Pearse Doherty

UrbanSea

Maybe I'm jumping the gun here,but is anybody else as impressed with the contribution Pearse Doherty has been making for Sinn Fein in the last number of weeks since he was elected to the Dail?
Must say I had a lot of respect for him following his appearance on Prime Time the other night with that snotty nosed Burton one. He came across as a genuine hard working fella with his views on giving the 'gambler' investors no returns on their losses into AIB. What really annoyed me was Joan Burton's blatant non answering of his question on whether or not Labour would pay them.She came across as totally condescending and up her own hole.
Anyone else any thoughts?

Bob the Builder

His high percentage of first preference votes in the by-election was a high reflection of his character. And he's lived up to it.

Sinn Fein or no Sinn Fein, that man has lived up to his reputation.

"Minister Mary Coughlan should keep her mouth shut when I'm talking"

Dub.

Looks like Taoisach material to me. Can`t see somebody of his clarity and honesty being taken seriously in this country for another while yet unfortunately.

Gombeens still rule in my neck of the woods.

zig

Sorry to rain on the parade, but while I think he was quite impressive that night, , more impressive than Burton(and I do advocate a default),he still refused to admit a default would have a MASSIVE negative impact on our economy, especially short term, we don't know about long term, his figures just didnt add up. He thinks the books can be magically balanced, they can't, there would be a huge deficit and it would have to be dealt with immediately. And this is a gamble, just as much as the bailout is a gamble. Its a gamble Im willing to acknowledge but alot of pro default politicians seem to ignore.
Its frustrating to see people advocating default and still denying everything would be hunky dory, it wouldnt.

meglome

zig wrote: »

Sorry to rain on the parade, but while I think he was quite impressive that night, , more impressive than Burton(and I do advocate a default),he still refused to admit a default would have a MASSIVE negative impact on our economy, especially short term, we don't know about long term, his figures just didnt add up. He thinks the books can be magically balanced, they can't, there would be a huge deficit and it would have to be dealt with immediately. And this is a gamble, just as much as the bailout is a gamble. Its a gamble Im willing to acknowledge but alot of pro default politicians seem to ignore.
Its frustrating to see people advocating default and still denying everything would be hunky dory, it wouldnt.

Yeah the SF figures don't add up. Let's say we default yet we are still running a 15-20 billion deficit. A deficit which is just government spending. No one in the short-term is likely to give us money so how will we pay the bills. The only way I can see is to slash all spending immediately and have no deficit. Which obviously means the public sector and the unemployed talking a very serious bath. Which is the opposite to what SF are saying the public service and unemployed will have to take. Now either SF don't know this, which I doubt or they are telling people what they want to hear. And I for one have had enough of politicians telling us what we want to hear.

Dub.

meglome wrote: »

Yeah the SF figures don't add up. Let's say we default yet we are still running a 15-20 billion deficit. A deficit which is just government spending. No one in the short-term is likely to give us money so how will we pay the bills. The only way I can see is to slash all spending immediately and have no deficit. Which obviously means the public sector and the unemployed talking a very serious bath. Which is the opposite to what SF are saying the public service and unemployed will have to take. Now either SF don't know this, which I doubt or they are telling people what they want to hear. And I for one have had enough of politicians telling us what we want to hear.

Why don`t SF figures add up?

meglome

Dub. wrote: »

Why don`t SF figures add up?

Okay so we default and right now are running a spending deficit of 15-20 billion a year. That money is needed to pay wages etc right now and for the next year. So we need to cut 15-20 billion in spending immediately to default. I've seen SF give some figures to make up some of the money but nothing like the 15-20 billion. Obviously the shock of 15-20 billion being cut out of the economy immediately will make our tax situation even worse which in turn will make more cuts necessary. This could easily make our situation worse than it is now. SF are telling people what they want to hear about defaulting, which really pee's me off to be honest.

Dub.

meglome wrote: »

Okay so we default and right now are running a spending deficit of 15-20 billion a year. That money is needed to pay wages etc right now and for the next year. So we need to cut 15-20 billion in spending immediately to default. I've seen SF give some figures to make up some of the money but nothing like the 15-20 billion. Obviously the shock of 15-20 billion being cut out of the economy immediately will make our tax situation even worse which in turn will make more cuts necessary. This could easily make our situation worse than it is now. SF are telling people what they want to hear about defaulting, which really pee's me off to be honest.

