"Tackling social welfare fraud" will not yield anything like €600 million in savings, since the real cost of fraud is something closer to €25 million. By Michael Taft.
“Minister of State Fergus O'Dowd has said that the Government believes it can save €600m by tackling social welfare fraud.”
The only reason the Government refuses to countenance increasing the tax rate paid by the wealthy is because of an ideological fixation on the idea that the rich must be protected. By Vincent Browne.
Maybe, in seven years' time, we will reflect on a bright moment on a dreary November day, when a new president offered a ray of joy and hope that illuminated our otherwise dark perspectives.
On Sunday, 13 November, as part of the DIY Skillshare Festival in Wesley House on Dublin's Leeson Street, Conor McCabe and Mick O'Broin will lead a workshop on NAMA - how it works, what's wrong with it, and and what possibilities there are to fight back against the State's biggest property speculator. Below, O'Broin presents an activist's guide to the agency described by Enda Kenny in 2010 as "a blank cheque to bail out the banks".
The average projected growth rate for countries not in bailout in the EU over the next two years is 2.1%. Ireland's projected growth rate is 0.1%. This is a figure that should alarm and depress us. By Michael Taft.
Post-crisis, the world will be an even more unpleasant place than it was before. By D. Mario Nuti.
Currently, by and large, the economic system emerging from the crisis is bound to be substantially very similar to the pre-crisis one, improved in some respects, but worsened by large scale cuts in welfare expenditure made necessary by the (debatable) purpose of achieving fiscal balance. The post-crisis system will be more conflictual and insecure, less rather than more ‘green’ - basically a more unpleasant world in which to live.
Claiming Our Future have launched a new campaign - Wealth Tax: Fair Dues - urging the Government to increase taxes on the wealthy rather than cutting public expenditure in Budget 2012.
They say:
Cutting public expenditure and increasing taxes on lower income earners is a choice that will hit those least able to cope with the crisis and will hamper our chances of recovery.
Last Friday, I heard Joe Jones of the Gypsy Council speak about his organisation’s history before Dale Farm. In passing – we weren’t talking about Ireland at all - he mentioned the names Grattan Puxon and Cherry Orchard and, not having any idea what he was referring to, I made a note to google both.
According to Aviva CEO Andrew Moss Ireland has a "culture of entitlement". Quite so, writes Paul Walsh, but it's one that prevails only amongst multinational corporations like Aviva.
On 19 October Aviva Ireland announced a restructuring programme in which a number of “initiatives” proposed by the company “could result in a total reduction of 950 roles in Ireland over two years.”
Review: How to be a Woman, Caitlin Moran, Ebury Press.
New research furthers efforts to reverse the ageing process without the ethical restrictions associated with embryonic stem cell research, writes John Holden.
The altogether un-hip sounding ‘Genomic Plasticity and Ageing’ Team at the Functional Genomics Institute in Montpelier France have successfully rejuvenated cells from donors aged over 100 years.