****ty government

pinkpig

Is it just me or does anyone else beleive this country is spiralling out of control with regards to cost of living from

Bin charges - which we are obligated to pay because if you present your bin without a tag they will hunt you down. or else you can protest and live in ****.

Toll charges increase - can they not put a cap on this, and where are all our tax's going

abolition of first time buyers grant - when at this particular time it is needed more so than ever

Where are our tax's going???

are we helpless?
its getting on my wick. major pissed off with the whole thing.

daveg

Welcome to Ireland.

Not to mention the health system, roads, Eircom's monopoly and the state of our IT infrastructure, primary schools, the roads and the list goes on and on and on.....

Victor

Originally posted by pinkpig
Where are our tax's going???

Look here: http://www.budget.gov.ie/budget/budget2003/tablemenu.htm What do you want them to spend less on and how would you bring it about?

pinkpig

Thats what poloticians are paid for.

and statistics show cost of living here is high compared to other EU countries.


i don't know economics but i do know it wasn't always like this. Its getting worse and worse.

McGintyMcGoo

Here we go .....

It doesn't help when every rich person and every self-employed person pays little or no tax!!!

You also have an element of society making false claims against the counsels, government etc. that costs a fortune.

Another part living off the state! Claiming all possible benefits and then working on the sly. Paying little or no rent, getting checks for €200 a week and spending all day in the pub.

All civil servants are lazy bastards. "Job for life"!! 10 people to do one job and now the bastards will get more money with this benchmarking crap!!

It's the average private industry PAYE worker that keeps this country going! We get screwed on all kinds of taxation, no benefits and yet we're the ones who'd get screwed if we short-changed the Revenue by €50 a year!!!

Girls making a business out of getting pregnant loads of times, getting a free gaff, living off the state, allow their scumbag boyfriend to live there for free, whilst he sells drugs to all of his mates.

Joyrider scumbags who dont give a fu*k about anyone!!! Robbing cars that people have saved long and hard for, and then killing other people with their reckless driving!!!! If one of them dies, their family and the local priest go on about "little Johnny was an innocent victim of todays society....he had nothing better to do than rob cars", then his family claim off the original owner of the car for damages!

Corrupt southside counsellors ensure that all refugee camps and all knacker sites are moved to the northside of dublin ....preferably in the Finglas/Blanch areas!!! As far away as possible, so that they dont have to see them as they drive their new sports series Mercedes SLK.

Every company in the service industry takes every opportunity to rip us all off!!!.....Celtic tiger...rip them off........euro changeover....rip them off!!!!!!!

Alcohol......down the country, a pint of the black stuff costs two thirds the price of here in Dublin!! How the f*ck?? It's brewed in Dublin and them shipped down to the sticks!!!! An average pub in Dublin sells multiple times the quantity as a pub in a country village. The Vintners assoc. say that it's down to higher rent for the premises in Dublin!!! Higher rent my arse..... every pub owner in Dublin owns their land..and much more

Need I go on???

(Thanks doctor.....it does help when you write it all down!!!)

Caesar_Bojangle

It doesn't help when every rich person and every self-employed person pays little or no tax!!!

Fuk that why should someone who is successful have to fork over more tax just because they're a success.

Doodee

I agree with Caesar on that, fact is that if you are going to risk setting up your own business, you shouldnt be taxed through the nose for it.
Also, the Government get their money back, if you sell your business, depending on size, you pay upto and even more than 200k back, Its a problem my parents will have to face.

another thing wrong with this country is that you can open a B&B, have the worst kinda kitchen in the world, charge your own rates, have a house the same size as a hotel, and you dont get taxed or pay any of the fees that hotels have to pay, having grown up ina hotel and seeing the sorta **** my parents hav had to do it really sickens me,
The part about companys skrewing us every whih way is wrong, the reason they get grants is to enploy ppl, creating jobs, a few years ago statistcs showed that if every1 in the work force in Ireland went back to work, they would still not be enough jobs.

