The Big Bailout of the Eurozone (Another crisis coming? - Seriously)

[NetNitrate]

Country seriously needs an election before any four year budget is put through or before we sign up to any bailout. Right now country is being bullied by the government and Europe annd other large special interests. An election would send out a message that we have no intention of rushing into anything. Plus all those countries rushing to lend us money are doing it to make a few bob, not for "a friend in need" reasons. It's like when you're buying a house, the mortgage companies are all fighting for the business and then the mortgage companies sell off the debt to make more on that debt and then the debt gets sold many times over. So what you have is all these leeches making money on the bailout. UK is borring money to lend to us. And they will profit on that despite what Cameron says. It's a microcosm for what caused the global financial crisis in the first place.

[gallsman]

Heard a guy on primetime last night saying that even at 5% interest it would equate to 4 Billion a year on service of the interest alone. That is aprox 5 grand for every person working to service the debt alone  never mind normal tax collection for everyday running of the country.

Mass emigration on the cards once again

True, but the idea is that 5% is considerably cheaper than what is available on the bond markets.

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

[Donkeywalloper]

Heard a guy on primetime last night saying that even at 5% interest it would equate to 4 Billion a year on service of the interest alone. That is aprox 5 grand for every person working to service the debt alone  never mind normal tax collection for everyday running of the country.

Mass emigration on the cards once again

True, but the idea is that 5% is considerably cheaper than what is available on the bond markets.

Accepted. However that is based on current levels. Increases in unemployment figures, increases in emigration all increase the 5k total per head of working population further reducing the Goverment tax take for day to day business.  Its just not affordable. Thats also under the assumption that these clowns are able to negociate down to 5%. Wouldnt suprise me in the slightest if it was higher. Would you lend money to this group in power ?

Default is what most analysts i have seen recently seem to think what will happen anyway, if not now, not too far down the line. Its simply unaffordable.

[Franko]

Heard a guy on primetime last night saying that even at 5% interest it would equate to 4 Billion a year on service of the interest alone. That is aprox 5 grand for every person working to service the debt alone  never mind normal tax collection for everyday running of the country.

Mass emigration on the cards once again

True, but the idea is that 5% is considerably cheaper than what is available on the bond markets.

Yes but still completely unserviceable so pointless.

[An Gaeilgoir]

Holy Christ, listening to the cuts in the public sector.............. i think liberty house will implode!!!

[Declan]

http://www.budget.gov.ie/The%20National%20Recovery%20Plan%202011-2014.pdf

Read and weep

[An Gaeilgoir]

SIPTU (Jack o Connor) calls is "a declaration of war on the ordinary working person". Nothing like understating things now that the Croke Park agreement is still in place.

[Joxer]

CAnt get into here in work..

Brief summary anyone?

[give her dixie]

Just watching the BBC News and all over the UK thousands of students are protesting cuts.
Will there be any chance that people in Ireland will take to the streets?
I know there is a protest planned for this Saturday in Dublin, and I was wondering if many will bother to show up.

Will the Irish take to the streets in the same manner in which the French, Greeks and Portugese have?

[Declan]

I know there is a protest planned for this Saturday in Dublin, and I was wondering if many will bother to show up.

I'll be there

Summary here - http://www.budget.gov.ie/Leaflet.pdf

[AbbeySider]

I know there is a protest planned for this Saturday in Dublin, and I was wondering if many will bother to show up.

I'll be there

Summary here - http://www.budget.gov.ie/Leaflet.pdf

The same one organised by Jim Corr?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWQ6LXhKmaE

[Bogball XV]

Random Thoughts2. Reversing the bank guarantee and uncoupling the irish bank bondholder debt and sovereign bondholder debt is both pragmataic and morally justified. The bank bondholders have the option of converting their debt to equity but they have no right to expect future generations of Irish taxpayers to repay their loans. In reality both equity and bond holders in Irish banks  have been wiped out. A new good bank should be created.

If we could just do this it'd be half, nay, 90% of the battle.

The current guarantee runs out in december - is that right?  Let it be then, no more extensions.  We can't pay anyway, so there is no other option.

Vincent's show was very scary last night eh?  I want yer man somerville in the next cabinet, he's impressive, just that look he has would scare any negotiators into submission.

