Analysis
- Easier for an unpopular government to go for broke12 Dec 2009In presenting this tough Budget the Cabinet felt free of having to worry about its public image, writes NOEL WHELAN
- Garda ballot a reckless move12 Dec 2009HAS NOTHING been learned from the Morris tribunal and its investigation of criminal behaviour by a number of rogue gardaí in Donegal? New disciplinary and administrative structures have been established. But the culture and arrogance that allowed Garda indiscipline to flourish in the first place and fostered a mindset that gardaí are above the law is reflected in a new challenge to the Garda Commissioner and to the authority of the Government.
- Worst over as Lenihan no longer staring into abyss
12 Dec 2009ANALYSIS: The economy may be on an upward trajectory but there is more pain to come, writes
PAT McARDLE - Coalition delivered requisite Budget despite the odds12 Dec 2009While just over a week ago the Government lacked resolve, it has now introduced the harsh measures needed, writes STEPHEN COLLINS
- With taxpayers spared pain it was inevitable poor would pay12 Dec 2009Hard to see how welfare cuts can be justified in one of the world’s most under-taxed countries
- Budget 2010: the pain and the gain11 Dec 2009The ESRI’s TIM CALLAN , CLAIRE KEANE and JOHN WALSH assess how Budget measures affect households
- Online Q&A11 Dec 2009Our panel of experts took questions onlinefrom our readers. Below are excerpts from the session and the replies
- Time for mature reflection11 Dec 2009IT IS a time for cool, deliberate calculation as trade unions meet to consider their responses to the Budget. The sheer scale of retrenchment needed to produce savings of €4 billion in public expenditure, and the sacrifices involved for many people, is now becoming clear. Public sector workers will see their living standards fall. Welfare recipients will be hurt. Services will be cut. Yet strikes and industrial disruption will serve no useful purpose at a time which could be characterised as a national emergency.
- Lenihan must turn focus to job creation and enterprise stimulus11 Dec 2009ECONOMICS: WITH THREE budgets under his belt in little over 14 months, Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan has reached about the half-way point in the fiscal juggling required to restore our economic and fiscal stability, writes DAVID KENNEDY
- Lots of cuts, little inspiration10 Dec 2009THE STIMULUS was an immediate and startling success. In the Dáil bar, seats were removed entirely to make room for the hordes clamouring for the cheap drink. In the restaurant, the ominous Lenten offering of pancakes for breakfast gave way to turkey and ham for lunch.
- Many TDs swallowed the medicine - but will public?10 Dec 2009ANALYSIS: Politicians showed an acceptance of our precarious situation. We shall now see if such a view is widely shared, writes STEPHEN COLLINS
- The Minister for Finance did what he had to do10 Dec 2009ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: The worst may be over and one cannot fault the Minister for drawing attention to this piece of relatively ‘good news’, writes PAT McARDLE
- Public servants hardest hit in tale of two sectors10 Dec 2009ANALYSIS: For many who work in the private sector, this Budget may have no impact on household income, writes LAURA SLATTERY
- Unions angered by signal to unlink public pay and pensions
10 Dec 2009ANALYSIS: McLoone urges public servants and pensioners to mobilise against possible pension cuts, writes
MARTIN WALL - Broad cuts to social welfare leave older people unscathed10 Dec 2009ANALYSIS: Social welfare cuts hit many areas, including child benefit – but older people avoided the hit, writes DEAGLAN DE BREADUN
- A time to grin and bear it10 Dec 2009NEVER IN living memory has a government faced such challenges in framing a budget. This should be borne in mind now that the die is cast. The political team to deliver it were new and relatively inexperienced: Taoiseach Brian Cowen, Tánaiste Mary Coughlan, and Brian Lenihan in his first term at the Cabinet table. The choices were grim and the consequences for Ireland’s reputation, both domestically and, more importantly internationally, will determine the future of this State for a generation.
- Ministers wear glum expressions as public waits to wear hairshirt9 Dec 2009DÁIL SKETCH: MINISTERS HAD universally glum expressions yesterday when they sat next to an equally glum Taoiseach for Opposition leaders’ questions.
- No express prohibition on right of gardaí to strike9 Dec 2009ANALYSIS: GARDAÍ DO not lose their status as citizens on appointment to the Garda. However, as members of a disciplined force they must accept certain constraints on their legal rights and freedoms that otherwise attach to the ordinary citizen. One of these is the bar on trade union membership, writes DERMOT WALSH
- Decks cleared for budget9 Dec 2009ANALYSIS: THE COLLAPSE of the pay talks has put the Minister for Finance in a strong position and increased the certainty surrounding today’s budget. We can now be fairly certain that the vast bulk, perhaps all, of the €4 billion deficit-reduction package will come from cuts in spending, writes PAT McARDLE
- How to bring down public sector using the weapon of complaint9 Dec 2009NEWTON'S OPTIC: AS AN ordinary citizen, what are your options for a long and sustained campaign of resistance against the public sector unions?
