AP Thursday 13th Feb
Even before the 33-year-old single, unemployed mother gave birth to octuplets last month, she had been caring for her six other children with the help of $490 a month in food stamps,

Independent Friday 16th January
The Bertie booster would have taken the salary for the office of Taoiseach to €310,000 — which would have put him at the top of the European pay league for prime ministers. It was later parked indefinitely.
Mr Cowen now receives a salary of €257,024, (plus 18 cent), which is a fall of one-sixth on the new salary summit which Mr Ahern sought to bring to the office.
This quarter-million figure reflects the 10pc pay cut adopted by the Cabinet.
But British Prime Minister Gordon Brown still receives much less, for governing a population 15 times the size of Ireland.
The occupant of 10 Downing Street is paid €208,901.22, although it is expressed as Stg£187,611.

If Brian Cowen does not act the international community will- by pulling the plug on our ability to be over generous to ourselves with their money!

Taken together, these two benefits are worth far more than any pension levy, although their exact value depends on individual circumstances. I know quite a few PS workers and am aware that they are dedicated, hard workers, employing their skills and talents for the good of the community. But in most fields there is usually an inverse correlation between job satisfaction and rewards. Brilliant aircraft designers are paid a pittance, because they love their job and would do it for any living wage. Same goes for many other engineers. Society’s respect is not for them, however, but for doctors, dentists and pop stars.

Turning to your luxury point. there is a finite pot of tax money available. Increase taxes so that PS can enjoy luxuries that can in turn contribute to the tax pool and the industrial worker will feel that if he paid less taxes, he could be enjoying the same luxuries that contributed in turn to the tax pool. Its a zero-sum game, and I’m afraid I’d prefer lower taxes.

Thank you for taking the time to answer my comment, I appreciate it.

I’m not a business man or an economist, but my family close and extended are in business. My brother believes if you give money to the poor they will just spend it recklessly. Like some believe people just drink their children’s allowance along with their dole money and so on. A bit like saying all business men and banker are thieves. So there is a balance in their somewhere.
So now I know thank you €204.30 per week. I spend that and more on my weeks shopping.
Again you can’t put all eggs in one ….. Depending on your outlay, take even a modest rent, food, and utility payment, you’re really not left with very much, now are you.

I’m sorry but I don’t think it’s the generous Government handouts but more the unscrupulous mortgage societies giving loans to – shaky borrowers – people who have no guarantor or collateral. Here in Finland could have to have a guarantor or a big collateral before you get a loan for anything substantial and that includes a car.

One or two areas that could be looked at is property tax, and less of a claw back for the very wealthy. I don’t think it fair to let Joe Soap tax payer foot the bill for all utilities, health care and so and have them available to those who really don’t contribute, unless they wish to pay (more tax) for the privilege just like everybody else has to.
Another is to stop giving (I’m referring to building firms) business 100% (or near to) when they can’t or blatantly refuse to pay them back. Refusing to pay the bank the millions it owes while having that amount and – 3 or 4 times – more in the very same banks savings account. I have never understood the logic of a business going bankrupt, and the business walking away without losing a penny, while those working may in time lose their house, with €204.30 per week or whatever married allowance is (probably less) doing little to make ends meet. If they have 5 kids (800 extra a month) it’s likely they will not have a mortgage in the first place; whether or not there’s little but get by.

In Dublin in the early 1900’s My grandfather on my mothers side lost his business. Everything thing from the house to the last stick of furniture was taken to pay his debts.
I’m not saying we should revert back to such drastic methods, but again somewhere in between.
You lose your business, you should pay back within reason what you owe.
You invest on the stock market, and you lose you should also pay back what you owe, and accept your loses.

It is a pity that ‘people like me’ ’sicken’ you. Perhaps you should start facing up to reality. A little research will show you that I am telling you the truth the unemployment benefit rate for the single person who was I referring to is €204.30 per week – see for yourself

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/categories/social-welfare/social-welfare-payments/unemployed-people/unemployment_benefit

But you miss the whole point of my argument by attacking me. The Government tax revenues are down but Government spending on day to day expenses is rising. You do not need to be a businessman to understand that if expenditure exceeds income you need to borrow to make up the difference. In essence we are now mortgaging our children’s future for today’s excesses.

Very generous Government handouts have added to the property price bubble. You will not have suffered by taking out a 25-30yr mortgage to pay for an overpriced house but many of our young people have.

All excessively generous payments need to be examined like the €104,000 euro tax free expenses paid to one TD. Expenses which, from what I read, do not require to be verified.

Unless we get our cost basis under control we will continue to lose jobs to lower cost economies and that will lead to more closed factory gates

I’ve listened to people like you since I was a snapper (quite a long time ago) and it really sickens me.
How much children’s allowance, dole payment. It’s the very same people who talk about the excessive payments usually are the ones who couldn’t live on 200 a week. I even doubt if a single person dole I 200. Forgive if I’m wrong, but people like you also tend to exaggerate.

How do you manage to provide properly for you kids when the mortgage is paid with the kids allowance?

I would agree with you if you said these “generous payments” were too much for those who receive more than the average income, but that’s as far as it goes.
I guess you would like to see soup queues, queues at building sites and factory gate. Would I wright in thing you’ve made enough money from your business to keep you going, and no fear of you having to “queue for a living.”

“to say that it doesn’t really matter how much PS are paid because the government claws most of it back in taxes anyway. Where do you draw the line?”

I did not say it does not matter how much PS workers are paid; au contraire, how much they are paid is crucial to how the money-spin-back works: pay too much, and the worker might hoard some of their money somewhere because they do not need that extra cash to live on – worse still, they may be able to send it off-shore and our economy gets no benefit from it; Pay too little and the workers will, either a) Leave the job for better pay in the private sector (nurses, in the late ’90s, then replaced by workers from the Philippines) or, b) suffer low pay for supposed “job-security” and be unable to afford to spend much money on the so-called “luxuries” that would improve the economy by spinning through it.

b) I, think, is what the new pension levy will cause.

It is a curious argument to say that it doesn’t really matter how much PS are paid because the government claws most of it back in taxes anyway. Where do you draw the line? How does the public know whether they are getting value for money? Perhaps it was this attitude that allowed the cost of living in Ireland to get so seriously out of hand. There was no comparativity with other similar countries. Thus it didn’t matter that Cowan was paid more than Bush, as everyone else in the country was able to cut their cloth proportionately. Ireland’s answer to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory with PS workers as the Oompa-Loompas?

In the late 80’s, it wasn’t until the state was broken that action was taken. Some of the leading politicians from that time have said the government were literally weeks from not being able to pay wages. It was only when the reality that they couldn’t write any more cheques hit them they got it together. I think the same will happen again, but the timeframes will be seriously compressed compared to the 80’s… months rather than years…. just my opinion

I don’t think its just a matter of cutting benefits though. I think the cuts need to start by our leaders paying themselves a competitive salary, e.g Cowen is paid more than Gordon Brown, Barak Obama, Merkel etc.. Hurley is paid more than Trichet!

Oh and what are the Indians doing that’s that different to the Chinese (Im curious, Im not questioning it at all)

On economists, my instinct is that while they might be bright enough; they are still at the level of witchdocters … prescribing stuff that as often as not kills the patient rather than helps and with an almost religious belief towards their particular bias… . They cant agree how to solve yesterdays problems let alone todays crisis. (and thats the best of them, the worst are just shrills for whatever agenda pays their wages)