[Hardy]

SUMMARY

Competitiveness, Growth and Employment
•   Reduce the minimum wage by €1 to €7.65;
•   Reform welfare system to incentivise work and eliminate unemployment traps;
•   Complete a review to eliminate anomalies in Registered Employment Agreements REAs) and Employment Regulation Orders (EROs) within three months;
•   Reinvigorate activation policies to ensure that unemployed people can make a swift return to work.
•   Promote rigorous competition in the professions and measures to reduce legal costs;
•   Take decisive actions to reduce waste and energy costs faced by businesses including the development of Smart Grids and renewable energy;
•   Enhance availability of technological infrastructure, in particular next generation broadband networks;
•   Lead efforts to reduce office rents in both the private and public sectors; and
•   Increase efficiency in public administration to reduce the costs for the private sector.
•   Implement sector-specific measures to assist an increase in exports as well as an increase in domestic demand.
•   Support innovation through the innovation fund, other enterprise supports and the tax system, and encourage small business development.

Expenditure Savings
•   Reduce current expenditure by €7 billion by 2014, bringing spending back to 2007 levels;
•   Reduce the cost of the public sector pay and pensions bill, social welfare, and public service programmes;
•   Achieve savings in social welfare expenditure of €2.8 billion by 2014 through a combination of enhanced control measures, labour activation, structural reform measures, a fall in the Live Register, and, if necessary, further rate reductions;
•   Cut public service staff numbers by 24,750 over 2008 levels, back to levels last seen in 2005;
•   Reduce the public sector pay bill by about €1.2 billion between 2010 and 2014;
•   Make more effective use of staffing resources with redeployment of staff within and across sectors of the public service to meet priority needs;
•   Reform work practices to provide more efficient public services with scarcer resources;
•   Introduce a reformed pension scheme for new entrants to the public service and reduce their pay by 10%;
•   Introduce a pension deduction for public service pensioners to yield €100 million in savings;
•   Reduce non-pay and non-social welfare spending by €3 billion over the period;
•   Increase the student contribution to the costs of third level education;
•   Introduce water metering by 2014; and
•   Reform and update the existing budget system beginning in Budget 2011.

Revenue measures
•   Maintain the 12½% corporation tax rate; this will not change;
•   Raise €5 billion over the period of the Plan - 40% of measures will be front-loaded;
•   Raise €1.9 billion through income tax changes;
•   Implement pension-related tax changes to yield €700 million, with €240 million in tax savings on the public service pension-related deduction;
•   bolish/curtail a range of tax expenditures yielding €755 million;
•   Increase the standard rate of VAT from 21% to 22% in 2013, with a further increase to 23% in 2014. These changes will yield €620 million

[thejuice]

The Irish government announces its austerity plan

Among the spending cuts and tax rises are a reduction in the minimum wage, a new property tax and thousands of public sector job cuts.

The four-year plan is designed to save the state 15bn euros ($20bn; £13bn).

The government is also negotiating a bail-out package with the EU and IMF, expected to be worth about 85bn euros.

Tax rises

The recovery plan outlines plans to cut 24,750 public sector jobs, achieve savings in social welfare spending of 2.8bn euros, and raise an additional 1.9bn euros from income tax.

The government will also reduce the minimum wage by 1 euro, to 7.65 euros an hour, and raise VAT from 21% to 22% in 2013, with a further increase to 24% in 2014.

It said it wants to protect health and education spending as far as it can.

The government also said it would maintain the country's low level of corporation tax at 12.5%. Many commentators in the run up to the plan said raising this rate could be an easy way for the state to increase revenues.

Finance minister Brian Lenihan said the government would also introduce a property tax, called a site value tax, which will cost most homeowners up to 200 euros by 2014.

He added that the spending cuts would be concentrated in areas of highest spending - pay, pensions and social welfare.

"It is important to understand these are key drivers to expenditure and will be curtailed," he told a press conference.

'Future hope'

In total, the spending cuts will amount to 10bn euros while tax rises will bring in a further 5bn euros.

The government has already implemented 15bn euros of cuts since the onset of the global financial crisis.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen said he hoped the plan would "bring certainty to our people to make sure they have hope for the future".

"We can and will pull through as we have in the past. We love our country and we want to make sure our children have a future here too."

He added that the plan was also "about growing the economy and identifying those sectors of the economy that are proving to be successful".