Ireland - Hero to zero!

worldtraveller

Pobby wrote: »

Di dyou notice the rates of pay out there? Was nothing special.

I didn't really get involved in that, as I was generally only over there for a few days at a time, every few months, visiting customers. However, I do particularly remember the huge inflation in house prices that they all mentioned in that period.

The_White_Horse

i went last year - unbelievably expensive. they haven't had the half of it yet. when the chickens come home to roost they will be destroyed - you can't live like that - a pint costing 7 quid. its insane.

also the benefits and pensions were insanely high.

globalds

Last time I was there was January.
My work is construction related.
Things were better than they were last summer, but still tight. Work has picked up though.
A slow down was needed. Just like UK ..There was some stupid stuff going up that no one in there right mind would pay for.

nollag2006

The_White_Horse wrote: »

i went last year - unbelievably expenses. they haven't had the half of it yet. when the chickens come home to roost they will be destroyed - you can't live like that - a pint costing 7 quid. its insane.

also the benefits and pensions were insanely high.

Problem is the PR voting system that ensures that the lunatic fringe holding the balance of Power. Google "Jackie Healy Ray" to see the sort of idiot that the Irish government rely on, or have a look on YouTube at Paul Gogarty's outburst in the Dail

The net result is that teachers, civil servants, and nurses have some of the shortest working hours in Europe and the highest pay rates. A primary school teacher, with automatic pay increments, is paid in excess of £50k per annum by their mid-thirties. More senior jobs also are well paid - hospital consultants average in excess of £400k per annum.

Social welfare is also a HUGE problem. UB in Ireland is €220 per week, or €440 per couple (plus extra for kids), and it is paid out for 15 months, rather than 6, here in the UK.

The other side is that minimum wage is also far far higher than in the UK.

That country is in for a very severe downturn very soon. Thank goodness Thatcher broke the unions (Unite and the RMT being honourable exceptions), and that we didn't go into the Euro when the door was open.

bigheadxx

leveller2911 wrote: »

We can argue the toss for months to come whether or not the UK was/is in a better position than Ireland(IMO we are similar, after the election we will see the true picture of the state of the UK, after all we can't keep printing money) but no one can deny the "Celtic Tiger " is dead n buried.Its interesting to see the SNP have gone a bit quiet on the subject.I remember them singing Irelands praises and saying how and independant Scotland could become part of the Celtic Tiger.

Ireland received billions in grants from the EU ,now we have Eastern European countires getting all the grants Ireland will be forgotton,quietly ignored by the EU until the Irish people sort out the mess through future years of hardship and high taxes.
Its the same old story, the masses made to suffer by poor leadership and the political elite more interested in making themselves richer.

Its not really as simple as that, for a start the UK is still a relatively big player, certainly compared to Ireland and was a rich country before the boom whereas Ireland wasn't.

90% of Irish exports are by foreign owned companies, mostly US, of the remaining 10% most of them are related to food and agriculture and over 50% go to the UK.

Ireland can't generate an export led recovery as it is in the EURO and its main export market, the UK has devalued its currency by 25%

Pobby

Madness did abound there. Certainly with housing. Also madness got into folks minds. A customer of mine thought it OK to get a BTL and subsidise it by 700 euro a month. His plan was to buy 5. Think he may have changed his mind.

BleepinHell

nollag2006 wrote: »

Problem is the PR voting system that ensures that the lunatic fringe holding the balance of Power. Google "Jackie Healy Ray" to see the sort of idiot that the Irish government rely on, or have a look on YouTube at Paul Gogarty's outburst in the Dail

The net result is that teachers, civil servants, and nurses have some of the shortest working hours in Europe and the highest pay rates. A primary school teacher, with automatic pay increments, is paid in excess of £50k per annum by their mid-thirties. More senior jobs also are well paid - hospital consultants average in excess of £400k per annum.

Social welfare is also a HUGE problem. UB in Ireland is €220 per week, or €440 per couple (plus extra for kids), and it is paid out for 15 months, rather than 6, here in the UK.