So you don`t think they can negotiate a better deal on this loan like they claim?

meglome

Dub. wrote: »

So you don`t think they can negotiate a better deal on this loan like they claim?

Honestly I'm hoping whomever gets in will do this. I've nothing against SF as such but they are quite obviously telling some people what they want to hear. I would beg everyone given the shít we're in to very very wary of that.

creative100

meglome wrote: »

Honestly I'm hoping whomever gets in will do this. I've nothing against SF as such but they are quite obviously telling some people what they want to hear. I would beg everyone given the shít we're in to very very wary of that.

I can only suggest you look at Sinn Féin's credentials on negotiation and have faith in them in potential negotiations with the IMF.

maynooth_rules

I did hear a lot of people saying they were impressed with his budget speech. However it seemed more rent a quote than anything else. Noonan for example disected the budget step by step and made Lenihan look like a fool countless times during the week.
Haviung said that I am very impressed with Doherty and it is good to see someone who can but a bit of emotion into his speeches in the Dail

deanh

You appear to be jumping on a bandwagon. Remember, it is easy to make angry soundbites but there is no substance in anything he says. Mind you he will rattle Eamon Gilmore a bit.

BMF Plint

I for one hope SF form a coalition with FG. Labour are showing a lot of cracks as of late and all Burton does is complain but when asked to clarify all she does is complain more,

Ardennes1944

i am an avid Sinn Fein supporter and will obviously be hoping for them in government in a strong position. however, for the first term in government i would rather if they had one of the bigger parties, preferably Labour, to be in government with them as i think they may need a little guidance seeing as how it has been a long time. i say this because i know Sinn Fein will be strong enough to withstand the corruption that FG or Labour will no doubt try to exert on them. then, all going well, i would hope that they could form a government with the help of the other minor parties and really lay down their policies to the full.

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

sollar

Is his idea of defaulting on private banking debt all that far fetched? If we did then that would be debt our economy would no longer have to shoulder and would make the prospects for growth look better. Do the rest of the world not think we are fools for carrying private banking debt that is going to suffocate us over the medium to long term anyway.

I thought it was the ECB that didn't want us defaulting, could we not borrow of the IMF like any other country that gets into bother?

UrbanSea

Sorry if I came across in the post as a bit clueless donegal fella,I can't say I'm very up to date with their plans,but have an ok understanding of macroeconomics. The main point was primarily the money to that bank in particular he was referring to in the debate,can't say I've seen much else of their plans.
And I always thought Burton was ok until that night,nothing more. I can't stand her now.

whatawaster

donegalfella wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

It is private bank debt for the most part. Ireland is not being bailed out by the EU. Irish tax payers are bailing out other EU countries.

I'm no Sinn Fein fan, but if we do accept the IMF/EU deal we will run out of money in the next few years anyway. The interest rate is far too high, and given how desperate the EU were for this deal to go through and how terrified they are of our problems spreading Europe-wide, we could and should have negotiated a far better deal.

SF are right about one thing - this being a terrible deal for Ireland, one which both we and the EU will live to regret.

I think it might have been Paul Sommerville or another analyst on Vincent Browne the other night who pointed out that in 2014:

National debt - at least 200bn (and this is not including quasi-govt debt)
Average 5% Interest - 10bn interest a year

Projected government revenue - 36bn
Available after debt repayments - 26bn

Basically we have to run the country on half of what it's running on now. Given the moaning and complaints after last week's relatively mild budget in comparison with what's to come, there is going to be absolute chaos.

Dots1982

The country faces two major problems above all others:
1- Making sure the country doesn't go bankrupt
2- getting people back to work.

FF and FG are at least addressing the first problem in a serious manner. SF address neither so anyone with any clue about economics would see them being in power as basically driving the country off the edge of a cliff.

For god's sake even Eamon Gilmore said he wouldn't go into coalition with SF because their economic policies are not viable and that's coming from the leader of a party who's own economic policies are not viable.

Anonymous1987

The IMF/EU deal may have been inevitable however we were funded until the middle of next year. Surely this time would have allowed us to play some hard ball to at least renegotiate our interest rate charged if a debt for equity swap was unpalatable to the financial markets. Instead we will be charged punitive rates (which may still prove unsustainable) making our debt management all the more difficult. Sinn Fein's proposals are clearly never going to happen and as such are empty rhetoric but it might have been beneficial if the FF/Greens had engaged in a game of chicken with the IMF/EU/ECB to strengthen their hand on the interest rate.

