The HSE is hopelessly overstaffed at Administration and Management level, Its a great myth going around that the HSE is underfunded, In fact the HSE could eliminate waiting lists if there financial resources were spent more efficiently eg sack at least 50% of administrators and Management in the HSE.
Also another myth going around is that the HSE is understaffed in terms of nurses, Ireland actually has one of the highest ratios of nurses to population in the OECD, It comes down to demarcation and the entrenched opposition of the Nursing unions to changing work practices.
If the political will was there, waiting lists could be eliminated, instead what we get is more comments like "more money must be made available to the Health services". Health spending was massively increased when Brian Cowen, Micheal Martin and Mary Harney were Health Ministers. It was frittered away and even if health spending was doubled overnight, It would still be largely pissed away.
Having the state involved in healthcare has been a disaster, say what you like about the Catholic Church but the Nuns knew how to run the hospitals.
So a predicted Government debt of around 98-99% for 2015 is sustainable in your opinion? Yes, I'm well aware the economy is growing, in 2012 Government debt was around 124% of GDP, thankfully now falling.
Between 2009-14, Capital expenditure was reduced by over 60%, surely It would have been sensible to make deeper cuts to Current Expenditure especially in Social Welfare and the Public sector pay and pensions bill?
Will anyone ask Yanis how he managed to be even more incompetent than previous Finance Ministers? He was completely out of his depth as Greek Finance Minister.
Responsible for
1) The Introduction of capital controls in Greece. 2) Billions in deposits fleeing the Greek banks. 3) Decline in the Greek economy in 2015.
The vast majority of Catholic schools in Ireland these days are lay run, there are very few Christian Brothers left teaching in Ireland. Also church schools are shown to be far better academically than state or secular schools.
People are peeved off with the austerity from 2008-14, especially increased taxes and cuts to services.
Most People may want a United Ireland in the Republic but when asked whether they would be willing to pay increased taxes, I'd reckon the majority of people would be unwilling to pay increased taxes for a UI.
NI has a huge public sector compared to the Republic, around 27% of the workforce is employed in the Public sector compared to 19-20% in the South.
Also Public sector salaries in NI are substantially lower than in the Republic not to mention expensive public sector pensions as well. Bringing Public sector salaries into line with the Republic would mean extra taxes or cuts to services as well as the government taking on the costs of NI's public sector pension bill.
Social Welfare
Benefits up North are substantially lower than in the Republic, around 11% of the population in NI are on disability benefit which doesn't count in the unemployment stats. Added to that around 16-17% of the population are receiving the state pensions.
As with the public sector, bringing social welfare benefits into line with the Republic would require higher taxes and cuts to services.
As for Interest rates, they are controlled by the European Central Bank and they are already at all time lows.
If the government in the Republic was running up large budget surpluses annually and Government debt was below 25% of GDP then there would be a chance that a UI is affordable. However given the amount of government debt, around 100% of GDP or over €200 billion, a United Ireland is completely unaffordable.
Name me three of Sinn Fein's policies that actually work.
SF have been absolutely useless up North in Stormont along with the Unionists in fairness. Lucky they have Westminster to hold their hands in the form of handouts.
Less than 1% of mortgages than have been in arrears have resulted in the property been repossessed.
Ireland is one of the best countries in the World in which to fall into mortgage arrears. There needs to be more repos as a lack of repos is keeping house prices artificially high and preventing many First Time Buyers purchasing property.
I recently bought an apartment myself after putting down a decent deposit.
What concessions has the Syriza government got since January 2015? Are you aware that Government debt as a percentage of GDP is over 190% and is likely to hit over 200% next year in Greece. That compares to a predicted figure of 98-99% for year end 2015 in Ireland the possibility that it will fall below 95% in 2016.
Which country is in a better state economically Ireland or Greece?
The Greek economy was predicted to grow by over 3% in 2015 in late 2014, then the clueless communists in Syriza came to power last January and as a result of their incompetence the Greek economy is predicted to decline between 2-3% this year. In Ireland the economy is likely to grow by over 5% this year.
Alexis Tsipras and his former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis completely messed up between January-July 2015 and agreed to another bailout which includes tax rises and large scale privatisation.
Their government debt is unsustainable at over €320 billion and they will probably get a write off of at least 50% in the next few years but they will have to undergo some extreme austerity first which was completely against the Syriza manifesto.
Nothing more than buying votes, stupid to increase Public spending when there is still a large budget deficit. It means more borrowed money and governments shouldn't be borrowing money when It means the debt is passed onto future generations.
For the first 40 years of Independence Ireland was very badly run, dominated by the Catholic Church and the economic illiteracy of Eamon De Valera.
I think Independence would have come about eventually with Home Rule been firstly implemented and I reckon Ireland would have secured Independence post World War 2 as Britain was bankrupt.
Gerry Adams is a compulsive liar who has lied throughout his political career, he's a disgrace and if SF members and politicians had any backbone they'd have organised a ledaership challenge against him.
Mairia Cahill is far more credible regardless of her political beliefs.
I don't think Gerry was any intention of fading into the sunset if/when he steps down as SF leader, himself and the generation from the troubles will still be the main people within SF even if the younger generation takes over the leadership.
Keynesnian economics has never worked in Ireland, it was a spectacular failure in the 30's. late 70's and the 1980's. In 1987 Ray McSharray as Minister for Finance cut public spending quite drastically, guess what happened within 2 years the budget deficit decline from over 7% of GDP to 1.7% by 1989, also the economy grew as the size of the state declined. As for Europe It's a dying continent economically thanks to heavy taxation, rigourous labour laws, heavy government bureaucracy, ageing populations, expensive public sectors and bloated welfare states. The sooner Europe embraces free market economics like Hong Kong and Singapore the better for their respective economies. In hong Kong and Singapore public spending as a percentage of GDP is less than 20% yet their respective societies enhoy some of the highest standards of living in the World. In Europe public spending as a percentage of GDP is over 40% in most states and indeed in France, Denmark and Sweden It's over 50% of GDP.
Up until the 1970's there was an extremely low rate of marital breakdown in working class urban areas. In 1973 the Lone Parent Family payment was introduced, gradually from the 1980's onwards the percentage of children in council estates and many other poorer areas brought up in council estates has been gradually increasing. That wouldn't be the case if the Lone parent family payment had been introduced.
kennyfromdublin Forum Posts (531)
RE: Should Ireland follow the UK and leave the EU.
Time to get out of the EU.