The other side is that minimum wage is also far far higher than in the UK.

That country is in for a very severe downturn very soon. Thank goodness Thatcher broke the unions (Unite and the RMT being honourable exceptions), and that we didn't go into the Euro when the door was open.

Wow! Could I go to the I R and get benefits?
We are told lots of Eastern Europeans come here for benefits, why not
Ireland? I think I could stay off the beer and live on that

nollag2006

BleepinHell wrote: »

Wow! Could I go to the I R and get benefits?
We are told lots of Eastern Europeans come here for benefits, why not
Ireland? I think I could stay off the beer and live on that

Plenty did - indeed there was a long known wheeze to collect benefits on both sides of the border

The Irish govt have since changed the rules due to welfare tourism, and you have to be resident for two years to get Irish benefits. Still easy to abuse though, if you can claim to have been living with a friend or family member.

As for foreign nationals on the dole over there, the problem is that €220 a weeek for lying in bed is an awful lot more than average wages in many European countries.

The result is that there is a perverse incentive for many stay on in Ireland, esp those with kids who could benefit from the good free education system, to profit from the high benefits rates.

worldtraveller

Ireland's finance ministry and the International Monetary Fund sought to calm markets on Friday after a newspaper report on the possibility of an IMF bailout sent investors running for cover.

The cost of insuring Irish sovereign debt against default hit a record high and the Irish/German spread reached a euro lifetime peak after the Irish Independent newspaper said Ireland was "perilously close" to calling in the IMF and the EU.

The IMF told Reuters it did not foresee that its financial assistance would be needed for Ireland and praised Dublin's efforts at propping up its banking system.

Ireland's Department of Finance slammed the Irish Independent article.

"There is absolutely no truth to a rumor concerning external assistance. It is based on a local misinterpretation of a research report," a spokesman said in a statement.

The newspaper used a report from Barclays Capital as the basis for the article. Barclays said Ireland's liquidity position was comfortable but if unexpected banking losses emerged or economic conditions deteriorated outside help may be needed.

"The report is a lot more measured than what has been reflected in the newspaper," said Geraldine Concagh, a senior economist in Allied Irish Banks. "The market is very nervous at the moment."

A combination of costly bank bailouts, anemic growth and the worst budget deficit in the EU have stoked fears of a full-blown debt crisis and Finance Minister Brian Lenihan is under pressure to ramp up efforts to get the finances in order.

Earlier this week, Lenihan said a 3 billion euros fiscal adjustment target for the 2011 budget was a minimum but his junior coalition Green Party colleagues want that to be the maximum, setting them on a potential collision course.

"We hope that it will be kept to 3 billion and we will be doing our very best (to keep it at 3 billion)," Mary White, the deputy leader of the Green Party, told national broadcaster RTE.

The government has a wafer-thin majority in parliament and already faces a tough task selling more austerity measures to an angry electorate.

Analysts say this year's budget deficit could reach around 25 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) including the one-off costs associated with bank bailouts.

Even without the one-off bank bill, the shortfall is still expected to be around 10 percent next year on an underlying basis, over three times an EU limit of 3 percent, according to the latest Reuters poll.

"It really is in the government's court to deliver on the goods. Most other countries already have their budgets in place," said Ciaran O'Hagan, strategist with Societe Generale.

The Irish credit default swap, a gauge of the cost of insuring the sovereign's debt against default within five years, hit a record high of 425 basis points, about 38 bps up on the day, according to CDS monitor Markit.

The Irish 10-year bond yield climbed to highs around 6.5 percent, driving the yield premium that investors demand over German Bunds up to 410 basis points, up 31 bps on the day and a euro lifetime high.

Reuters

bendix

Why wouldn't the expect an IMF bailout. The so-called Celtic economic miracle was based almost exclusively on substantional grants and benefits from the EU and not at all on some Irish miracle.

The miracle - if it exists - is how the Irish convinced the world it was a real boom.