News from Ireland
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FLOODING DISASTER
The floods have abated but the damage remains. The torrential rains that hit Ireland
have caused devastation in Counties Cork and Galway with businesses ruined,
homes destroyed and residents wondering if this is to be the shape of future
winters to come. The government has provided some funding to help repair the from
the economic recession is impossible to gauge.
The floods have abated but the damage remains. The torrential rains that hit Ireland
have caused devastation in Counties Cork and Galway with businesses ruined,
homes destroyed and residents wondering if this is to be the shape of future
winters to come. The government has provided some funding to help repair the from
the economic recession is impossible to gauge.
Attempts at a negotiated reduction in pay for the public service broke down on the eve
of the annual announcement of economic measures by the government (the budget).
Pay cuts have thus been applied across the board in the public service with top
earners having their annual wage cut by as much as 15%. Lower paid earners
suffered a 5% cut. Child Benefit and Social Welfare have also been cut with
jobseekers' payments, disability, widows' pensions, invalidity and carers' allowance
all cut by at least 8.20 euro per week. Child Benefit has been cut by 16 euro per month.
Strike action by the various public sector unions is inevitable but with little support for
the unions from outside of their own membership it is possible that the government
might even welcome such strikes as a way of reducing the public sector wage bill even
further.
SIGNS OF RECOVERY IN IRISH ECONOMY
Despite being severely criticized at home the government measures of dealing with the banks,
increasing taxes and cutting public sector pay have been well received by international
economic bodies who contend that Ireland is on the right track to recovery. This optimism was
borne out somewhat when the Central Statistics Office of Ireland announced that GDP had
actually grown by 0.3% in the second quarter of the year. Consumer spending is still down
however as incomes fall while unemployment is still high at 12.5%, although the rate of
increase has declined.
While the bottom of the recession may have been reached it will likely be another year at least
before unemployment begins to fall and the economy really recovers.
Despite being severely criticized at home the government measures of dealing with the banks,
increasing taxes and cutting public sector pay have been well received by international
economic bodies who contend that Ireland is on the right track to recovery. This optimism was
borne out somewhat when the Central Statistics Office of Ireland announced that GDP had
actually grown by 0.3% in the second quarter of the year. Consumer spending is still down
however as incomes fall while unemployment is still high at 12.5%, although the rate of
increase has declined.
While the bottom of the recession may have been reached it will likely be another year at least
before unemployment begins to fall and the economy really recovers.