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Budget Ireland 2012: There will be tears

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Budget Ireland 2012: There will be tears

The budget for 2012 will be announced on 05+06 December and the government is busy drip-feeding us with bits of information. The process is a bit of a joke or a smart-ish ploy. All is meant to be secret until budget day, but people would get outraged an be shocked and in panic if they found out all the bad news on budget day. So instead, we find out bits of news every day so that we can mentally prepare for the bad news. ‘Pre-framing’ in NLP terms!

Unfortunately the news on budget day will be seriously bad no matter how you look at it: VAT increase, household charges, social welfare cuts, increase in duty on petrol, higher motor taxes and many more increases in charges and reductions in services will cost all of us a LOT of money. The 06 Dec will bring a lot of tears!

UPDATE:
Surprisingly (or not after all the planted leaks in the weeks before) the budget wasn’t as shocking as initially expected. Yes, cuts and tax increases were part of it as expected, but we were all nicely prepared for bad news. Pre-framing works!!

Economy, Taxes, , ,

Presidential Election – New Nomination Rules

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Presidential Election – New Nomination Rules

The government will debate and most likely introduce new rules for a presidential election this week. The new rules mean that one additional option is added to the nomination process: In future a candidate can also be nominated by getting 10 000 signatures from supporters.
Not really relevant for another 7 years, but a good idea.
If they now change the rule that you have to be an Irish citizen to apply, I might go for it myself the next time. :-)))

Elections, Politics, President,

Decentralisation Project terminated

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Decentralisation Project terminated

The government’s decentralisation project is finally being more or less terminated. It never made any sense, was a failed Fianna Fail idea from the start and was only invented to please people outside of Dublin so that they would vote for Fianna Fail.
www.rte.ie/news/2011/1117/publicservice.html
Unfortunately, though, in quite a number of locations buildings or sites have been bought years ago (when they were most expensive) or long term leases have been signed. So this nonsensical idea will be with us and will cost us for quite some time.

Politics,

The new Irishness??

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
The new Irishness??

Ireland’s new president Michael D Higgins started his new 7 year job last Friday and as it is custom (and protocol), he started with a speech that outlined his approach to the job at a celebration in Dublin Castle.

The full speech is here: www.rte.ie/news/2011/1111/higgins_speech.html

It wasn’t the most momentous speech, but I guess an inauguration speech like that can’t easily be momentous.

However there was one outstanding aspect: Michael D Higgins talked about a rebuilding of Irishness, he mentioned the Irish diaspora and emigration. But with no word he mentioned us ‘New Irish’, who are not Irish citizens, but who nevertheless contribute regularly and consistently to the economy and culture in Ireland. No reference to the multicultural Ireland. No reference to imigration. He totally ignored that Ireland is NOT just filled with Irish citizens anymore.

Sure, we were not allowed to contribute at the presidential election, but that’s not enough of a justification to exclude hundreds of thousand of people in this ‘new’ Ireland.

EXclusion was not what I had expected from Michael D Higgins!

President

Banks vs the Government

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Banks vs the Government

In an unexpected move the European Central Bank (ECB) has reduced the interest rate last week from 1.5% down to 1.25%. (www.independent.ie/business/european/boost-for-mortgage-holders-as-ecb-cuts-interest-rates-2925263.html)

Since most banks in Ireland are now owned by the state, the Taoiseach Enda Kenny has warned the banks that laws could be introduced that would force the banks to pass on interest rate cuts if they don’t do that now. (www.independent.ie/national-news/pass-on-ecb-interest-rate-cut-kenny-warns-banks-2926680.html)
And what did most banks? They ignored the warning! I guess this “game” Bank vs Government resulted in a 1:0.

The AIB and the NIB have declared that they will not pass on the rate cuts, the ESB will pass them on and the Bank of Ireland has not made a statement yet, but there are expectations that they won’t pass on the cuts either. (www.rte.ie/news/2011/1109/mortgage-business.html)

Economy, Politics, , , ,
 
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