Repossessions

shangri la wrote: »

how were the bankers severly punished?

4,500 are due for the chop by the end of the year- they're still trying to negotiate redundancy- but the sticking point is the bankers are not happy with being treated in the same manner as public sector redundancies, and are claiming special treatment. Screw them.

true wrote: »

The people who benefit most from the country currently borrowing 14 billion a year are the public servants and the public servant pensioners and the politicians. They are the ones still creaming it compared to most other people. The average public servant in Donegal or Drogheda is still paid double that in Downpatrick or Dundonald. The country is still spending double on the public service compared to what it did ten years ago. The sooner the house of cards is brought down the better, for the sake of our grandchildren.

The banks are afraid to start repossessing in volume, because many there made such foolish lending decisions 4 or 5 years ago. The commission they got for mis-selling should be clawed back of the individuals concerned.

If you want to sit down and look at actual figures- the social welfare budget along with HSE sanctioned disbursements- is per claimant 12-14% higher than the gross average pay of a public sector employee (of course this also includes Mortgage Interest supplement and a bewildering array of other entitlements- but the fact of the matter is that more is spent on the average social welfare recipient, than on the average public sector employee). We all hear the stories about the ridiculous excesses of politicians and bankers- because they make good headlines- they don't however reflect the average employee- they are not exceptional by any means, given we have so many of them- but they are also not the norm.

Yes- the average public sector salary here is double that of a public sector employee in the UK- the inverse of this is our social welfare entitlements are, when enumerated, over 5 times the UK level. If you want to bring down public sector salaries and social welfare entitlements- you need to reduce the cost of living here- so it is comparable with where-ever you want to compare headline entitlements with.

The recent OECD study on how austerity and cuts are affecting people- states plainly that the only group in Irish society largely unaffected thus far by austerity are pensioners. It also pointed out that workers are delibertly having smaller families while social welfare recipients are having larger families, and suggested the government to explore how to lower childcare costs for workers as a matter of urgency. Wonder how they'll address this one- seeing as its not even tax deductable. Also seeing as its the OECD and not the Troika- doubt anything will happen.

We're getting away from the point of this thread though- which is repossessions.

Our politicians love playing to the media- and have enshrined the family home in the constitution. They have also allowed us the top five most expensive- gas, heating, electricity, food, clothing, footwear and car tax and insurance in Europe. So- on the one hand they're the good guys- and on the other hand- they have made living here so expensive compared with most of Europe, that our social welfare and healthcare bill exceeds our total tax take (ignoring all other expenditure- including public sector pay and pensions). Sometimes you have to scratch your head to check- do these people really think money grows on trees?

Irish society has historically been defined by parish pump politics- sure I'll vote for Jimmy and he'll get a new library for us, or a new road, or a swimming pool, or extra teachers for the school, or keep the local barracks open etc etc etc. Everyone is looking at how much they can grab for themselves at a local level- including the politicians, and no-one is looking at the bigger picture- actually governing Ireland as a small state on the periphery of Europe. And you know what- the few who have tried, and there have been a few, were punished by voters for not delivering the extra teacher, or filling in a few potholes or whatever.

As long as the population refuse to accept that there isn't a magic money tree rooted in the back garden of the Taoiseach's office on Merrion Row- that can be liberally shaken for whatever today's pet project might be- we are finished, troika or no troika.

The current arguments over whether we will be able to borrow more if we vote no to the fiscal treaty- are symptomatic of this. Do we really want to be incrementing our national debt by 10-15 billion a year ad infinitum? Where does it end? We are already considered toxic by the largest economy in Europe (Germany) and by the holders of 30% of Europe's government debts (Norway). If they allowed Greece default- we're certainly not the important spoke our leaders like to allude to. The only thing keeping us together- is the fear of Spain, France and Italy- and what they might do to ease their own predicaments- this weekends events make this even harder to call........