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

sollar

The situation Ireland finds itself in is a little like a struggling but manageable family business with a large loan and running a loss. The family need to borrow money to keep the business going untill they get their house in order and come back into profit.

They are just about able to borrow enough money to keep things going.

But now their 18 yr old son thinking he is a hotshot business brain borrows equilivant to 3 times the family debt to set up his own business.... it goes belly up, the son leaves the country for boston and the family not wanting to lose face take on his debts.

Now the family go looking for another loan to keep their business going and service some of their sons debt but now their lender is very nervous and doesn't want to lend to them. They can't get the money because the lender thinks they are now way out of their depth.

So, if the family decide to renage on their sons debt (as he was over 18 and its not truely the families debt anyway). Does this not make the families situation in relation to their own business much better and more positive for the future.

So why would they not be able to borrow at a more favourable rate now with out the shackles of their errant sons massive debts.

In conclusion would defaulting on the banks debt not make Irelands prospects better and enable us to ask for loans somewhere else.

sollar

donegalfella wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

True, but it was agreed by a couple of nieve brians and a few truth bending bankers. Its way to serious to stand over this farcical agreement.

donegalfella wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

I wasn't aware it was so low, if our prospects looked better could we borrow of china, usa, even the eu or ecb.

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

Valmont

DF, I think you may be shouting into a vacuum.

Noreen1

It seems to me that none of us have sufficient information to make anything like an informed judgement.

eg. On an individual basis, how much does each bank owe, and what is the ratio between senior bondholders, (whom the ECB are so adamant cannot be burned), and bonds which can be re-negotiated?

How much, from each bank, has NAMA taken control of?
What is the breakdown of personal debt vs mortgages for each bank, and how are these loans performing?

It's clear that outright default will cause significant pain - but it's also clear that the bailout terms place the country at considerable risk of default in the (probably near) future.

So, it seems to me that our only option is to either arrange some form of structured default, or re-negotiate the interest payments on the bailout.

I note the IMF have delayed ratifying the bailout package until after the Dail vote.
It seems to me that the IMF and ECB are playing hardball, while the majority of our Political parties cower in a corner in abject terror.

The ECB are aware that Ireland can destroy the EURO, thus impacting negatively on every EU country.
It's time someone in this country showed real leadership, by playing the same game as our International "friends".

Noreen

Japer

donegalfella wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Good point well made. In Ireland we think we have a God-given right that the world owes us a living, that the " lender of last resort" IMF should come in here + give us a loan at a rate we like. Ireland is very small on the world stage. Places like Indonesia have a population 300 times more, yet we think we are the centre of the world, and there are people in America who could not put Ireland on a map of the world. We think we deserve people to keep shovelling money to us to ensure we can continue to enjoy living standards we "unfortunately but honestly" do not deserve / have not earned on the world stage. I can see the day coming when the IMF will ask themselves why are they giving us all this money. Why should public servants and social welfare recipients be paid nearly double in Dundalk compared to Newry ? Until that imbalance is addressed and corrected, our fundamentals are unsound.
Oil is not going to always be as cheap as it is now, and the bulk of the people of China are not going to be always happy to continue living in "relative poverty" ( compared to our standards of living ) , slaving away making goods for us here in the decadent west and lending us the profits they make, for us to squander. They are asking why can't they have the standard of living we have, and who could blame them, they are working hard and deserve it more.

Dannyboy83

greetings wrote: »

Maybe I'm jumping the gun here,but is anybody else as impressed with the contribution Pearse Doherty has been making for Sinn Fein in the last number of weeks since he was elected to the Dail?
Must say I had a lot of respect for him following his appearance on Prime Time the other night with that snotty nosed Burton one. He came across as a genuine hard working fella with his views on giving the 'gambler' investors no returns on their losses into AIB. What really annoyed me was Joan Burton's blatant non answering of his question on whether or not Labour would pay them.She came across as totally condescending and up her own hole.
Anyone else any thoughts?

He has been performing well and he laid waste to Joan Burton in that interview.
The fact that he didn't get an answer from her spoke volumes, she would have been better off giving a bad answer than none at all.

meglome

creative100 wrote: »

I can only suggest you look at Sinn Féin's credentials on negotiation and have faith in them in potential negotiations with the IMF.

