are we being softened up

flutered

the news at one today gave a hint saying the dof were advising the ff/lab talks,
ml noonan on the 9 o clock news saying that things are worse than they seemed to be, taxes down etc, will we have a may budget ?, or what else are we about to endure, the interest we are paying to the ecb is draining our resourses and will get worse, in nov we are due to pay back a couple of years interest that the last gov kicked into the future with the blessing of the eu.

gigino

Of course, shure what else do you expect the leader of the labour party to be saying ? If / when he goes in to coalition, the IMF / EU will be getting him to announce major cuts before the year is out, and he will try to excuse himself by saying the budgetary position was much worse than he imagined once he took office.....hence he has to break his pre-election promises etc.;)

Seth Brundle

flutered wrote: »

the news at one today gave a hint saying the dof were advising the ff/lab talks,

Why on earth is anyone talking with FF?

I presume you mean FG

KELTICKNIGHTT

kbannon wrote: »

Why on earth is anyone talking with FF?

I presume you mean FG

think poster means fg/labour

gigino

FF should, for the sake of the economy, support FG with a "Tallaght Stratagy 2". Leftie parties controlled by the "social partners" are in the minority + not idealogically compatable.

KELTICKNIGHTT

gigino wrote: »

FF should, for the sake of the economy, support FG with a "Tallaght Stratagy 2". Leftie parties controlled by the "social partners" are in the minority + not idealogically compatable.

dont think theres a difference between ff and fg so dont expect much difference with new goverment for next 5 years

zig

in fairness to Noonan, he had been warning of something similar back in December...
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/budget/comment-reaction/fg-reaction-another-budget-on-cards-in-new-year-says-noonan-2452193.html

Scofflaw

flutered wrote: »

the news at one today gave a hint saying the dof were advising the ff/lab talks,
ml noonan on the 9 o clock news saying that things are worse than they seemed to be, taxes down etc, will we have a may budget ?, or what else are we about to endure, the interest we are paying to the ecb is draining our resourses and will get worse, in nov we are due to pay back a couple of years interest that the last gov kicked into the future with the blessing of the eu.

Funny, really - I listened to Noonan and Burton there, and they seemed to be saying that the news was grim, but "we all knew it was".

Couple of other points - we're not paying interest to the ECB. The banks are, but it's extremely low interest. And I have no idea what the interest due to be paid back in November is - unless you mean the €350m interest on the promissory notes, which was delayed 2 years from November last year. By my calculations, that means we'll be paying it November next year.

regards,
Scofflaw

Anonymous1987

flutered wrote: »

the news at one today gave a hint saying the dof were advising the ff/lab talks,
ml noonan on the 9 o clock news saying that things are worse than they seemed to be, taxes down etc, will we have a may budget ?, or what else are we about to endure, the interest we are paying to the ecb is draining our resourses and will get worse, in nov we are due to pay back a couple of years interest that the last gov kicked into the future with the blessing of the eu.

To be fair, all the parties bar Sinn Fein signalled further difficulties and more fiscal contraction ahead. I presume you mean the interest paid for the IMF/EU bailout? It looks as though the interest rate on the EU portion of the loan may be reduced. It currently stands at about 5.8% for €45bn meaning we are paying about €2.61bn in interest so lets say the interest rate is reduced by 2.5% (this is probably being very optimistic) to 3.3% then we are now paying €1.46bn meaning we save €1.15bn. This is no doubt worth doing and is a significant saving but it is not a game changing one.

dan_d

Funny, I was told yesterday (damned if I can remember by who) that the rumour going around was that things are far worse than they were being out to be.(by FF)
My reaction was "how can it be any worse than this?"
Suddenly I feel a little less sure about that.
I'm not sure about the softening up bit - what are we being softened for? We know we're f*&ked....

Tora Bora

Remember when Noonan, became minister for justice all those years ago, in Garret the Good's FG / Lab government.
Two days in the dept, he comes on TV, and anounces the phone tapping of journalists phones, with approval of previous government:P

Noonan, has form in the area, of opening the cupboards of the previous administration, to see what skeletons may be hanging around:cool:

Not saying he was wrong then, nor saying he is wrong now, but I have no doubt he will use the line "tis worse then we were told", as he cycles into the Croke Park agreement.;)

kennyb3

Is there due to be an interim budget in may? I received an e mail yesterday saying something about one as FG promised to introduce a finance bill within 100 days of their election as part of their policy document or something to that affect

SkepticOne

It is a fairly standard practice that the incoming government expresses shock at the state of the country they have been left with and then any bad news that is going to have to be made public is made public at that point.

Even governments that have been re-elected will choose to release bad news shortly after winning. Get the bad news out of the way and then put positive spin on everything after that.

Dannyboy83

Tora Bora wrote: »

Remember when Noonan, became minister for justice all those years ago, in Garret the Good's FG / Lab government.
Two days in the dept, he comes on TV, and anounces the phone tapping of journalists phones, with approval of previous government:P

Noonan, has form in the area, of opening the cupboards of the previous administration, to see what skeletons may be hanging around:cool:

If you don't show the previous administration's skeleton asap, they become your skeletons.