Also, I dont think the refugees are a problem, I know that in the area im living in, the Junkies are more of a concern, atleast the refugess leave you alone, and dont go robbing your ****, We had a junkie looking for the local squat up in our area, some refugee lad came knocking on our window to warn us he was trying to force his way in to our flat, when we left the refugee alone the junkie came back, told him it wasnt his country, and threatend to break into his place and steal/destroy all his stuff, after beating the **** out of him.

I'd rather see all the skangers be deported to these refugee countrys and laugh at them try to put up with their governments, which keep the rich rich, and the poor poor, for a reason!

also, we are being taxed quite alot
My wages for last week were around the 350 mark, and after tax I only got 40, im mean, wtf.
Cant complain too much, should be getting it back tomorrow.

Victor

Originally posted by Doodee
another thing wrong with this country is that you can open a B&B, have the worst kinda kitchen in the world, charge your own rates, have a house the same size as a hotel, and you dont get taxed or pay any of the fees that hotels have to pay, having grown up ina hotel and seeing the sorta **** my parents hav had to do it really sickens me

I think if you investigate this, you will note that the "liberal" regime only applies to B&Bs with up to 3 guest rooms. And hotels have lots of tax breaks of their own.

Originally posted by Doodee
My wages for last week were around the 350 mark, and after tax I only got 40, im mean, wtf. Cant complain too much, should be getting it back tomorrow.

You just defeated your own argument, didn't you?

McGintyMcGoo

Caesar_Bojangle - I was mainly referring to tradesmen, doing nixers and not paying tax, but I could also be talking about larger corporations ripping off government bodies like Enterprise Ireland! "If everyone set up a small company, who the f*ck would pay tax?" - unrealistic I know, but you get my drift!

Also, I dont think the refugees are a problem,

I never said that they were a problem, but I'm a firm believer that they should integrated equally amongst all areas of society and the country!

gazzer

Just in reply to that post about Civil Sevents and it taking ten people to do one job. Well i wish that was the case where i work. It is more like one person doing ten peoples work.

The reason Benchmarking was brought in was to see if public sector wages were in tally with the private sector.

The benchmarking process lasted a year and the results came in last June (2002). So in my case apparantly i earn 8% less than somebody doing similar work in the private sector. However even though i am tole that i earn less the government want to wait and pay me that increase over a period of time i.e. till July 2005. So even though it was June 2002 when the report came out it will be 3 years before i will see my full increase.

I hate it when people slag off civil servents. I have worked in various government depts for 11 years now but yet i only come out with €330 a week. Not very much money in this day and age.

The work i do is very very hard and stressful, i know there are some depts/sections where there are lazy people and probably not much work to do but i can assure you that in the section i am in myself and the other 50 people in the office work very hard.

Sorry for ranting on but when i hear people giving out about how lazy we are and then i see some of my colleagues who are new to the civil service and only come out with€220 a week it really p***es me off.

pinkpig

Civil servants

The benefits that civil cervants get and flexability and the fact it's nearly impossible to get sacked compared with the pressure and instability of the private sector.


and if your so unhappy take the leap into the private and you may have the same view as the rest.

McGintyMcGoo

Gazzer! Sorry man but you still have not changed my opinion! I've no doubt that there are many civil servants (you included) that do work hard but you have admitted...

i know there are some depts/sections where there are lazy people and probably not much work to do

Lets be realistic here. If you claim to work hard and earn such crappy wages, well then there should be some alarm bells ringing in your head....ie. change job!

I also know quite a lot of civil servants that sit around doing nothing all day! But why should their wages be on a par with private industry wages? Private industry is more focused and streamlined towards making profit etc, but you are kept busy and you must be good at your job! If you slack off, you'll be sacked.and that's that!

It's up to you to complain if you know that there are some people doing nothing! I guarantee you that if a report was commissioned on civil servants in general, they would recommend huge redundancies. I much rather the extra money be given to nurses etc.

gazzer

exactly what benefits do you mean???

