There has been alot of discussion about why it was inevitable that jobs here would be lost to lower cost economies in Eastern Europe and Asia and I am curious to know what makes Ireland expensive to do business.

I dont wish to turn this thread into a farce with my line of reasoning. The issue is very serious and government policy and structural issues have been a major contributor to this situation but I look around and I do see so many things at the micro level which I think is a total waste of money and serve no real purpose but to raise prices for goods and services here. There is alot of stuff that businesses here buy into that really isnt needed. My two pets are 1. plasma tv's and 2. upmarket fronts and shop interiors. There are many more things that are unnecessary and only aid to our cost base and general price level.

Take for example, a local butcher in my town has a plasma tv on his window and another on the back wall with flashing pictures of chickens for 4.99, a local estate agent further down the street has 4 plasma tv's hanging just inside the window, with the name of the agent moving back and forth across the screen(as if people couldnt tell from the name on the door). Pubs also overuse plamsa tv's(but they do show football matches so its not a total waste). People are paying for this waste in the prices of their meat, in the price of their pint and in agent fees.

Pubs and cafes are perhaps the most guity in wasting money, to me they seem to always be doing themselves up(which means we have to pay higher pint prices). What is wrong with old fashioned pubs(they have character), why do we always have to demand the newest fronts and insides. Its making us a high price economy. Im not denying that some places might want to market themselves as upmarket or classy but if they do, then we should expect to pay upmarket prices(like in any Euroepean city). We however only want the upmarket classy places and that means our base prices are high. Try finding a old fashioned or simple cafe in Dublin to make you a simple CHEAP espresso or coffee, its impossible. Try to find that in Paris, Barcelona, Milan, Prague, you can find somewhere cheap and not done up to the nines with plasma tvs showing the menu. In those cities, they also have upmarket bars and cafes but you pay prices similar to Ireland, but its not the norm to see such vulgar wastages of money that only feed into higher prices at the till.

Just a thought I'll like to put out there. Interested to know what other people think are wastes of money.

PS: Im not blaming these issues on our problems.

its true that ireland has become disgustingly decadent, but observing things with your neoliberal specs on is a fool's errand
(especially since the tide is receding from 'ireland plc', neoliberal poster child, revealing what a cruel lie neoliberalism was)

anyway, all these garish eyesore service providers will dry up in '09 and their proprieters will be selling plasma tvs at car boot sales for basic sustainance

I worked in a small pharmacy and could not believe it when I saw the amount of zeros on the water bill, if a tiny pharmacy is getting that kind of bill whats a big business getting?

How else was the benchmarking farce to be paid for.

__________________
Its only a chat, we ain't the world council.
In 2000 the Women's Institute in Britain gave Tony Blair the slow hand clap to demonstrate their contempt.
It was dignified, restrained and effective.Doesn't Bertie deserve the same scorn. No shouting, no abuse, no agression just a relentless slow clap whenever he speaks in public would be enough to end that man's presidential fantasy.
If you agree copy the signature in to yours and lets get the whole country slow clapping Bertie.

I actually think the private water company (jesus even saying "water company" you can't escape how farcical the concept is) gets the money from that no?

Businesses subsidise the rest of us when it comes to water (I presume).

Higher wages are a higher cost which causes higher prices which threatens quality of life for wage-earners which means higher wages (up until recently) which are a higher cost...
until higher wages aren't paid, at that stage you are uncompetitive.

The CC or Corpo provide water here.
There is no private involvment, outside community run group water schemes.

__________________
Its only a chat, we ain't the world council.
In 2000 the Women's Institute in Britain gave Tony Blair the slow hand clap to demonstrate their contempt.
It was dignified, restrained and effective.Doesn't Bertie deserve the same scorn. No shouting, no abuse, no agression just a relentless slow clap whenever he speaks in public would be enough to end that man's presidential fantasy.
If you agree copy the signature in to yours and lets get the whole country slow clapping Bertie.

In fairness, pubs that don't have an abudance of plush sofas and plasma tvs are rarely cheaper.

Why is Ireland expensive to do business in and whats the difference between now and 10-15 years ago?

Very simple

high property prices and the cost of professional services - everything else and all other increases in inputs ie wages etc, etc can be traced back to them.

We are an island nation with a tiny domestic market - with the added transportation costs of getting our goods to market wherever.

Do the math.

Thats news to me!!!, so basically the Local Councils are using these charges as a tax?