Monday Blog: Assessing the impact of Budget 2014
An economist was once asked to assess the impacts of the French Revolution of 1789 to which she replied 'it is too early to say yet'. Budget 2014 may very well fall into this category. In some ways like an impressionist painting in the Art Gallery the viewer has to stand back and ponder it all. Much...
Monday Blog: Is it really €2.5 billion ?
Having spent 5 years now in the austerity trenches another few hundred yards seems surmountable especially when the casualities are counted as €2.5 billion instead of €3.1 billion in 'fiscal adjustments' (cuts to spending or increases in tax neither of which is nice). But, €2.5 billion is still €2.5...
NERI Seminar: Wealth Tax - Options for its implementation in the Republic of Ireland
Presentation of Tom McDonnell regarding the implementation of a wealth tax in Ireland. Event details can be found here. The full paper can be found here.
Child Poverty - North &South
One in every five children on the island of Ireland lives in a household with an income below the poverty line. In the Republic, the latest CSO data suggests 18.8% of children live in poverty. In Northern Ireland, 22% of children are in poverty. In both, the trend over time has been one of slow...
NERI Seminar: QEO Autumn 2013
Presentation of the Autumn 2013 NERI Quarterly Economic Observer, September 18th 2013.
Monday Blog: Ireland - a place of tax safety and refuge ?
Writing in the Irish Times recently, Feargal O’Rourke head of tax at PwC Ireland declares: ‘What can be said with absolute certainty is that every company within the charge to Irish tax pays tax at 12.5 per cent on their activities – that is a fact.’ (‘ Whatever way you look at it, Ireland is not a...
Monday Blog: A welcome (if modest) increase in employment
The publication, recently, by the Central Statistics Office of results from their Quarterly National Household Survey for the year to June 2013 has provided a welcome respite to the generally negative employment news since the beginning of 2008. Employment is now increasing across most sectors and...
Understanding Earnings - a key context for policy formation
As we move towards another austerity budget (October 2013) it is useful to consider Government's choices in the context of the structure of earnings. Despite its relevance, limited attention tends to be given to the distribution of earnings and income in the formation of policy options and decisions...
Ireland and Europe's FTT Proposal
In the context of the recent international financial crisis, one principally derived from the reckless speculative behaviour of numerous banking and financial corporations, the long-term hesitancy towards a financial transactions tax (FTT) tax has begun to thaw. Most recently the European Commission...
A Financial Transactions Tax:
External event contribution Presentation to the 5th annual ICTU Global Solidarity Summer School, Dublin August 24th 2013