Fair enough it is a pensionable job...but i pay out of my wages for that pension just like anybody can put money away into a private pension fund, i dont get it for free, however i only get the one pension when i retire. As far as i know (and i could be wrong) if somebody from the private sector puts money into a fund for a pension do they not also get a state pension??? that is not something that i would get.

As for it being nearly impossible to be sacked. Well if the benchmarking is accepted what will happen is that responsibility for hiring and firing will now go to each individual department and there will be new rules brought in as to who can be fired, it means it will be easier to be fired.

As for pressure in the private sector..i agree with you but there can be just as much pressure in the civil service. I have deadlines to meet every day and have often stayed beyond my normal working hours to finish targets.

I did work in the private sector for two years so i have seen both sides of the fence so to speak. The reason i posted originally was just to clarify the benchmarking issue in regard to pay.

I know i could leave at any time and go to the private sector. That is something i am persuing at the moment. I was just clarifying a few points because there is always going to be a need for civil servents so somebody has to do the job so why not make it more attractive as a job option for people???

McGintyMcGoo

I know i could leave at any time and go to the private sector. That is something i am persuing at the moment.

Gazzer - It's your boss here! Looking for a new job hey? Come up to my office now, or you're sacked!

gazzer

i would have no problem in a report being done into exactly what type of work various civil servents do. Anyone found slacking off or not doing their job should be repremanded, sacked or whatever the course of action should be. There does definately need to be a reform of the service done so that the people who work are properly rewarded for it.

As for the nurses. i totally agree with you...they should get a hell of lot more money for the work they do, i have nothing but respect for anybody who chooses it as a career.

gazzer

good one...

[SG]BGA

want to know where out tax is going?
I was recently talking to a dublin architect for the dublin council. she was respionsible for designing halting sites for travellers. guess what the average cost for one smallquare of land for ONE caravan, with an outside toilet is???
go on..guess...
how much could that cost?
...
€160,000 ! thats where the money is going. the govenment dont even question that kind of spending...anything built on behalf of the government costs ten times too much...roads, buildings, they are getting ripped off and they keep on paying it.

whats even funnier (its so SAD u got to laugh) the govenment / coucil budget for a project - the project is completed, over time and over budget. fair enough. the next time the budget u tihnk they would factor what the learned from the previous project it..and my guess is they do...however the new one runs over time and over budget too....this keeps happening...ever hear of anything the government does coming in under budget??
nope..
so thats why we are paying high taxes, things like bin collecting have shot up (no doubt as a sly way to tax us further for our silly government spending willy nilly).

shootings to good for them!!

The Gopher

Dont have time to read the whole thread so Ill make my point here quickly.
I read something about some of you needing tags for your bins?Unsure what that means but where I live the council recently introduced rules whereby all rubbish has to be put into specially marked 3 euro bin bags that can only be bought from,guess where,a local shop owned by one of the more prominent Fianna Fail councillers in the area:rolleyes: Its such a fcuking look out for our boys club it makes me sick.The plastic bag levy is fair but we cannot limit the amount of rubbish we produce.
Anyway every week my dad dumps our garbage in a large bin at work so at least we dont have to normally pay these ridicilous charges.But I wonder where everybody else is putting theres.You can drive along the main road of the town for a few miles and see only a dozen bins in the morning.God knows where the rest are being dumped.

And doctors.The health borad here recently put in place conditions that meant doctors could not work after 6 o clock.If you need a doctor after 6 you either call out a doctor from the hospital,whoich can take hours,or wait hours in the overcrowded hospital to be seen to.There are only something like 3 doctors at night in a hosptial area serving over 50,000 people:rolleyes: Compared to a few dozen GPs who are not allowed to work at night.This makes it hard for people with jobs to get to see the GP .

Because the GPs cannot work after 6 they have been recouping lost revenue by hiking the charge up to 30 euro a visit:mad:

And this area constantly re-elects Fianna Fail TDs who for decades have done fcuk all for us.The people here are idiots.

