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

according to Indeed, there are 17,000 jobs within 35 miles of London on over £60,000 per year. In fairness there are only 2000 jobs within 35 miles of Manchester above £60k and 400 jobs over £60k around Edinburgh, but I would hardly say the only jobs are low paid.

it is a typical O’Leary tantrum, but in fairness, our UK business is facing an increase in employment costs of around £3m, so are in the process of cutting the capital budget to try and offset some of this. This will mean two of the three office refurbishments will get canned. Hardly the economic stimulation that Labour promised.

We are in the eu but we are closely aligned with us tech corporations whether trump will try and screw this up with extra trade tariffs is hard to say now .read the news in the uk the uk economy is struggling the only idea they have is to loosen planning regs and to raise taxs as much as possible this does not work as companys can just choose to leave to go to low tax countrys rich people can just move to france or italy .

we are facing a world where tech is more important ai could replace millions of jobs like office workers editors artists middle class jobs that the government relys on to get tax revenue. manufacturing jobs in the uk are almost nonexistant

American companys are leading the pace in ai tech apart from deepseek in china which is free to use.

oleary knows it takes 20 years to build an runway and it,ll be funded by charging airlines a levy.

does london even need another runway.

work from home is now standard people mostly travel nowadays to go on holiday

theres alot of low paid jobs in the uk theres alot of crime in the citys its not a great place to live unless you are middle class and on a good salary.

ireland is booming more companys would come here but are put off by high rental costs

if the uk is black ireland is white the uk is like ireland in the 80s its economy is in mediocre condition

third richest per capita after Luxembourg and Singapore.

That tells you everything you need to know I guess.

maybe not, but when the measure of a nations per capita wealth is GDP and the three countries with the highest per capita wealth in the world are all notorious tax havens, it does make you question the basis by which Ireland is claiming to be a rich nation.

No, GDP is a measure of production, not wealth. That production may not be owned by people in that country, so is making people in other countries wealthy. Ireland is a rich country because even when you adjust GDP it is in the ballpark of West European countries.

Ireland is well off because we are in the eu and we have managed to attract American corporations to set up here read any article about UK labour policy's they are simply raising tax's in order to pay for public services and hoping that ai or some other industry can revive the UK economy. Meanwhile company's are moving to eu countries to access the eu marketplace Brexit has been an economic disaster and they are still trying to get control of immigrants arriving in boats from france

it’s the tax loopholes they are here for, not the actual tax rate. The same goes for Luxembourg.

no they don’t. Google already employ 2000 people in Budapest and Dell employ 3000 in Bratislava. Both companies conduct job interviews in English to ensure the candidate can speak the language well. Luxembourg is home to Amazons European head office.

I helped set up a shared services centre for a global company in Budapest and the number of highly educated English speaking graduates coming out of universities there is enormous. What they don’t have is a convenient tax environment and compliant government that allows them to wash their profits before sending them off to the Caymen islands.

The major economies in Europe are struggling at the moment and Ireland is very much bucking the trend.

If people pay 350k for an ordinary house that's a sign of a booming economy .yes I know there's various tax shelters that can attract companies it's not exactly a secret .the UK is not in the eu why don't they attract more American company's . I remember the Celtic tiger if you look at traffic the housing market it feels we are richer than the Celtic tiger years difference is there's not enough houses being built to keep up with demand

And the Celtic tiger came to a halt very quickly when the banks needed a bailout from the government .

Gen z had grown up with smartphones. Apps 24 .,7 internet they probably don't remember the Celtic tiger .

Getting mortgage approval does not help when there's only a tiny no of houses for sale at. Least in urban areas