Just Change – reforming Scotland’s Local Property Tax
Scotland’s Commission on Local Tax Reform was established in early 2015 with the purpose of considering reforms to the current Council Tax system – one deemed outdated and broken by those on all sides. On December 14 th last the Commission published its final report entitled ‘ Just Change: A New...
Monday Blog: Public Sector reform
Public sector reform is an expression that falls lightly into the lap of public discourse. Everyone speaks up for ‘public sector reform’ and few if any would disagree that the sector needs constant reforming and improvement. That said, I can’t remember the last time I heard the expression ‘private...
Low tax, low spend?
The NERI’s Quarterly Economic Facts contains a range of indicators on the public finances. One of these indicators compares levels of government revenue and public spending in the Republic of Ireland (Ireland) with that of other EU economies. The basic method of comparison is to measure total...
Monday Blog: An insecure age
Being ‘young’ today is the same and not the same as it used to be 50 years ago. It is the same because it tends to be associated with growth, development, opportunity, challenge, rupture …. It is not the same because the world as we know it has changed dramatically in the space of two generations...
Monday Blog: Nothing comes from nothing: the case of health
Health is better than gold or ‘is fearr an tsláinte ná an t-ór’ as the saying goes in Irish. Economists and statisticians tend to think of health as a cost as well as a sphere of activity involving consumption of resources in the present time. Health, however, has two dimensions: (i) It is a state...
NERI seminar: Ireland’s daunting climate change challenge
The latest NERI seminar, 'Ireland’s daunting climate change challenge in the period to 2030: how to respond?', was held on 2 December. Joseph Curtin, Research Fellow at the Institute of International and European Affairs on climate policy, provided an overview of Ireland’s climate change challenge...
INMO Conference Presentation slides: Funding of health to 2035
External event contribution Funding of health and demographic change - Dr Tom Healy and Paul Goldrick-Kelly
Monday Blog: What is a prudent fiscal space?
One of the impacts of the recent economic crisis is that new expressions have been added to the English language, as spoken here. One such example is ‘fiscal space’. When the economy is growing there is, at one and the same time, more demand for public services (more school pupils and more demand...
UK Autumn Statement and Spending Review
The Autumn Statement delivered today by Chancellor of The Exchequer George Osborne will in all likelihood be remembered for one significant U-turn. The dramatic reversal on planned changes to tax credits represents a big win for opponents of the policy in Westminster and beyond. The total proposed...
NERI Seminar Dublin: Fiscal Priorities for Long-Run Growth
The latest NERI seminar looked at the Irish economy’s recent performance and considered its medium-and-long-term prospects for growth. Over the course of the presentation a range of policy reforms to increase the economy’s long-run potential output were identified and discussed. Dr McDonnell set out...