I can believe they would negotiate hard. However they are still telling people what they want to hear right now. Donegalfella put it quite succinctly here.

donegalfella wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

(not directed at donegalfella)You SF supporters are saying how much less corrupt SF are than the other party's. You're saying how SF are much fairer. etc. etc. etc. But they are clearly either deluded or lying about this. I strongly suspect they are telling their likely supporters what they want to hear. Given the total mess we're in any party that does that should be avoided like the plague. Have we learned nothing.

Bottle_of_Smoke

is the prime time with burton/doherty online anywhere?

meglome

Bottle_of_Smoke wrote: »

is the prime time with burton/doherty online anywhere?

It'll be on the RTE player. http://www.rte.ie/player

Anonymous1987

Japer wrote: »

In Ireland we think we have a God-given right that the world owes us a living, that the " lender of last resort" IMF should come in here + give us a loan at a rate we like. Ireland is very small on the world stage.

What's your point? we deserve what we can get, if our bargaining position dictates that it is in the EU's interest to ensure we do not default then we can bargain for a lower rate. Beating ourselves up over the mess we got into will get us nowhere.

We may be insignificant in terms of population but the interconnectedness of the financial markets ensures we are of systematic importance to Europe. If the banks can plead systematic importance to achieve a bailout then so can Ireland. The point I made above was that we didn't utilise our bargaining position enough.

This is not to ignore the burden of government debt the Irish government brought on itself but it is to say that the Irish government must defend its own interests as best it can as otherwise no-one else will.

Japer

Anonymous1987 wrote: »

What's your point? we deserve what we can get

As someone else said, " if we got all the money from the IMF, it would be using over 40 percent of its total available funds to support a tiny country of 4.5 million people ". We do not deserve that, given we still do not have our own house in order. They should not be giving us the 85 billion. Who do you think will be expected to pay the interest on that ? The first thing to do should be to get our own house in order as regards government spending.

Anonymous1987 wrote: »

if our bargaining position dictates that it is in the EU's interest to ensure we do not default then we can bargain for a lower rate.

We were the beggars of europe for 4 decades, and received more in EC funds per capita than any other country.
Our government has squandered its money on a big party for itself.
Now you are saying we should be the blackmailers of europe : give us a better rate or we will default + bring down those who supported us ?

Anonymous1987

Japer wrote: »

As someone else said, " if we got all the money from the IMF, it would be using over 40 percent of its total available funds to support a tiny country of 4.5 million people ". We do not deserve that, given we still do not have our own house in order. They should not be giving us the 85 billion. Who do you think will be expected to pay the interest on that ? The first thing to do should be to get our own house in order as regards government spending.

Firstly we contributed 17.5bn of the bailout meaning its actually a bailout of 67.5bn not 85bn. Secondly the IMF is only contributing 22.5bn of this, the remaining amount is the EU which is charging a slightly higher rate than the IMF. The IMF is actually giving us the best interest rate out of this, my argument isn't particularly with them rather the bailout package itself which is more a product of the EU than the IMF. I agree we should be getting our house in order but we are attempting to do so, the rate at the moment is punitive and runs a higher risk of sending us into default anyway. This is at odds with us getting our finances in order.

Japer wrote: »

We were the beggars of europe for 4 decades, and received more in EC funds per capita than any other country.
Our government has squandered its money on a big party for itself.
Now you are saying we should be the blackmailers of europe : give us a better rate or we will default + bring down those who supported us ?

Yes, its ungrateful, hypocritical and unfair but the likes of Germany and France are hardly virtuous when it comes to debt management, they blatantly ignored the stability and growth pact and were allowed to do so merely because of their importance. It's an ugly way to do things but you have to fight your corner in the EU.

Sir Oxman

It's a restructure we should be after, not a default.
A restructure of the private bank debt.
The bailout fund is contingent on us agreeing to paying off private bank debt.
In this, I believe the FF/GP govt have yet again let Ireland down hugely.

This restructure will come eventually but at the price of another two-three years of virtually no growth, higher unemployment and paralysis.

It's like the original insane banking guarantee all over again, "the only game in town" which cost us two years of paralysis, no growth and high unemployment.

The parties calling for a renegotiation are the ones I will support.
It can't be anymore insane as the FF/GP road we've been forced onto over the past years.

imme

@OP, the thread title is Pearse Doherty, but the thread seems to be more about having a rant about Labour TD Joan Burton.

burnyerbra

very impressive is Pearse, Joan Burton showed her true colours on prime time when she wouldn't answer the question. I'll be asking the same question when labour knocks on my door in Tipperary.
Hoping Pearse D. all the best and maybe someday we'll see our country run properly, as for the likes of Mattie Mc Grath ( clonmel ) shouting all year about "bringing this government down" then vote for the trash, he's after getting a big brown envelope I hear.
30 pieces of silver.

Iwasfrozen

burnyerbra wrote:

very impressive is Pearse, Joan Burton showed her true colours on prime time when she wouldn't answer the question. I'll be asking the same question when labour knocks on my door in Tipperary.
Hoping Pearse D. all the best and maybe someday we'll see our country run properly, as for the likes of Mattie Mc Grath ( clonmel ) shouting all year about "bringing this government down" then vote for the trash, he's after getting a big brown envelope I hear.
30 pieces of silver.

What did he ask her? I didn't see the interview.

steelcityblues

He's doing very well on RTE Radio right now, exposing Varadakar and his party's flip flopping stance on the bailout!

irishh_bob

whatawaster wrote: »

It is private bank debt for the most part. Ireland is not being bailed out by the EU. Irish tax payers are bailing out other EU countries.

I'm no Sinn Fein fan, but if we do accept the IMF/EU deal we will run out of money in the next few years anyway. The interest rate is far too high, and given how desperate the EU were for this deal to go through and how terrified they are of our problems spreading Europe-wide, we could and should have negotiated a far better deal.

SF are right about one thing - this being a terrible deal for Ireland, one which both we and the EU will live to regret.

I think it might have been Paul Sommerville or another analyst on Vincent Browne the other night who pointed out that in 2014:

National debt - at least 200bn (and this is not including quasi-govt debt)
Average 5% Interest - 10bn interest a year

Projected government revenue - 36bn
Available after debt repayments - 26bn

Basically we have to run the country on half of what it's running on now. Given the moaning and complaints after last week's relatively mild budget in comparison with what's to come, there is going to be absolute chaos.

for once , economic liberals like paul sommerville and david mc williams are on the same page as sinn fein with regard the bailout , the bankbailout of ireland is a bailout of europe by proxy , this bailout saddles us with a mountain of debt which we cannot possibley handle , its dwarves every other fiscal shortcoming in the country , anyone ( including sinn fein ) would have negotiated a better deal with the EU than this goverment has

as regards the bond markets not lending us anymore money , thats where the IMF come in and we wouldnt have had to deal with them untill the middle of next year when our funding runs out , why this deal was rushed is down to the fact that the EU ( germany , france , uk , up to thier necks in lending to anglo etc ) feared a bank run across europe and hit the panic button , they then coerced us into a ruinous bailout at extrordinarily punative rates of interest , had we dealt exclusivley with the IMF ( next june ) , it might have meant a euro exit and serious fallout with germany , france etc but i think our children and grandchildren come ahead of them tbh

dont get me wrong , im not against public sector pay cuts , oap cuts , wellfare cuts in general and sale of state assetts but even we do all thees things repeatedly each year , it will be like trying to bailout the titanic with a teaspoon such is the tsunami of debt facing us in the next few years , all our belt tightening will be in vain unless this ruinous band deal is renegotiated

cast_iron

Dub. wrote: »

Why don`t SF figures add up?

It's quite plain to see. Just watch the Prime Time interview.

There's a €20bn deficit.
Asked on the interview where SF would make up said €20bn, the reamed off their spending plan. It totalled €2.8bn.

I'm sure there's more in it, but they are a good €17bn odd off the mark.

ilovesleep

Irish_bob - i really hope theres someone out there that will get the best possible deal for ireland.

Spudmonkey

Iwasfrozen wrote: »

What did he ask her? I didn't see the interview.

He asked her to give a definitive answer on the point of would she renegotiate with the bondholders or burn them completely. This was apparently viewed as a major failing on her part as it was obvious she didn't want to thread on Europe's toes.

