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Ok we have established that the government are out of their depth and don't have a clue what to do. We have also established they don't understand the seriousness of the situation and they are only capable of day to day planning and have no long term vision on how to turn around the state of the public finances.
First of all, the borrowing that Cowen/Lenihan plan is simply unsustainable. 12 billion this year, 18 billion more than likely next year and if they continue at being as useless as they have done, probably 25 billion the year after, that will be an addition of 55 billion to the national debt, leading to probably 5 billion a year cost to service it.
Being in government is not simply about writing budgets and not caring how big the deficits are. This government has no imagination and doesn’t have a real policy to substantially raise tax income by creating jobs and reduce tax spend by decreasing the cost of the public sector.
There is no reason to believe we will return to anything approaching an even budget if we wait for ‘international conditions’ to improve. The general consensus is that the stock market highs of a few years ago will not be repeated probably for decades, that the apparent wealth was just that, apparent and had no substance and we are into a long period of economic difficulties. So if we don’t start cutting back now, we only build up billions of debt, with no economic improvement to pay off the debt. The sooner we substantially cut the expenditure of government the better. The best paid in the PS should suffer the most.
My first suggestion is that TDs take a 20% paycut and a payfreeze after that. These feckers, I want to call them worse but it wud be censored, have lead us into the mess and rewarded themselves with year on year increases. In no way could their performance merit a pay increase.
Secondly there needs to be a cull of top civil and public servants, they need to be handed their P45, they just don’t deliver value for money for the state, they are not frontline or even essential and are only in their jobs because of union protection.
Third, borrowing over 10 billion a year should not be allowed and cuts must be made to bring borrowing within that. A government that fails to bring the deficit below 10 billion annually should be judged an incompetent one, that should be the rule of thumb from now on. Our government must immediately set itself that target rather than letting the finances slide uncontrollably.
Fourth. The unions in the PS need to be told where to go. Everything is on the table in terms of restucturing and paycuts in the PS as well as a cull of non essential staff particularly at the top end. If the unions go on strike, jail their leaders.
The EU must also be told where to go. WE cannot afford to pay social welfare for non-irish people so these people should be sent back to their home countries. We also may need to bail out struggling companies such as Waterford Crystal. 1000 people signing on the dole and the loss of foreign income and tax from such a company would not be sustainable for the country. Bail them out in the short term, tell them to cut wages and let them pay us back in the long run.
The country is going down the tubes a lot of it caused by strict EU rules and the EU haven’t lifted one finger to help us. Its time we told them where to go and help ourselves.
Other suggestions are welcome on this thread and I hope the government takes on board the policies proposed since they seem short on their own ones other than to let matters be.
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Originally Posted by junketman
