December budget - predictions?

Mario007

just put in carbon tax(ie 500 mill) and the whole of an board snip(5.3 bn) and we have almost 6bn in saving...while still obviously not enough at least we move faster and our interest rates wont go up and there is a bigger chance of avoiding the debt cycle

heyjude

old boy wrote: »

the first requirement of the goverment is to take in cash,
so the old reliables get hit,
fuel of every kind,
drink cigarettes,
vat to increase by 1/2%,
road tax on cars,
an across the board charge for water,
possible rates on houses and/or property,

Most of these would be a waste of time, increasing tax on drink and cigarettes just increases black market sales and smuggling with little extra revenue raised, the same applies to increasing VAT, as it would only lead to a huge increase in cross border shopping, while road tax unless it was doubled or trebled wouldn't bring in too much and water charges/rates or a new property tax would take quite a while to implement and may have significant administration costs.

old boy wrote: »

an increase in health care.

If you substantially increase healthcare costs then the VHI and other health insurers have to introduce big premium increases, which would lead many people to give up health insurance and go back to relying entirely on the public system. So you could end up with an own goal.

old boy wrote: »

postal charges to raise, (we have one of the cheapest services in the world).

Where's the evidence for this ? I just checked and for British non-business customers to post a letter to a domestic address in Britain costs a minimum of
30p(approx 32c) sent second class and to send a letter from mainland Britain to Ireland costs 56p(approx 60c), whereas it costs 55c for a non business customer here to send a letter here to anywhere in Ireland and it costs 82c to send a letter from here to Britain. So while I'm not convinced we are one of the cheapest in the world, we're much more expensive than in the UK, which is why its so hard for ebay traders who live here. It should also be remembered that cutting the costs of running a business here to improve our competitiveness should be a government goal and increasing the cost of energy and postage for businesses will just cost more jobs.

ardmacha

Tax bands and credits frozen or very slightly widened.

These should be reduced, inflation and negative and wages have fallen. Reducing the bands would mean that some who has not had a wage cut will pay more and some with a cut will not be affected.

The pension levy should be abolished and simple 12-25% pay cut introduced. This would also reduce pensions and would reduce headline pay rates, which would encourage other rates to fall.

ghost_ie

irish_bob wrote: »

cutting the wages of nurses and consultants and guards is a way of getting more value for money from the public service , that and what jimmy said above

My daughter is a nurse earning €34,000 a year. By how much would you like to see her pay cut? What she's earning now doesn't seem excessive given the fact that the head of the HSE earns twice that as a bonus on top of his salary and that our Minister for Health earns even more for delegating all responsibility for the Health Service to said head of HSE

Daithinski

helimachoptor wrote: »

College fees €1000 per year for everyone no Admin fee.

Currently the admin fee on its own is 1500.

irish_bob

ghost_ie wrote: »

My daughter is a nurse earning €34,000 a year. By how much would you like to see her pay cut? What she's earning now doesn't seem excessive given the fact that the head of the HSE earns twice that as a bonus on top of his salary and that our Minister for Health earns even more for delegating all responsibility for the Health Service to said head of HSE

your daughter is obvoiusly very early on in her nursing career , if pay rates for nurses are untouched , your daughter will earn on average 50k per year by the middle of her career , nurses here start off on 31 k per year , in the uk its 16 k sterling , i have a cousin in wales who is a male nurse since 1986 and is now several grades up the NHS system , this year he will ean 33 k sterling , not much more than what a nurse starts off on in this country , we are not a richer country than the uk yet we pay our nurses and guards and teachers at least 30% more

as for your comment about the head of the HSE , while he should not have gotten the bonus , its like asking why should a factor worker in dell only earn 35 k per year when michael dell is worth several billion , its a loaded question and one which cant be answered honestly

Darksaga87

As a recently redundant 22 year old, Im shaking at the thought of this budget.

It looks like emigration is my best option. If i stay here and dont find a job by the new year, im going to struggle to survive. As someone else said, desprate times make desprate people make desprate decisions. I couldnt agree more.

The_Honeybadger

irish_bob wrote: »

the same way those in the private sector survive presently on 30% less than those in the public sector

my brother is a dairy farmer , this year , his income is 40% less than it was in 2007

if a certain number of public servants have over extended themselves ( guards buying 2nd and 3rd houses ) , that is not the problem of the tax payer , the cost of living will be down in jig time when the purchasing power of the citezenry is reduced , energy costs will come down when we stop paying ESB workers an average of 90 k per year , all thats needed is the will , the market will dicatate that cost of living corrects itself accordingly , it is the way of things

Good post for what it is worth due to the recession I now earn roughly 60% of what I was on in 2007-2008, if someone had told me this was going to happen to me in 07 I would have said I wouldn't be able to live on that, it is extremely hard but you just have to get on with things, agree that cost of living will come down with wages to a certain extent and this is what is needed. I sympathise with your bro I know a few dairy farmers who have told me their income for a seven day a week job is basically now zero, and if 2010 is the same as 2009 they are folding their tent as it just doesn't make sense to work for free. If more follow this would be disastrous for the country as the agribusiness sector provides over a quarter of a million jobs.