Do you believe that we in Ireland are now richer than those in the UK?

I did not see the sky news countdown on New Years Eve, but I saw the RTE effort, and it was terribly depressing and amateurish.

The effort goes into Xmas and Patrick’s Day stuff here.

The lack of focus on NYE is just cultural. Christmas in France for example is rather a letdown but they go into a big deal NYE display in a lot of cities.

different places are just different on that topic.

I’m not really sure what ppl expect from RTE either. It’s not a big broadcaster. We tend to compare it with BBC. It’s more comparable to one of the Scandinavian scale public tv channels— they’re ok, but they’re not BBC either.

Agree with this. Ireland is expensive but poor value when compared to European countries other than the UK. It really doesn’t feel like a wealthy country especially when you go outside of Dublin (though Dublin city centre - not the Docklands - actually indicates the city is poverty stricken in contrast to many other European capitals in their city centres).

One of the noticeable things about comparable European countries like Denmark, Germany and Switzerland in terms of individual spending power is that you can still see there is money in the country in the small villages; well maintained roads and pavements, clean, small businesses in the little villages, well serviced by public transport. In Ireland, like the UK, a lot of the small towns have terrible roads, no reliable public transport and are littered with discount stores and alcohol problems.

Seeing towns go mad over a new Pennys or a Lidl is not what wealthy countries do. Also, cramming all the designer clothes into one department store (Brown Thomas) as opposed to having stand alone Chanel, Gucci etc stores is another indicator that the place is not that rich.

Feels don't count. We can see the stark difference in terms of Ireland s surplus against the UK deficit.

UK deficit 2024- £3.72 billion

Irish surplus 2024- €9.9 billion

Ireland increased it's exported products by over 20%.

The difference is staggering.

Is the money well spent in Ireland - absolutely not but that's besides the point.

Ireland in terms of wealth is way ahead.

Long term Ireland will unify in all probability because economically is doing so much better.

In the UK there really is no hope for improvement

The South city area around Grafton St looks wealthy, the North area around O'Connell St looks like a different city altogether and is not in keeping at all with the overall wealth of Dublin.

Plenty of coastal and southside suburbs look and feel wealthy and clean, but agree a lot of rural areas look rundown across the country.

The absence of large stand alone shops like Chanel etc is more to do with our small population and available retail units in the city centre.

That would seem somewhat unlikely. True Trump may possibly try to entice some multinationals back to the US but most economic commentators that I have read argue he will not be successful.

The pull factors are still in Ireland's favour - low corporation tax, educated work force and access to the EU.

Most persuasive in my view is the investment already made in Ireland. It would be absurd for the FDI to abandon all that.

Ireland is a hub for high tech, IT, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, financial services and engineering.

Ireland continues to attract FDI and projections going forward are very good. Ireland is on course for very, very healthy and growing economy.

The Brits chose to leave the EU with the idea sold to them that it would be good for their economy and reduce immigration.

On both those fronts Brexit has proved to be ineffective.

As I say the mood in the UK is extremely pessimistic. As I write this sterling is falling like a stone. Their debt servicing costs is spiking.

They are very likely to need the assistance of the IMF within the next five or so years.

They are heading into the abyss and there is absolutely no hope for them.

Deep cuts and painful tax rises are the only things the Brits can look forward to.

They are only going to continue their long, long inexorable decline

Not a single fact in your last few points. Tell me how does the UK differ from any other large Eurozone economy at the moment.

London is a fabulous city and extremely wealthy the rest of the UK is very mixed.

Income inequality is much less here.

Its very hard to get a handle on what's going on Ireland and Dublin seems very American to me short term obsession with what's trendy be it economics culture or development.

Increased wealth in Ireland hasn't made us more self reliant the opposite in fact culture has become very whiney here, it's a crescendo of blame the government for everything.

Watching the UK reporting of the floods and extreme weather verses how it's reported here really brings this home.

NI is one of the poorest regions of the UK overall and has the lowest disposable income of all regions there.

Of course there are some wealthy areas, as with any country, but overall it is a heavily subsidised economy with very low economic productivity.

