Budget 2020, Another tenner or is it twenty

twowheelsonly wrote: »

Marhay70 wrote: »

You don't have free rein to bring in as many cigarettes/tobacco as you like from other EU countries. The cheapest countries like Estonia and Lithuania are limited to 300 pp and even Spain and Portugal are, I think, 600pp. Just another anomaly like VRT.

Not true at all. Once they're for personal consumption you can actually bring in almost whatever you want. Such is the joy of being a member of the EU. For someone that smokes 40 a day then 1000 cigarettes is less than 4 weeks supply. I brought 600 cigarettes and 10 x 50g pouches from Estonia in 2017. Close enough to the same from Luxembourg this year and Belgium last year. No problem. My sister in law was stopped about a month ago with 2000 cigarettes from Spain. Again, no problem. Different ball game obviously if you're flying out every week and bringing that amount back but on an occasional basis it's not a problem.

Akabusi wrote: »

If you think this budget was bad, just wait until the next one, recession and possibly brexit to deal with. When combined with the corrupt decision to build the children's hospital in the city centre and the crazy rural broadband scheme which together will cost something like 6 billion euro, the opportunity has been lost for possibly the next ten years for real infrastructure and services which will better all our lives.

I agree both are needed but they could both easily be done for half that cost.

As climate change is such the topic now there was a great opportunity missed to use that 3 billion along with a bit more to concentrate on public transport and renewable energy.

They could purchase extra carriages as most or the dart and commuter services are already at max capacity. I get that there will be a lead time on these but that is why it should be done now. Extend the rail service out to Navan at least, its mad to think in 2019 that there is no rail service for the people of Monaghan, Cavan or Donegal.

The midland peat bogs offer ample area for wind turbines and PV, there are hundreds of acres where these renewables could be installed today and not affect anyone. Even if there was a one or two turbines put on the outskirts of towns what would be the harm? I was flying from Croatia to Germany a couple of weeks ago on a cloudless day and was amazed to see all the wind turbines as i flew across the Austrian and German countryside. Nimbyism must only be an Irish thing.

Some countries in Europe really put us to shame in how they do things. You know the way the Spanish send their kids to us in the summers to learn English, we should be sending our kids to Germany, The Netherlands and Sweden to see how things could be done right to benefit everyone. These countries are decades ahead of us in their thinking. We could and should be copying what these countries do so well.

Germany now produce 41% of their energy through a combination of wind solar and bio-mass. They also are testing overhead charging on sections of the autobahn for hybrid or electric trucks to charge whilst they are driving.

Holland are the world's second largest food exporter, just drive around Holland and see all the greenhouses, where we have our worst land that basically grows rushes could we not have grants to build greenhouses on it to intensively grow fruit and vegetables? Also Holland has the more bikes than people, they have separate cycle tracks along most roads. 20% of Dutch kids cycle to school.

Sweden has one of the best health, education and social care systems in the world. Yes they pay high taxes but they get value for money. Our healthcare system is broken and the only solution the politicians have is to throw more money into the black hole.

YFlyer wrote: »

Got to laugh at the smokers organising the fag runs.