Daft Property - Irish Property News

Strikes no answer to crisis... AT A time when social solidarity and a sense of personal responsibility are needed as never before, employees in the most protected sector of the economy have behaved selfishly. A one-day strike by a quarter of a million State workers – and the threat of more to come – has damaged our international reputation and made the task of economic recovery even more difficult. When all the rhetoric and special pleading by trade union leaders is stripped away, what is left is the unattractive face of mé féinism. Public sector workers can argue they are not responsible for the recession and that they have already been forced to pay a pension levy. But their anger at the banking sector; at the Government’s mishandling of the situation and the various regulatory failures that contributed to our current difficulties is shared by workers in the private sector and does not exempt them from the tough fiscal actions that are now required to correct the public finances. Jus...

Fiscal ruin of the Western world beckons... For a glimpse of what awaits Britain, Europe, and America as budget deficits spiral to war-time levels, look at what is happening to the Irish welfare state... Events have already forced Premier Brian Cowen to carry out the harshest assault yet seen on the public services of a modern Western state. He has passed two emergency budgets to stop the deficit soaring to 15pc of GDP. They have not been enough. The expert An Bord Snip report said last week that Dublin must cut deeper, or risk a disastrous debt compound trap. A further 17,000 state jobs must go (equal to 1.25m in the US), though unemployment is already 12pc and heading for 16pc next year. Education must be cut 8pc. Scores of rural schools must close, and 6,900 teachers must go. "The attacks outlined in this report would represent an education disaster and light a short fuse on a social timebomb", said the Teachers Union of Ireland. Nobody is spared. Social welfare payments m...

Nation braces for impact of Lenihan’s savage budget... FINANCE Minister Brian Lenihan last night warned he was “taking the knife” to billions of euro worth of spending in an emergency budget that may also inflict “painful” tax hikes. Signalling the grimmest government financial statement for a generation, Mr Lenihan revealed only the social welfare department would escape deep cuts. He insisted his key priority was to try and stabilise the State’s finances in the most difficult circumstances “in living memory”. Mr Lenihan’s blunt talking came as cabinet colleague Noel Dempsey indicated “painful” tax cuts would feature in the crunch economic statement. Preparing the nation for what is likely to be the most savage budget in a quarter century, Mr Lenihan said he faced immense challenges. “We want to stabilise the public finances in the most difficult circumstances in living memory,” he told RTÉ. Transport Minister Noel Dempsey also braced taxpayers for increases. “You can either borrow, c...