Economy

By Constantin Gurdgiev. With po-faced pomp the Government has launched its mutli-annual fiscal programme, aspirationally titled ‘The Spring Statement’. A lengthy, over-manned delivery of the programme required the strenuous efforts of a score of  civil servants, economists and two ministers to energise the public imagination. Yet, for all this effort, it smacked of the vintage […]

Ireland, Euro area Governance et l’art de mentir: Past, Present and Futur Jean-Claude Trichet Institute of International and European Affaires   Dear Members of the Parliament Irlandais, It is for me an immense plaisir and a great honneur to be here, today, with what passes for the élite of your country, at this place where […]

By Constantin Gurdgiev. January’s IMF review of the economic situation in Ireland rained a heavy dose of icy water over the overheating Government spin machine, and much of the IMF concerns centre around exactly the same themes that were highlighted in these
 very pages last month. Top of the IMF worries list is growth. Budget […]

By Micheál Collins. Despite its prominence in various public policy discussions over recent years, detailed information on wealth in Ireland has been sparse. For the most part discussion on the distribution of wealth, and concepts such as a wealth tax, were based on hunches and guesstimates or assumptions that the wealth distribution must have in […]

By Rachel Mullen. The Government is opposed to the introduction of a Financial Transactions Tax (FTT). There is, however, a lack of transparency about how the Department of Finance position of opposition to the FTT was arrived at. There is also a failure to update the Oireachtas on recent developments concerning the proposals for a […]

For 2015. By Constantin Gurdgiev. December data on the Irish economy paint a picture of a major slowdown in growth momentum and once more highlight the troubling nature of our national accounts statistics. With that in mind, and given the spectacular tremors rocking the global economy outside the well-insulated doors of our Department of Finance, […]

By Emer O Siochrú Three Irish political parties support publicly-owned banks but the mainstream has yet to be convinced. Ellen Brown who spoke at Kilkenomics in October is on a mission to change that. Brown claims that a state bank can nearly double its spending power if it puts state money in its own bank […]