Tokenistic Budgetary Reform
According to comparative international studies, Ireland is bottom of the pile when it comes to how we do our budgets. The Index Of Legislative Budgetary Capacity, 2006 gave Ireland zero out of ten on the amount of time given to parliament to consider a draft budget and zero out of 10 on the amount of...
Scrutinising the EU Scrutiny Report
Every six months officials from the Department of Finance give the Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform an update on the EU legislation it has enacted. We recently discussed their report for the period of 1st July to 31st December, 2012, which included the following elements; Single Supervisory Mechanism & European Banking Authority Bank Resolution...
A new low: defaulting on our own pensioners
The Fine Gael/Labour Government is letting Irish pensioners be wiped out in the liquidation of IBRC. This marks a new low, and starkly illustrates the moral bankruptcy, of the entire bank bailout saga. Having given so much taxpayer money to international investors, the decision to default on our own pensioners is abhorrent. When Maurice Hudson‘s...
Repossessions and the Live Register on the Late Debate
I was on RTE’s Late Debate on Wednesday, May 1, 2013, with Ross Maguire of New Beginnings, Paul Joyce of FLAC and Arthur Spring of Labour. We were discussing the Land and Conveyancing Reform Bill 2013 and the live register figures.
Budget 2014: New date, same ole story
I know it’s a bit early to start talking about the budget. But, given that budget 2014 will be on October 15, I asked the Taoiseach whether the Oireachtas would be given time to interrogate and suggest improvements on the budget, or whether the entire budgetary roadshow would be happening in the same condensed time-frame...
A brief gilmpse of the Minister’s SPU
Yesterday in the Joint Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform we discussed the Stability Programme Update (SPU to you and me) with Minister Noonan. This is an important document that heads of state submit to the European Commission, outlining: the overall macroeconomic situation progress towards the five EU-level targets progress under the flagship initiatives In...