- A budget triumphant in masking culpability9 Dec 2009BUDGET 2010 already is an enormous triumph. Irrespective of whether its public sector pay cuts cause public sector chaos (possible), irrespective of whether gardaí defy the State (unlikely), irrespective of whether it causes the fall of this Government (probable but not now), Budget 2010 already is a triumph, writes VINCENT BROWNE
- For all our sakes, let's get on with the surgery9 Dec 2009THERE WAS an old lady who lived next door when I was very young. She’d sit in front of the damp turf fire, keening, “We were brought into this world for pain and suffering, a stór. Pain and suffering!” It must have sunk in, because I failed to be convinced by the “I’m worth it” years and instead wake up this morning in a state of benign resignation rather than bitter resentment. Pain and suffering. Sure. Where do I sign?, writes SARAH CAREY
- Case for average public sector pay cut of 5% to 7% is compelling8 Dec 2009OPINION: The case for cutting public sector pay is almost unanswerable, writes JOHN O'HAGAN
- Outdated Dáil leaves budget free of scrutiny8 Dec 2009Endemic localism and our whip system ends up reducing budget day to a theatrical exercise in parliamentary voting, writes ELAINE BYRNE
- Government sacrificing reform on altar of pay cuts8 Dec 2009OPINION: The trade unions’ offer of public sector reform was a no-brainer but the Government just wants to drive down wages, writes PETER McLOONE
- Cowen will get little credit for taking hard decisions
7 Dec 2009OPINION: WHEN BRIAN Lenihan gets to his feet to deliver his budget speech on Wednesday, it will quickly become clear the Government has indeed lived up to its promise and delivered the harsh measures it has promised for many months – €4 billion in savings in the public purse, a key component of which is a €1.3 billion cut in the public sector pay bill, writes
HARRY McGEE - Levies for top earners unlikely, but PRSI ceiling may be raised7 Dec 2009ANALYSIS: Cuts to ministerial salaries will be part of Wednesday’s budget
- A time for leadership5 Dec 2009TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen has finally woken up to the reality that leadership can be more important than compromise and that a proposal to substitute 12 days of unpaid leave for pay cuts within the public service was undermining his authority with the electorate as a whole. Conflicting signals from the negotiations had generated public anger and so much unrest within Fianna Fáil that Cabinet members decided what was on offer was neither workable nor saleable. However, it would be premature to believe that yesterday’s position will be the story on Budget day.
- Ditching of unpaid leave saves face but is it too late?5 Dec 2009INSIDE POLITCS: A soft approach to the public sector appeared to aggravate an electorate grimly happy the State was set to act, writes STEPHEN COLLINS
- One suspects an enormous fudge in the notion of unpaid leave4 Dec 2009ECONOMICS: Given the recent history of public service reform in Ireland, new promises of reform sound hollow, writes
JIM O'LEARY
- Tax increases are the last resort of weak government4 Dec 2009ANALYSIS: Union claims about a pot of untaxed money just don’t wash . . . that said, tax hikes cannot be ruled out next week, writes PAT McARDLE
- A Government out of touch4 Dec 2009THE GOVERNMENT is dangerously out of step with public opinion, as Fianna Fáil backbenchers told it yesterday. People want the Government to get on with it: to introduce a budget next week with €4 billion in real and measurable savings so that we can start believing in ourselves again. The idea that the public service could offer 12 unpaid leave days as their contribution towards economic recovery was rejected by the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party. These TDs live in the real world. They know that the promise of future productivity never materialised in the benchmarking days of Bertie Ahern; it has to be agreed now in 2010. The political conditioning has been done. The real world, apparently, a realistic world, miles away from Leinster House.