Not saying he was wrong then, nor saying he is wrong now, but I have no doubt he will use the line "tis worse then we were told", as he cycles into the Croke Park agreement.;)

Probably, but the IMF/EU have had visibility over (I presume) everything the department of failure had access to.
So, maybe things can be worse, but I don't think there can be any revelations.

GSF

kennyb3 wrote: »

Is there due to be an interim budget in may? I received an e mail yesterday saying something about one as FG promised to introduce a finance bill within 100 days of their election as part of their policy document or something to that affect

I think the Finance Bill is to implement the outstanding bits of the last budget

amacca

gigino wrote: »

Of course, shure what else do you expect the leader of the labour party to be saying ?

op mentioned nothing about the leader of the Labour party I thought?

Michael Noonan is in Fine Gael?? and he was the one making the statement??

or is the op incorrect?

gigino

The leader of the labour party has been all over the media too saying things are worse than they thought before the election etc

amacca

gigino wrote: »

The leader of the labour party has been all over the media too saying things are worse than they thought before the election etc

yeah, now that I think of it what else would they be saying.

if someone gave me a hospital pass I'd be letting all and sundry know too.

same as before every budget....we probably are being softened up.

Suryavarman

kennyb3 wrote: »

Is there due to be an interim budget in may? I received an e mail yesterday saying something about one as FG promised to introduce a finance bill within 100 days of their election as part of their policy document or something to that affect

IIRC they plan on introducing a job creation act within 100 days. although you could correct also.

RichardAnd

Suryavarman wrote: »

IIRC they plan on introducing a job creation act within 100 days. although you could correct also.

They are but I wouldn't be surprised if that didn't come to pass. This talk of things being worse than they seemed could be a precursor to election promises being broken. Of course, the case of a new government passing some blame onto the backs of the old government is not an act unique to Ireland.

The next few months will probably be the most important time for the new government because if some manner of improvement does not materialise by the end of the year, whether that is possible or not the public will start to forget FF and look to the new boys for someone to blame.

dan_d

RichardAnd wrote: »

They are but I wouldn't be surprised if that didn't come to pass. This talk of things being worse than they seemed could be a precursor to election promises being broken. Of course, the case of a new government passing some blame onto the backs of the old government is not an act unique to Ireland.

.....the public will start to forget FF and look to the new boys for someone to blame.

The most likely and obvious situation.
People have short memories.

Seth Brundle

Apparently we are being softened up. According to Dara Calleary of FF (remember them?):

Dara Calleary wrote:

The very solemn, but equally predictable warnings by Deputy Michael Noonan and Joan Burton should be seen for what they are - a softening up exercise in advance of the inevitable abandonment of their various uncosted and cynical election promises. This is the very worst type of politics as usual.

...and he should know!

gigino

RichardAnd wrote: »

The next few months will probably be the most important time for the new government because if some manner of improvement does not materialise by the end of the year, whether that is possible or not the public will start to forget FF and look to the new boys for someone to blame.

+1. I cannot see the IMF / EU continuing to give our government 1.5 billion per month just to cover the defecit in our running costs. They are going to ask " what are you spending it on ?" Ah, you want to spend it on ze unemployed and ze public servants and yourselves again this month ....but why why should our unemployed + public servants and politicians lend you money when they are worse paid than yourselves and you will probably default ? Hard to answer that.
Its going to be an interesting year.

flutered

gigino wrote: »

+1. I cannot see the IMF / EU continuing to give our government 1.5 billion per month just to cover the defecit in our running costs. They are going to ask " what are you spending it on ?" Ah, you want to spend it on ze unemployed and ze public servants and yourselves again this month ....but why why should our unemployed + public servants and politicians lend you money when they are worse paid than yourselves and you will probably default ? Hard to answer that.
Its going to be an interesting year.

the answer to my query in a nutshell ?, anyone else of the same opinion, on a side note that new td ming is saying that his first bit of buisness in the dail is to take a 50% wage cut, at the same time asking the rest of them to do likewise, as the op said interesting times ahead.

Monty Burnz

gigino wrote: »

FF should, for the sake of the economy, support FG with a "Tallaght Stratagy 2". Leftie parties controlled by the "social partners" are in the minority + not idealogically compatable.

Fianna Failure are only interested in what is good for themselves, not what is good for the country. Have the last 10 years not taught you this?

mike kelly

how long until the Noonan / McCole scandal rears it's ugly head again?

gigino

Monty Burnz wrote: »

Fianna Failure are only interested in what is good for themselves, not what is good for the country. Have the last 10 years not taught you this?

You think the FF government forcing through a number of wage cuts / pension charges for the public service was done over the past year or two because it was good for FF ? I am not a FF supporter , but I think it was done because FF realised our public service was way overpaid + the money was not there anymore. They done the wage cuts for the good of the country, not for the good of FF.

The economic situation in the country now is so serious the two main centre-right parties should support each other on economic matters, for the good of the country. Just like FG supported FF ( Tallaght strategy ) to get out of the previous recession.