So can you really say that your area has more beauracratic cash making schemes?I should think we must be the worst in the country.

smiles

Originally posted by pinkpig

Bin charges - which we are obligated to pay because if you present your bin without a tag they will hunt you down. or else you can protest and live in ****.

Jesus, imagine having to pay someone to deal with your **** that you couldnt be arsed recycling.

People living in the country have been paying private (the only type) bin charges for years.

Why are you so against paying for your rubbish to be disposed of? Because you are so used to having everything handed to you on a plate? Sometimes it pays to have a brain.

We're going into (or already in) a recession, right now we need to have higher taxes and we need to pay the charges to get a decent standard of living.

Our taxes are going on *trying* to make this country a little bit more economically sound, yes, it does take time and effort, and yes we will have to pay for it, through our taxes, charges, etc.

Compared to 20 years ago we are *infinitely* better off... but then again we are irish, so lets just sit around and complain about it...

<< Fio >>

smiles

Originally posted by The Gopher
And doctors.The health borad here recently put in place conditions that meant doctors could not work after 6 o clock.If you need a doctor after 6 you either call out a doctor from the hospital,whoich can take hours,or wait hours in the overcrowded hospital to be seen to.There are only something like 3 doctors at night in a hosptial area serving over 50,000 people:rolleyes: Compared to a few dozen GPs who are not allowed to work at night.This makes it hard for people with jobs to get to see the GP .

There's out of hours doctor schemes running all over the country.. ie "DOC" in the North East, "CareDOC" in Carlow, etc. Basically doctors from all participating practices take turns in attending, for me its in a local "cottage" hospital. You ring up, they take your name and details of what's wrong, the doctor calls you back, discusses whether or not you need to go in to see them, then if you do then they make an appointment usually within an hour or two.

There's posters all over my local doctors, and have been for months, why dont you actually look up what your options are instead of assuming that there's none?

Google Ireland search for "out of hours doctor" returned a "few" results... *rolleyes*

Originally posted by McGintyMcGoo
Here we go .....

[....]

Bascially you've pointed out every problem with country has.... we're a country or bastards, tbh.

We try and get everything we can for free, and then we complain when someone else manages to do it more successfully that we do.

It's impossible to put in social welfare schemes that will just help those who desperately need it.

Unfortunately it's a fundamental part of human nature that we like to scheme and trick and use whatever goodness there is out there for our own twisted purposes.


<< Fio >>

seamus

^^ What she said.

We do have a problem with the whole compo culture thing tho. It costs phenomenal amounts every year. Some people do it because they're justified in doing it, but there's a huge contingent of people who sue/claim because a) They know they'll get it or b) they've been brought up to leech.

Example - in the Indo today, there's a case of a woman who was awarded €11,000 because a taxi driver braked sharply - allegedly. She claims the taxi driver leaned over to look at her radio, then had to brake sharply to avoid a car. The woman's child who was sitting on her lap :rolleyes:, went forward and then back into her shoulder. The woman said nothing, but went to the doctor a few days later with a bruise on her shoulder and a bruise on the child's head.
So despite the lack of any hard evidence, (the taxi driver can't remember, obviously), and two minor bruises that could have happened any way, she gets awarded a filthy €11,000. Even if her claim is true, medical expenses + €500 is ample compensation.

Insurance costs/Legal costs, imo, are one of the major choke holds on our economy atm....

ballooba

Could you all please fcuk off to the politics board?

Victor

Originally posted by gazzer
Fair enough it is a pensionable job...but i pay out of my wages for that pension just like anybody can put money away into a private pension fund, i dont get it for free, however i only get the one pension when i retire. As far as i know (and i could be wrong) if somebody from the private sector puts money into a fund for a pension do they not also get a state pension??? that is not something that i would get.

the difference is a private sector worker pays PRSI (higher than most public sector workers), just like you do, but gets a much lower pension.