- Union plan for unpaid leave fails to hit right note in Dáil
3 Dec 2009DÁIL SKETCH: THE CAROLS weren’t due to start until late in the afternoon, so when
The 12 Days of Christmas received an early outing in the unlikely setting of the Dáil chamber yesterday morning, it was greeted with a mixture of suspicion, disbelief and derision, writes
MIRIAM LORD - Realistic budget will reinvigorate economy3 Dec 2009OPINION: State can trade its way out of crisis if the Government supports business, spreads costs fairly and prioritises jobs, writes DANNY McCOY
- This budget will be tough but worst is yet to come
2 Dec 2009ANALYSIS: This budget, and the following three or four, will have to see public spending cut to the bone and taxes raised until the pips squeak, writes
PAT McARDLE - Poor must pay 'in the national interest'2 Dec 2009THE CRUMBLING status of Catholic bishops and the havoc wrought by the weather are not the only momentous changes happening. There is a consolidation of a social stratification and a capitulation to wealth and capital in ways that will affect this society for a long time and will worsen the lives of many, writes VINCENT BROWNE
- Cowen determined to do deal, even at the cost of diluting the savings target2 Dec 2009ANALYSIS : The Taoiseach has been receptive to any way of avoiding a confrontation with the unions, writes STEPHEN COLLINS
- Government should stand down shortly28 Nov 2009A new administration would be better able to lead us out of this economic mess
- Ministers and backbenchers braced for budget backlash28 Nov 2009Public anger at the measures in next month’s budget is likely to be intense
- Deficit is unsustainable but cuts must be seen to be fair28 Nov 2009INSIDE POLITICS: For the budget to be widely accepted, those responsible for the economic crisis must be held accountable
- Both public sector and Government must face reality27 Nov 2009ECONOMICS: The best that can be expected is a deal for €1.3 billion in public- sector pay cuts, but this is nowhere near enough, writes PAT McARDLE
- No silver bullet rescue from fiscal predicament26 Nov 2009ANALYSIS: Some headline-grabbing budget options would unfortunately make no overall difference to the task to hand for Brian Lenihan, writes PAT McARDLE
- Striking a deal for a fairer society26 Nov 2009OPINION: One strike down, another to come. Amid all the egos and injustice, where does fairness fit in, asks MALCOLM Mac LACHLAN
- Strikes no answer to crisis25 Nov 2009AT A time when social solidarity and a sense of personal responsibility are needed as never before, employees in the most protected sector of the economy have behaved selfishly. A one-day strike by a quarter of a million State workers – and the threat of more to come – has damaged our international reputation and made the task of economic recovery even more difficult. When all the rhetoric and special pleading by trade union leaders is stripped away, what is left is the unattractive face of mé féinism.
- Government and unions consider the alternatives25 Nov 2009ANALYSIS: The one-day strike is over and talking will resume. Possible compromises are emerging, writes MARTIN WALL .
- Surveys find public sector workers are better paid24 Nov 2009Public sector pay and benefits are markedly superior to those in the private sector, even allowing for differences between the two workforces
- How to fix a rich but unequal country25 Nov 2009If the top earners paid 43 per cent of their income in taxes and levies, a further €3.2bn could be raised, writes VINCENT BROWNE
- Finally facing up to issue of under-taxation21 Nov 2009Brian Lenihan this week signalled a willingness to reverse his party’s irresponsible policies, writes GARRET FITZGERALD
- Wealthy pay most tax? This simply is not true19 Nov 2009OPINION: No alternative? There is a way other than the Government’s proposed slash-and-cut budget, writes ANNE COSTELLO
- Lenihan has no choice but to stick to his guns
13 Nov 2009ANALYSIS: Department of Finance figures show massive cuts are required just to stand still on day-to-day spending
PAT McARDLE - Lenihan brave to risk unpopularity for country's good14 Nov 2009INSIDE POLITICS: Bertie Ahern’s populist pandering got us into this mess but Brian Lenihan deserves credit, writes STEPHEN COLLINS
- Budget must not ignore plight of the working poor12 Nov 2009ANALYSIS: IN THE run-up to the most swingeing budget of the 21st century, rarely a day passes without someone warning that “the financially vulnerable” must be protected. This sentiment is laudable. Every civilised society should take steps to protect its weakest members, writes SUZANNE KELLY
- Tough budget needed to stave off grimmer future4 Nov 2009ANALYSIS: IRELAND IS experiencing a horrendous recession. There has been a sharp decline in employment and output since 2007. Unemployment has grown rapidly, while many opt to exit the labour force or emigrate. Accordingly, decisions about economic policy have rarely been as important, writes PHILIP LANE
- Tax on child benefit fairest for low-income families27 Oct 2009OPINION: WITH INTENSE pressure to cut Government spending, child benefit – which goes to all families with children regardless of income – is very much in the firing line. While cuts in social welfare rates generally have not been ruled out, it has been signalled that child benefit will certainly be targeted, write TIM CALLAN and BRIAN NOLAN
- Public purse empty only because we will not fill it28 Oct 2009AFTER 13 days of sitting, at a time of the gravest national crisis in generations, the Dáil adjourned at 9.40pm on Wednesday last, October 21st, and will not convene again until next Tuesday, November 3rd (having been absent for 10 weeks previously). The Finance Committee which is going through the Nama Bill did sit throughout Thursday and convened again yesterday but only 43 TDs were listed as having attended and only 24 of these (out of 166) contributed to the debate – a further five uttered a heckle, in most instances a single heckle, writes VINCENT BROWNE