Even in the wealthy areas, the house prices won't be on par with Dublin, for instance.

At least they can rely on our air force to protect their skies and rescue their citizens if they suddenly find themselves in a conflict zone.

They can also marvel at our understanding of economies of scale which would conclude there is no point duplicating air force equipment and personnel who spend the majority of the time on standby anyway to protect what is essentially the same air space.

Ireland pays the RAF for the service they provide. The RAF need every penny they can get since their government is so broke.

Why would a small island need high speed rail when we're a country that can afford decent road infrastructure and who's peoples can afford decent cars.

I would say the UK and Ireland are equal if you compare middle class lifestyles. Its when you compare the people on social welfare that you see huge differences.

A lot of ex mining towns in the north of England like Hartlepool and Huddersfield are like war zones with feral youths roaming the streets ready to rip your head off. Every seaside town has huge unemployment now. The UK has very serious social issues in 2025.

The UK has serious financial issues now immigration is out of control the pound is falling in value Brexit has been a disaster the government is desperately looking around to increase taxs and reduce welfare payments the education system is mediocre with grade inflation . The UK would last a few weeks if attacked by Russia . London is wealthy but it is not enough to support the rest of the economy .the BBC and sky itv can still produce world class tv and films that are exported around the world

Our economy depends to a large extent to American corporations unfortunately Americans are under threat by climate change house prices are high but America is being hit by extreme weather droughts fires flooding extreme heat insurance companies are going out of business the latest fires in California cost 60 billion 10000 buildings destroyed in some of the most high class parts of California and Hollywood.

People in America are facing insurance costs as expensive as mortgage payments

Climate change could cause a recession in America our economy depends on the health of the American economy

Large parts of California has been reduced to rubble no fire department can deal with high winds and fires of that scale they can only hope the weather will change to tackle the fires

Walk down the high street in most English cities people are dressed a lot worse than those on Irish streets , they even look poorer and sader …..many many English have zero disposable income and losing a tenner would be a major tragedy for them ….. the rich have hoovered all the money out of the system

No Irish minister has ever said we pay the British to protect our airspace, do not be stupid.

https://www.rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/irish-airspace-and-waters-remain-europes-open-flank

I am anyways. Sure I'm a billionaire. Can't speak for the rest of ye plebs.

I looked online but can't find a source. I remember it was said long time ago on RTE news or Prime Time, one of those type shows.

It's more than likely the Irish Government pay something towards it but aren't making the details public.

Quite the opposite. Russia would last a couple of days if they attacked the UK.

The UK spends something like £54.2 billion per year (that is over 60,000,000,000.00 euro ) on defence each year. You seem to think we contribute towards that but you have no idea if it is €100, a thousand or ten thousand or more. If you are making a claim please find somewhere online to back it up. I'm sure a certain party here would get very upset and create a lot of noise it we were in fact contributing to H.M. armed forces, so your claim is hard to believe.

I don't know if the Government pays the Brits or not and it will probaby never be made public anyway if they do but its a sad state of affairs that we don't even have one fighter plane to patrol our own airspace.

We throw hundreds of millions every year at tin pot corrupt countries in so called overseas aid but spend diddly squat on our own defence.

David McWilliams I think might be the first high profile economist to say the quiet part out loud about the situation the UK is in with the public finances. He thinks it's quite likely they'll have to enter an IMF program within the next couple of years.

London is a whole different country from the rest of the UK. In the summer I dropped in for a night on the way home from Italy. I caught the Stansted express and changed at Tottenham Hale to get the underground. There were shocking scenes of deprivation and filth. Elderly people searching through bins, a tent in front of the station with a middle aged man half out of it lying among a litter of take away cartons while starlings helped themselves to the leftovers and the whole area heavily littered. It was an eye opener for me and I couldn't get away fast enough.

I don't get the "London is whole different from the rest of the country"

As far as I can see you are making the point Tottenham (London) was a kip.

How is therefore different from the rest of the country?

We might think tottingham is a kip but people from there might think Burnley is a kip in comparison.