the increased levies from May 1st. He has, however, thrown the review of politicians’ pay to a committee – which will eventually issue a report.

May I suggest that with effect from May 1st he should align politicians’ pay with the Dutch system pending the arrival of the report?

The Netherlands is close to Ireland, has a similar standard and cost of living (but a much larger population) and I understand that the Dutch prime minister is paid a maximum of €171,000. Furthermore, no state employee is permitted to earn more than this amount. I cannot estimate the savings that would result from such a system – but I suspect that the levies that were imposed in the Budget could be reduced by at least 1 per cent, or better still, the recovery could be accelerated.

Before politicians and State employees trot out the old adage “if you pay peanuts you get monkeys”, may I point out that the Dutch economy, health service and public services are in rude health. Perhaps the Dutch monkeys are wiser and more efficient than our Irish fat cats. (I do not intend to offend monkeys, cats or the Dutch people.)

– Yours, etc,

DEREK HANAN, Crannagh Park, Rathfarnham, Dublin 14

Another letter asks the very pertinent question: How is the Government fostering job creation? - a question certainly not addressed by the Budget.

Brief quote from that letter:

Other countries that are in similar situations, such as Taiwan, South Korea, and Singapore, have large government incentive programmes to foster such companies with education, venture capital help and start-up business support. Israel is potentially the most interesting example. Despite being countries of similar size to Ireland, they are prevalent in Silicon Valley circles, with leading- edge technology companies in green, software and high-tech products that are well supported by their governments.

NewDubliner

Ludo wrote: »

Something needs to be done about a bloated under performing public sector. .........but something definitive needs to be done to curtail spending.

And 'something' is being done but you're ignoring it.

K-9

NewDubliner wrote: »

And 'something' is being done but you're ignoring it.

Maybe not enough?

bobbiw

And people claim that the irish are educated.

All they did was look at the shortfall in revenue. Ireland as a whole is very backward and unorganised. People as far as I can see in goverment or the civil service in general are very poor performers and wouldnt survive in the private sector.

You cant tax out of a recession, in fact it will make it a lot worse. They should have cut back all benefits for people on the dole more than 18 months. Its a mess and to be honest I dont know where it will end up.

maninasia

luckat wrote: »

Superb letter in today's Irish Times:



Another letter asks the very pertinent question: How is the Government fostering job creation? - a question certainly not addressed by the Budget.

Brief quote from that letter:

Most countries in Asia learned their lessons from previous property busts long ago. Taiwan has had hardly any contraction as there was no bubble there so there was not much 'extra jobs' in the system. By the end of the year the economy will be almost completely recovered I predict. In fact I was ironically looking at jobs in related government agencies in both Taiwan and Ireland recently. Taiwan want's to hire me, Ireland...ban on recruitment.
The President of Taiwan has not taken ANY holidays since being voted in last year. This is not for show, this is the truth (it helps that he can't visit many countries as the Chinese block diplomatic ties). If he was to take a holiday during the last six months there would have been big protests.
Despite a massive contraction in exports in Taiwan recently the local companies (there are very few foreign multinationals in Taiwan) did not lay-off people, mainly they introduced 'enforced no pay vacation', the government sponspored workers to do training courses and gave them some living allowance, the companies are now almost all going back to regular working hours now. They also have stimulus packages for various infrastructure projects and also to support some local struggling IT companies to get through the bust, which they can afford as they have wisely amassed 100s of billions of USD in cash as foreign exchange reserves. Oh and the kicker, everybody's taxes are REDUCED from next year (to an average of 10-20%)! Yeah, Taiwan, one of those 'backward Asian countries'.

NewDubliner

K-9 wrote: »

Maybe not enough?

Yes, I think that's what he meant to say.