NERI Seminar Dublin: Measuring the Impact of the Jobs Initiative
Brendan O'Connor In May 2011 the Government announced a Jobs Initiative which involved a series of measures to boost employment. A key aspect of the Jobs Initiative involved a reduction in the rate of VAT which was targeted mainly at labour intensive goods and services relating to tourism. In this...
Is a ‘living wage’ such a mad idea?
Over recent years I have been involved in publishing a number of research papers and reports on issues related to low income in Ireland. Among these, work with the Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice focused on establishing the cost of a minimum essential standard of living in Ireland and...
Public-Private Partnerships in Ireland: A Review of the Experience
External event contribution In July 2012 the Irish government announced a stimulus plan for the beleaguered economy. The plan to spend €2.25 billion on capital projects is largely based on the use of public-private partnerships (PPP) to procure new infrastructure and services. This signals a renewed wave of PPP procurement...
Along comes Tobin: the arrival of an overdue Financial Transactions Tax (FTT)
This week's decision at EU level to initiate formal steps towards the introduction of a financial transactions tax (FTT) is a long overdue and welcome step. While it is only 11 of the 27 member states who have signed up, the tax will now evolve under the enhanced co-operation mechanism. It is...
One fifth of Workers are ‘low-paid’
Eurostat, the EU Statistics Agency, recently released new data on the proportion of low-paid workers in Ireland and across the EU. Their analysis defines low-earnings in relative terms measured as those earning two thirds or less of the national median gross hourly earnings. Median earnings are the...
NERI post-budget seminar 2012
The NERI recently hosted a post-budget seminar. The presentations are available for download: Paul Sweeney Michael Taft Aoife Ní Lochlainn
The growth in part-time work
In the current edition of Mandate's regular publication, Shopfloor, I have an article highlighting the growth in part-time work over recent years. In it I highlight some of the material from the recent NERI conference on the unemployment crisis. The key points are: While the headline figures on job...
Average disposable income falls 10% since 2007
The experience of recession and austerity over recent years has been widespread. The impact has been greatest on those who lost their jobs since the combined economic, fiscal, banking, property and social crisis hit Ireland - something I highlighted in a paper at the recent NERI Conference...
Conference highlights Ireland’s Unemployment Crisis
On November 12th the NERI hosted a conference focused on Ireland's unemployment crisis. Over a series of papers the nature of the current crisis and the possible solutions to the problem were examined. The papers and presentations for the conference are now available on the NERI website. In my own...
Income and the Gender Divide
How do the incomes of men and women compare? How have they changed in recent years and whose income is highest? These are questions that are often asked and speculated upon in the context of male/female earnings and income divisions. Using data from the CSO's Survey on Income and Living Conditions...