IRELAND MELTDOWN...
Monday, January 5, 2009 at 10:57PM I see that the Irish Government's end-of-year returns have shown a massive tax revenue shortfall of €8.13 billion. Publishing the much worse-than-anticipated figures today, Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan predicated the economy would shrink by a further four per cent this year and said that “decisive and sustained” Government action was urgently required. The revenue shortfall had been forecast to be around €6.5 billion as recently as early October when Mr Lenihan unveiled his first budget as finance minister. A worse than expected decline in revenue in November and December was responsible for the worsening state of the economy, he said..
Thing is, as January starts, I reckon that things are looking even more grim. With Irish shoppers still surging to the North, I think that really drastic action needs to be taken. With Irish VAT @ 21.5% and UK VAT @ 15%, surely there needs to be some dramatic decisons made? Given the increasing strength of the Euro versus our ever-shrinking Pound, Ireland is fast becoming too expensive a place to live for the Irish people. With companies keeling over on a daily basis, the question is; what can Ireland do to survive?
View Printer Friendly Version
Reader Comments (12)
A pomposity tax - Bono alone would put them back in a surplus.
Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan predicated the economy would shrink by a further four per cent this year ...
That's not shrinking, that's crashing.
What can Ireland do to survive ?
Come back home to Mummy Britannia ;)
David
Publishing the much worse-than-anticipated figures
Nobody believed the government's figures when they were published. This is the government catching up to reality.
In order to survive - liquidate the property developers and their assets, get both the residential and commercial property markets to the bottom asap, sort out the banks asap, cut salaries and head count where appropriate in the public sector, change the bankrupcy laws so the insolvent citizens can start over..
In other news, it's a recession and we're all going to die.
mahons
You mention Bono and tax in the same sentence?
If this self-righeous creep paid his share of tax, the average guy could pay a good bit less.
Mack the knife, eh? Right kind of thinking though.
Mack,
Yes, I rather agree with you. The British Government is, of course, equally deluded.
The only way to sort themselves out is to GET OUT OF THE EU(SSR)
I reckon that the Irish government is facing reality and that is a very good start!
How did it all go so badly wrong I thought Ireland was the tiger of the EU and all was well in the green land!! Ah well life is never all it seems is it.
Maggie,
Greed; Fat tigers become vulnerable..
testing 1234