Budget 2025

The reliance on a handful of multinationals to swell the coffers with Corporation Tax way beyond what is justified by the actual productivity of the country I think is alarming. Looks like it will continue to surge as a proportion of total revenue.

If just a handful of companies change their global tax arrangements we'll be in serious trouble. If just one does it like Apple billions would disappear from revenue overnight.

If you ignore "windfall" CT reciepts this country has an underlying deficit of €6.25bn.

I'm genuinely worried that the government, opposition and population generally have short memories about all those lives destroyed the last time this country found itself overly reliant on one stream of revenue.

This can only work for the state if literally none of excess corporation tax goes on current spending. I'm not convinced that's what's happening.

I also thought the manner of the budget throwing out goodies to everyone was pretty reckless and very reminiscent of the absurd budgets before the 2008 crash. Granted most are "one off" but that's €2.2bn sent out the door alone.

I don't trust Irish governments to remain disciplined and refrain from using some of the receipts for day to day spending. I think it would be a disaster.

The biggest issue I have with the budget is that it raises the same misguided expectations as in the 2000's for politicians and the public - that this is the new normal again.

I hope I'm wrong but I don't think I will be on past experience.

I think generally no, people who are higher earners are generally harder workers and there is more that goes into it as well like

1/ Studying well at school

2/ Maintaining discipline throughout their lives in respect of professionalism

3/ Sacrificing work/life balance in favour of their careers

4/ Taking on more stress

When I was a lower earner in a call center I worked extremely hard from 9-5:30 but when I was done I was done. Didn't take it home with me and didn't have to give work a second thought nor did I have to consider giving up Sunday pints. Now I'm a high earner I find myself missing the simplicity of it and all I want to do is make even more sacrifices so that I can save enough to retire early. MNCs are attracted to Ireland partly because people like me work hard but the burdensome tax regime makes Ireland less attractive to me. The government would do well to take their foot of the neck of higher earners a little. 2008 was 16 years ago now, higher earners have contributed enough.

That is purely your opinion though. High earnings does not denote hard work in the slightest.

You've given the example of working in a call centre for a lower earner, that is not seen as hard job, I did it myself for a couple of years. I'm talking about physically hard work like being a labourer on building sites or highly manual factory work. This is far "harder" work in some people's eyes than sitting at a desk making decisions.

These workers are lower earners but have a very physically hard jobs. Yours is more mentally draining granted.

However you choose to take work home with you, you're choosing to sacrifice your work/life balance. You can also choose not to do that no matter your earnings. The second I log off from work, I'm off, don't respond to emails/take a single call, I don't give the job a second thought once I log off and I'm not a low earner.

100% from my experience also. Work a lot less harder however the decisions made have much more of a strategic impact.

In my own position each time I've moved roles for more money I've far less work to do but the work that I do actually do is more senior and has far more consequences if not done correctly.

I'm not sure if you're trying to stoke up support for FFG or if you genuinely believe what you say but one way or another you should really stop with the bullsh1t

Maybe in your head they are facts but here in the real world, where we don't spell words with all capitals, there is maybe 2 facts in your list

The current government is left-wing, False - it is composed of 3 right wing parties. Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the Greens

They support property taxes - True, although the relevance is questionable

They increase the minimum wage to the highest in the EU - False, Luxembourg Minimum wage is €14.86

They increase social welfare rates to the highest in the EU - Completely False, in France for example jobseekers equivalent is based on the wages you earned before you were let go

They have the most progressive income tax system in the EU. I'm going to assume this is false without checking given your lack of taxation knowledge shown on the politics forum so far. By all means, prove otherwise but I'm fairly sure you won't bother

Your rant about the PD's - maybe true. They were very liberal about contraception and divorce, probably would have been similarly liberal about gay marriage and abortion if they were issues at the time, but they did have a very pro-business approach making sure the fat cats got fatter and the banks got looked after at our expense etc.

The greens would at most be centre left, FF are populist centre, FG are slightly to the right of centre.

The renua logo is a bird with 2 right wings and still are more left than the greens. I accept this is in contrast to many other green parties around the world

Property/wealth taxes are typically a left-wing measure.

In most countries home ownership is seen as being of a wealthier class, in Ireland it's seen as a necessity. Germany for example has rent controls that allow a less-well-off person to live comfortably into retirement in the rental sector. The main homeowners there are large institutional pension funds. It wouldn't be unusual to be a pensioner and renting from your own pension fund in most of Europe

You should compare the nominal jobseekers' rate rather than the rates that occur based on salary.

We could spend the day doing a deep dive to find a narrative that suits. Jobseekers in France can get up to €1500 per month. Ireland that figure is less than €300 a week

I believe we still have the most progressive, though maybe France beat Ireland there with their punitive taxes over certain amounts (so possibly higher average but lower median).

It's nice to have a faith, but just because you believe in something doesn't make it a fact. The very notion that you yourself question that belief would suggest it to be inaccurate