NTMA sell 3month treasury bills at 1.8%

Dannyboy83

Laminations wrote: »

The risk in such a move, if it goes wrong, outweighs the benefit if it goes right.

I would completely disagree on this point.
I believe it's absolutely vital for the short/medium and extremely long term future of the country, that we determine who is in charge.

What happens to the carriage when you have two horses pulling in opposite directions?
We have witnessed it during this crisis.

The government is supposed to be the boss, but the unions are actually extorting decisions and determining policy.
This situation should never have been allowed to arise. Extortion.

When Kirk tells Spock to do something, he orders him.
He didn't beg, plead or negotiate.

Either that, or the electorate will have to start democratically electing union bosses. Non-democratically elected people are determining policy and the future of the country.
It reminds me of the crap with the first dail/second dail around the civil war.

Dave!

djpbarry wrote: »

I really wouldn’t be so sure about that. If reforms are targeted at cutting down on administration, they would probably be met with general approval, regardless of whether the reforms are actually a good idea or not. However, woe betide any TD who dares suggest that, for example, Ireland has too many nurses, for (s)he will be beaten to death by an angry rosary bead-wielding mob.

I wouldn't imagine the government would be targeting nurses though... As you say, it'll be targeting administrators and management, increments, pay, allowances, and so on.

We can reduce a good bit of expenditure that way, which the general public would see as quite reasonable, and overdue. The kite-flying over the last few weeks isn't really hinting at reducing front-line staff, even if that's required (I dunno).

Laminations

Dannyboy83 wrote: »

I would completely disagree on this point.
I believe it's absolutely vital for the short/medium and extremely long term future of the country, that we determine who is in charge.

Let me clarify. The government are in charge but with certain realities in place.
You cannot ignore the reality that unions have bargaining power and will have in the short medium and long-term, while at the same time highlighting other realities like the flight of capital if the wealth tax were to be introduced or the fact that we gave a banking guarantee or the protections on senior bondholders.

None of these realities mean that the government is not in charge they just make the government's job more difficult.

For example the power that the wealthy have in opposing something like a wealth tax or higher income tax band could be interpreted as them making threats (challenging the power and authority of government - leading us to the same response as youve suggested, having to establish who is in charge) or them specifying a reality

djpbarry

Dave! wrote: »

I wouldn't imagine the government would be targeting nurses though...

I know they won’t, but maybe they should be? Ireland employs more nurses per head of population than anywhere else in the world. What’s more, Irish nurses are among the best paid in the world.

There’s room there for savings methinks, but the government won’t go near such a thorny issue. Why? Because the general perception among the electorate is that the Irish healthcare system is ****e and could probably benefit from having more nurses, not fewer. Not only that, but there is definitely a popular perception that nurses are badly paid. Then of course there’s the fact that Ireland produces a lot of nursing graduates – cutting down job opportunities for these graduates would be hugely unpopular.

I'm curious, how come a thread about NAMA and Treasury bill turns in a Thread about the amount of nurses in the Irish health services, the mods are usually very good on getting threads back on track.


djpbarry I am also curious as to what your source for your statement that Ireland employe's more nurses that any countries in world and that they are the best paid nurses in the world?...


I know how much nurses are paid in the US ( especially in some areas )

djpbarry

mariaalice wrote: »

I'm curious, how come a thread about NAMA...

The thread title mentions the National Treasury Management Agency, not the National Asset Management Agency.

mariaalice wrote: »

...and Treasury bill turns in a Thread about the amount of nurses in the Irish health services...

Because it's one of the indicators that the OECD uses to assess the state of health services. I merely took the health service as an example of a public service where savings need to be made.

I'm not having a go at nurses!

mariaalice wrote: »

djpbarry I am also curious as to what your source for your statement that Ireland employe's more nurses that any countries in world and that they are the best paid nurses in the world?...

I didn't say they were the best paid, I said they were among the best paid.

I did however say that Ireland employs more nurses per head of population than anywhere else in the world, when what I should have said was Ireland employs more nurses per physician than anywhere else in the world (or the OECD if we're being pedantic).

Anyway, the source for this data is the OECD's Health at a Glance, sections 3.7 and 3.9.

I did also notice in that report that the number of nursing graduates produced by Ireland is (rather surprisingly) below the OECD average, so I will take back what I said about Ireland producing lots of nursing graduates. I do remember a lot of girls I went to school with going into nursing, but things have obviously changed.

Sorry about the NAMA thing....you do know there is a public services recruitment embargo on at the moment..been there from 2009 or there abouts. Its the casual repeating of fact that are taking out of context and the misunderstanding of complex areas of public policies that I am getting at.

K-9

mariaalice wrote: »

I'm curious, how come a thread about NAMA and Treasury bill turns in a Thread about the amount of nurses in the Irish health services, the mods are usually very good on getting threads back on track.


djpbarry I am also curious as to what your source for your statement that Ireland employe's more nurses that any countries in world and that they are the best paid nurses in the world?...


I know how much nurses are paid in the US ( especially in some areas )

It was originally more a news thread but a poster did ask if it was a good or bad thing and the thread developed from there. I do take your point and now that the question about nurses has been answered, posters should concentrate on the general issue about whether this is good or bad. Talking about Nurses pay is a bit off topic, there are other threads for detail like that and it has come up before plenty of times on Public Service threads.

Please report posts or pm mods if you have concerns about a thread in future.