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

What we take for granted is still amazing to others. It took three years of living in desolate outback Australia to really appreciate how restorative and beautiful the greenery we have is.

Plus another thing I took for granted in the past is actually how colourful our towns can be, even if they're a bit run down compared to the uniform red brick of industrial Britain. There's whole new apartment blocks all around Britain that had to use red brick so as to not upset the industrial heritage look!!

David McWilliams shouldn't be throwing stones in glasshouses.

If it wasn't for our corporation tax racket, Ireland wouldn't be in any better of a position than the UK. Ireland collected €28bn in corporation tax last year while the UK collected €111bn. They collected about 4x more than us, but they have a population that is 13x larger.

If the rest of the world were to ever force a halt to the racket we've got going on, it'd be Ireland that was in need of IMF assistance.

colourful and fragrant. That’s certainly the phrases that spring to mind when I’m stepping over sleeping bags and trying not to choke on the smell of piss and vomit when I walk to the office from Connolly station.

Our countryside is beautiful, I love my spin around the Dublin and Wicklow mountains, it is stunning, but get out of the towns and cities in England and they have some equally stunning countryside and venture into wales and Scotland and you really get into the “breathtaking” area.

The UK economy is in decline Brexit was a mistake it makes it expensive and complicated for companys to trade with eu country's . Local council are having to cut back on basic services because they are short of money The labour governments policy is to talk about growth by lossening up regulations on planning and building and announcing a new runway .it takes 10 years to build a runway which is financed partly by extra tax's on airlines . The eu is in decline it's trying to compete with China who can make cheap electric cars .china has announced a new free deepseek ai app which is free . Brexit has damaged the UK economy while not stopping 1000s of illegal migrants from arriving on boats . Ireland is booming because we have an open economy in the eu with close ties to American tech company's .

London is doing ok because theres a lot of rich people living there and it has the financial industry . The problem with raising tax's is it encourages rich people to leave the UK

Yes theres loads of loopholes to avoid paying tax,s but the rich spend money in cafes restaurants and they employ people who pay tax on their salarys

With taxes on pay, plus council rates many low paid workers pay more tax that the rich. I'm not talking as a precentage of income but in actual gross amount.

Rich people don't do that enough for it to have any impact. And the tax take on those is tiny, and about to fall again.

Someone on 1m does not spend 20x as much on things like that than someone on 50k. Someone taking in 1bn does not spend 20,000x as much.

Trickle-down economics is a massive lie.

Your point on education is on point.

We need to ensure it is a priority for all.

The US and the UK have dumbed down education for decades.

One of the reasons the UK has resisted Schengen is the EU having eyes on the movements of non domicile evasion.

We're in Schengen Information System so it's not as easy. Mazers does help with cayman island accounts, but the level of facilitation that UK allows is piracy, old swashbuckling Britain.

https://ormsby-rhodes.ie/ireland-a-destination-for-non-doms/

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/13/uk-non-doms-uk-labour-tax-plans

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/personal-finance/tax-revenue-to-fall-as-non-dom-count-reaches-7-000-1.3775001

7000 non doms in Ireland in 2019 and no doubt increasing, 60 odd thousand in the UK and dropping. Proportionately that means more non doms here.
Care to explain what you were waffling on about Schengen for?

Or maybe explain why the Irish government actually went to court to try and help apple avoid paying taxes? Ever heard of leprechaun economics?
Ireland is a fundamental part of the process that knowingly allows Multi national companies avoid paying taxes. Never wondered why one of our largest companies has only a handful of employees and is regulated at a law firm in Dublin?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/03/microsoft-irish-subsidiary-paid-zero-corporate-tax-on-220bn-profit-last-year

Britain is in an economic crisis so they they are raisimg tax's and reducing regulations to attract investment This is unlikely to work as they are outside the eu and the election of trump is going to make things worse in terms of trade with the UK meanwhile illegal migrants arrive every day I'm the UK. Rich people will continue to leave the UK talking about building a new runway at Heathrow does not help much