She never countered his argument however on Sinn Feins way of avoiding this. The fact that they want to tax high earners to the point of non-existence, even though many of these could just up and leave the country. We would be seriously in the mire if the likes of Michael O'Leary decided to pay his tax elsewhere.

jimmycrackcorm

irishh_bob wrote: »

for once , economic liberals like paul sommerville and david mc williams are on the same page as sinn fein with regard the bailout

But DMW, like SF is a populist because he is paid to write populist articles that people want to hear. I watched the PrimeTime interview and I did notice the condescending attitude that Burton had towards Doherty. Now, I despise Labor but for once I found myself agreeing with Burtons attitude when Doherty was rattling on about burning the bondholders. Whilst I Love the idea, I think he should do a bit more reading about reality before espousing on default: http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/argentina_2002_09_03.pdf

Einhard

meglome wrote: »

Yeah the SF figures don't add up. Let's say we default yet we are still running a 15-20 billion deficit. A deficit which is just government spending. No one in the short-term is likely to give us money so how will we pay the bills. The only way I can see is to slash all spending immediately and have no deficit. Which obviously means the public sector and the unemployed talking a very serious bath. Which is the opposite to what SF are saying the public service and unemployed will have to take. Now either SF don't know this, which I doubt or they are telling people what they want to hear. And I for one have had enough of politicians telling us what we want to hear.

I wish I could thank this post 40 times. Obviously there are still plenty of people around who are only too willing to have politicans blow smoke up their h*les. If you'll excuse my French. That's why I look on SF as really no better than FF. They won't do what's in the best interest of the country, but rather what's in their own electoral interests.

Einhard

steelcityblues wrote: »

He's doing very well on RTE Radio right now, exposing Varadakar and his party's flip flopping stance on the bailout!

Didn't SF vote for either the bailout or NAMA? I know it's one or the other. They're hardly in a position to be accusing anyone of flip flopping!

K-9

Einhard wrote: »

I wish I could thank this post 40 times. Obviously there are still plenty of people around who are only too willing to have politicans blow smoke up their h*les. If you'll excuse my French. That's why I look on SF as really no better than FF. They won't do what's in the best interest of the country, but rather what's in their own electoral interests.

The proposal to reinstate the Xmas welfare bonus is populist nonsense. FF get stick over protecting the pensioners, this is the same stuff.

LostinKildare

Einhard wrote: »

Didn't SF vote for either the bailout or NAMA? I know it's one or the other. They're hardly in a position to be accusing anyone of flip flopping!

No. They voted against NAMA. Arthur Morgan called it the "crime of the century," and they argued to have it decided by referendum at the same time that we re-voted on Lisbon.

Re the bailout -- what bailout? Do you mean the bank guarantee? No, they voted against it, with Labour. I posted about this the other day on a different thread:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=69476088&postcount=27

sollar

K-9 wrote: »

The proposal to reinstate the Xmas welfare bonus is populist nonsense. FF get stick over protecting the pensioners, this is the same stuff.

The christmas bonus is a load of old tosh, it should never be brought back and the dole needs to be changed so that people on it more than a few years get less and less.

Sinn fein need to be careful they don't ruin some of the support they are getting by becoming a party for the social welfare recipients only.

mikemac

The Christmas bonus was for people on welfare on 15 months or over.
The government to be fair dealt with it early in the year, it was before April from what I remember.
It was hardly two weeks before Christmas!

Notorious97

I think it is refreshing to see his passion for the country and how down to earth he is with the people of this country. People who are anti SF will put this simply down to an angry rant and continue to put SF down based of the past.

I think what Ireland needs more than anything is for its people to put aside any political allegiances they have to parties, and vote for whoever will do the best to get us out of this mess. If thats SF then fair enough, if it is another party who have concrete solutions to this mess (they don’t have to guarantee they can fix it as i doubt anybody can guarantee it, but i do need some form of hope) then thats also fine with me.

Im a SF voter, i love my country, i want to see it back on track, i have no problem taking tax increases etc if they are done correctly and fairly which to date is not the case. I agree public spending should be cut, but cost of living needs to decrease by alot. The burden should be carried both privately and publically. The IMF / EU deal should be renegotiated or scraped as the interest is way to high.

I wish people instead of arguing over party allegiances and putting each other down would come together and try and find solutions to our problems, we are all in this together. I for one would hate to see a day when i would have to leave Ireland for work, our country is too busy fighting with itself to focus on the bigger picture. I have no doubt the next general election will be nothing more than a mud slinging match im afraid.