The Croke Park Agreement’s first annual report found considerable ‘savings’ in expenditure on public services: €289 million was saved on the pay bill due mainly to 5,000 less jobs, while a further €308 million was saved in non-pay costs. Even so, Ministers are warning that they will need more, much more. In fact, we’re going to get four more years of Croke Park ‘savings’. If the Agreement is any more successful we will end up with a third-tier, under-funded, anaemic public service.

There is plenty of wealth in Ireland, more than in most European countries, in fact. By Michael Taft.

The issue of wealth in Ireland is certainly hotting up – at least in the Irish Times. Last week we had a strong intervention by Fintan O’Toole, claiming that Ireland is an extremely wealth country, a fact that contradicts the austerity narrative we are being subject to.

If Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton gets his way, will become a day of low wages and exploitation, says Michael Taft.

A rainy Sunday morning; it brings many thoughts – of outdoor activities cancelled, indoor DIY projects advanced, no football and letting Garibaldy go through the Sunday Independent so that we don’t have to suffer that fate (save for Gene Kerrigan who should always be read in print or on-line).

Ireland should become more like Europeans and junk our nonsensical low-tax model. By Michael Taft.

You can hear the Ministers brushing up on their variants of TINA – there is no alternative. Ruairí Quinn is leading the way:

The OECD's proposal to cut social welfare to increase employment came straight from Krusty's Big Book of Bonkers Ideas. By Michael Taft.

The Report of the Independent Review of Employment Regulation Orders (EROs), published on Tuesday, advocates the retention of Joint Labour Committees. It also points out that in certain circumstances increasing wages can actually increase employment. IBEC will not be pleased. By Michael Taft.

A government with powers of taxation and regulation has a lot of leverage with an under-regulated industry reliant upon tax subsidies, such as, for example, the pensions industry. It should make them a Don Corleone-type ‘offer that can’t be refused’. By Michael Taft.

Wage incresases at Bord na Móna will not be paid out of the public purse, regardless of what the Sunday Independent might have you believe. That's because it's a public limited company, or, to put it another way, a private enterprise. By Michael Taft.

The cut in VAT is no more than ineffectual fiddling at the margins and won't help to create jobs. By Michael Taft.

Irish business cut employment in the traded sectors during the boom. There is little reason to believe it will step up to the task of job creation now. By Michael Taft.

When publishing its submission to the Government in anticipation of the Jobs Initiative, IBEC’s Danny McCoy stated: