Are the Irish fit to be let at the controls?

If this was the case wouldn’t Ireland have increased the corporate tax rate years ago?

In terms of job for the boys in Europe which gets fired out all the time, what jobs are Ireland politicians getting? We will always have to have a presence in Europe but do we have some additional privileges that would see politicians in Ireland think they will get jobs?

In terms of the thread, it’d just the latest in a constant stream of thread which are never ending to complain about Ireland. If you hate it so much why not head off to another country would be my question? Can’t be good for your own health to live in a country a lot of people seem to loathe.

Perhaps but C & G had a weak hand to play. Negotiations don't always take place on an even keel.

Ah yes, apartheid ending. PC gone mad.... Good job at showing your true colours though.

Why?

The 2nd vote had one of the highest turnouts for any EU vote and was overwhelmingly past by a large margin.

Is that not the literal definition of democracy?

Also Ireland were the only EU member who had a public vote.

Do explain?

Churchill racist to his very marrow.

His description of Islam has truth in ever syllable.

Na. The IMF will be back in the UK before they are back here. The UK economy will go bust in the next decade sometime.

The two are not mutually exclusive. The UK if it falls over will be due to trying to fund a third world country (NI/Scotland/Wales/Northern england) on the income from the city of london. Our collapse, if it comes, will be if FDI withdraws en masse and we have not replaced the high rate of corporation tax take (in euro, not %) we currently enjoy.

Don't feed the new-reg!

I agree there have been a lot of problems here, which is the point of the thread really, "are the Irish fit to be let at the controls?" I'd suggest NO.

The problem is, who do we go to? The US is a basket case, the UK is eating itself, the Germans (and thus the EU) is in recession.

The joys of pedantry.

People who hate Muslims are racists.

Anyone who thinks Irish people do not run Ireland are morons.

By that logic if you don’t like Lisa Smith coming back to Ireland then you are racist, even though she’s ethnically Irish. Islam is a religion and is open to criticism like any other. The same posters pushing this now have no problem criticising the Church, a few years ago it was ‘all religion is poison’ but that was dumped for the lefts love of Islam. Which is frankly bizarre as it’s far more adverse to the ideologies of the left.

no, simply not liking the fact lisa smith came back to ireland is not racist.

islam is open to criticism yes, but that is not a get out clause for racism.

criticising islam as a way to attack someone is racist.

criticising islam or any religion without using it to attack people is perfectly fine.

Where are you getting this from you moron??

Ireland's national debt peaked at 133% of GDP 12 years ago.

Its now at 58% of GDP and falling towards a projected 35% of GDP.

The figure in Euros is meaningless! Our economy is one of the most diversified in the western World. FDI is not a sector; biomedical is a sector; Fintech is a sector; microchips is a sector. They don't all fall and rise dependently!

Here's a graph below of the actual burden of debt on the Exchequer, relative to the spending power of that sector.

In the meantime, maybe take an evening class for yourself in Macroeconomics.

Yes... and no.

Depends which Irish we are talking about. Our current front bench is the worst I think in the history of the State.

Varadkar, Martin x 2, Ryan, O'Gorman, McEntee, Donnelly, Harris, Foley, McConalogue all sub par. Some first time TD's given senior ministries, seriously? All may indeed be very nice and committed people but I would consider failing in their briefs and the main opposition will be worse which is a very, very bleak vista. Idealism trumping pragmatism. The sound bite over the hard choice. Too eager to be seen as good boys in Europe where again we send sub par politicians imo who don't fight hard enough for the country.

This is/was the golden chance to fix health, education, improve equality, Infrastructure etc. Politicians from the 80's where there was no money and little hope would weep at the waste. The Children's hospital just the latest cherry on the cake. It's slipping through our fingers.

I posted on another thread that some family were paid 130 million since 2020 to house refugees (an issue that has been swept under the carpet until the public decided that had enough of being Gaslit by politicians).

I also posted a link to to a Barnardos study... (Rte not Gript) "which found that 41% of parents have said they had skipped meals or reduced portion sizes to enable their children to have food. Absolutely shameful.

https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2024/0227/1434595-food-survey/

I think a first step would be to halve the number of Politicians and pay them better, But something has to change.

Find me a non corrupt government. It's impossible, you can only minimize the corruption by setting good legislation and checks and balances. In a free country it will always look terrible because they can't hide it as easily or indefinitely like they can in an authoritarian state. We should definitely continuously push for more policing of government and corporate power, as much as possible, it's like trimming your hedge, it's a necessary chore, heads must roll on the regular to keep leaders someway straight.

If you and your partner take home €6,000 a month and get a mortgage on a €350k house, with all else being equal, your repayments will be about €1,300 per month, or 22% of your take home pay.

But if we come back to you in 5 years, and your monthly take-home is, say, €8,500 a month and increased interest rates have pushed your mortgage repayment to €1,700 per month, the overall burden has actually dropped to 20%. And your asset value/equity has probably gone up by 25% in the same period too.

But the Irish economy didn't just increase by 40% in 5 years, like our household above.

It has actually increased by a stonking 175% over 12 years, so even if the Euro value of debt hasn't changed much, the overall burden on us has dropped like a stone, as I demonstrated above.

*Irish sovereign debt issue is the most in-demand and cheapest in Europe. Calls by the Treasury Management Agency to issue new debt/bonds/paper are always WAY oversubscribed by the market.

*The Treasury Management Agency has been able to consistently re-finance our crisis era debt for cheaper rates, so secure is it, even in an era of rising wholesale rates.

*National debt is accrued by the annual Exchequer deficit (more expenditure than income). Ireland doesn't have a budget deficit, we have, in fact, a €10 Billion annual SURPLUS. This means we can pay down debt AND set up several strategic and sovereign wealth funds to insure the economy against knocks in the long term. Ireland had NEVER had the capacity to do that before. In fact, very few Countries ever do.

*Ireland's population is growing. Not as a burden, but actually as one of the most productive in the World. We have high skills and full employment, which means any debt burden is further and further diluted by fundamental growth, not any kind of temporary or artificial returns from any particular sector.

So there you have it. The Euro amount of debt is not important. Not even a bit. Its all about the burden. And we don't actually have one. Not anymore.

Its always made me wonder why the current Government is so reticent to shout all this from the rooftops? Probably because public sector project management is so bad. But thats another story.

Let me leave you with this:

Don't take my word for it. Find Ireland on this graph below, and you may be pleasantly surprised. And this is EU level data, not anything that may have been manipulated here in Dublin. And stop worrying for Christ's sake, go out and make some money for yourself while the good times roll.

How this gets so many likes from Irish people is shocking . They’d probably the be first to call themselves patriots yet fawn over a … who implied we’re inferior and who sent death squads to murder us in our droves.

Increasing our airport capacity whilst culling cattle is another anomaly