End of the Free State.

[Rossfan]

You still have me lost on your last point smelmoth.
Impressed with your list of States though.

[Snapchap]

They mainly ignored them till 1969 though.

And they (the free state) didn't ignore the six counties post-1969? Pull the other one ffs. Unless total disassociation and ambivalence/disdain can be done without first stopping the "ignoring" strategy first.

[Rossfan]

Unless total disassociation amd ambivalence/disdain can be done without first stopping the "ignorong" first.

Can anyone translate or decipher the above??

[easytiger95]

Largest growth rates in Europe

Growth rates are snapshots. East Timor, Tajikistan, Malawi, Chad, Djibouti, Nepal, Cambodia, Vietnam, Bolivia, indonesia, Mongolia, Dominican Republic, Fiji, Bangladesh, Mauritania, Zambia, DRC, Grenadia, Barbuda, Congo, Benin, Ivory Cost, Bhutan, Nigeria, Cameroon, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Myamar, Georgia, Kenya, Laos, the Maldives, Namibia, Iceland, Mali, Turkmenista, Uzbekistan, Panama, Niger, Rwanda, Palau, Philipines, Togo, Mozambique, St Kitts & Nevis all have higher growth rates than ROI. Does that mean that their economies are better?

Budget surplus next year,

The key to ecomomic success, believe it or not, is running a deficit but a deficit that you can afford

Job announcements every other day etc etc.

Right up there with the countries in the first list

Not doing too bad in 2015/16 either.

And who will win the All Ireland Minor Football champioship. Tell us now and we can stake the bail out funds on it.

No sectarian marching season

Thank jaysus

little paramilitary racketeering

But still too much

no welfare cuts.....

I think you know the point you are missing with this one

No it does not mean their economies are any better than Irelands - which is why any comparison on growth rates should be done between similarly developed countries ie EU members or OECD members. Compared with those countries, in spite of the greatest banking collapse in history (proportionally), we are over achieving quite spectacularly at the moment.

I'm not fool enough to attribute this solely to the actions of the present government, or to ignore all the outside factors that are contributing, but in both parts of this island we don't give ourselves enough credit. It would be criminal to have suffered the terrible deprivation and emigration that we did (and still do, unfortunately) without at least acknowledging that our own ingenuity and resilience is a large part of the recovery that is hopefully going to improve our quality of life.

[foxcommander]

Unless total disassociation amd ambivalence/disdain can be done without first stopping the "ignorong" first.

Can anyone translate or decipher the above??

You're an ignorant free stater.

[omaghjoe]

Apart from the obvious problem of the boom and bust cycle with the southern economy which is more akin to the pattern of early 20century developed economies that anything else. The next biggest problem with the economic stats on the Irish Republic is that much of the economic activity is driven by multinational companies that pay next to feck all in tax to the Irish exchequer. This pushes much of the onus for tax contribution onto their employees which in turn have to be high to provide the necessary social services and infrastructure investment and the result is there is a serious shortfall in comparison to other countries of comparable GDP to Ireland.

Ireland should be well placed to provide public services to its population. Being strategically positioned in the North Atlantic there is no need for a military since the sovereignty of the Dail government can get a free ride from from NATO and diplomatic trade leverage in the form of the EU. And indeed quite sensibly the defence forces consist of two sling shots and a crossbow, so there is virtually nothing spent on that. So there should be plenty to spent on social services right?...Well it would seem SS are relatively poor in comparison to other countries near the top of the GDP tables, which also I might add have considerable spending on defence in comparison to the Irish Republic. A noticeable example of poor services is the Health System in the South, something which I think we all would put at the top or near of the list of our political priorities, however its piss poor and the users even have to supplement it.

BTW I am no Shinner , in fact ideally I am opposed to sovereign nationalism as a concept but I recognise that it is the vehicle for which Western and indeed Global civilisation uses to govern and is a vital component for the cohesion of many societies, including our own, so its not goin anywhere soon.

[mikehunt]

On the ball as usual Armaghniac.
Largest growth rates in Europe, Budget surplus next year,Job announcements every other day etc etc.
Not doing too bad in 2015/16 either.
No sectarian marching season, little paramilitary racketeering, no welfare cuts.....

Plenty done, a lot to do.
Meanwhile in Basket case land all that matters is flegs and preventing same sex marriage.

"Budget Surplus next year" statement begs so many questions. We have to borrow to cover public sector pay increases but this is ok cos in Noonan's own words "everyone else does it". Do these clowns forget we were bailed out because of similar govt policy with de bert and McCreevy. Wouldn't mind but it wasn't that long ago the Troika were in town.

[smelmoth]

It is logical to expect the fastest rate of growth in the period immediately after a collapse. Don't get carried away with snapshot figures.

[easytiger95]

It is logical to expect the fastest rate of growth in the period immediately after a collapse. Don't get carried away with snapshot figures.

Not really as Japan proved in the 90s and noughties - two lost decades.

[Eamonnca1]

... in both parts of this island we don't give ourselves enough credit.

Careful. I got shouted down the other day for daring to suggest such a thing.

[brokencrossbar1]

Ireland, north and south will never be free and truly independent, it simply is not possible.  Like every small nation in the world that is not totally self sufficient it is economically and therefore politically dependent on the whims of larger trading nations, ie USA, UK, Germany et al.  People may use a different currency and sing a different national anthem but 'nationalism' as seen by the men who died in 1916 and 1919 to 21 is gone.  This island is the bitch of Obama, Merkel and Cameron and will continue to be one for the generations to come.

[ONeill]

South Armagh is fairly independent though. Own laws, taxes, trade policies...

[brokencrossbar1]

South Armagh is fairly independent though. Own laws, taxes, trade policies...

And it would be the same no matter whose head was on the coin.

[smelmoth]

It is logical to expect the fastest rate of growth in the period immediately after a collapse. Don't get carried away with snapshot figures.

Not really as Japan proved in the 90s and noughties - two lost decades.

Would you consider Japan typical?

Put it another way. If you achieve 5% growth every year for 10 years the GDP expansion required to sustain this in year 11 is the same that would be required to generate 8% economic growth in year 1. Basic compounding. 5% of nothing is nothing and all that

[smelmoth]

You still have me lost on your last point smelmoth.
Impressed with your list of States though.

re Welfare Cuts - assessing welfare cuts has to be done in the context of what welfare provision is there in the first place. That is the total welfare package including what services you have to pay for.