Budget 2011

The Budget 2011 contains a number of reforms which are likely to affect people at all levels of society. 

These are just a few of  the key proposals unveiled by Finance Minister Brian Lenihan are:

• Social welfare payments are to be cut by 4%.
•  A cut of 10 euro a month in child benefit for the first & second child and an additional cut of 10 euro for a third child.
•  An increase in the excise duty on petrol by 4 cent and diesel by 2 cent by midnight,although alcohol and cigarettes are untouched until next year.
•  A 4% cut in all public sector pensions above 12,000 euro a year.
•  A 10% lower starting rate for new employees in the public sector, including judges.
•  Reform of state cars with former Taoisigh and Presidents given a pooled system with the number of garda drivers cut.
•  Immediate reform of stamp duty to standard 1%
• One of the jets,The Gulf Stream Government jet, which is at the end of its life span, will not be replaced.

You may remember last year Brian Lenihan told us we had turned the corner,well i suppose in a way we did and ran into a brick wall.I wonder what is around the corner we are currently turning??

Everyone is going to have to pay more,unfortunately some are already at breaking point and cant afford these charges.

It is now time to find another way of replacing that lost income 

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What are your thoughts??-Inflation is back

The cost of living has been hit by the first annual increase since the start of 2009, official figures revealed today.

Mortgage interest hikes, increasing bills for education and rising telecomms charges all led to a 0.2pc rise in inflation.

Up until August, year-on-year consumer prices had fallen steadily over the last 19 months.

The Central Statistics Office basket of goods test showed fashion stores increasing prices for clothes and footwear as the summer sales ended last month and transport charges also edged up slightly as airfares and car rental costs went up.

Ibec, Irish business lobby group, warned prices in some sectors were still too high and needed to fall back in line with our competitors.

Economist Reetta Suonpera said: "Prices are now rising again, ......"

Isme, the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association, said the future of thousands of businesses lay in the hands of Government and called for state-managed rates to be cut.

Chief executive Mark Fielding said: 

"The private sector has done its bit by cutting costs to the bone, just to remain in business, but these companies continue to be hammered by increases in state imposed costs."

Avine McNally, director of the Small Firms Association, said:  "When costs are passed on to the rest of the economy, competitiveness and jobs are lost and businesses close."

Dan McLaughlin, of Bank of Ireland's economic research division, said the annual rise in inflation was driven by higher mortgage interest costs, as banks sought to pass on some of their higher costs of funding.

Irish Independent

So prices are increasing because the banks need to make more money...while billions of our money is been pumped in to save them,they see their chance to squeeze us for a bit more.

What are your own thoughts?

Leave a comment please

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Or we can take a chance and wait for the government to save us. Have a look at their plan below

THE Government was last night accused of having no jobs strategy as the number of unemployed broke the 450,000 mark.

Defending the Government's economic policies, Taoiseach Brian Cowen said jobs will not be created "in a vacuum and will not be created on the basis of letting our public finances go out of control".

Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore said the latest jobless figures were "the highest number of people ever unemployed in the State". He described the level of unemployment as the "biggest crisis that the country is facing at present".

He accused the Government of not taking the problem seriously. Mr Gilmore said the 452,882 people now on the live register is 300,000 more than when Fianna Fail and the Greens took power after the 2007 general election.

Emigrated

"This is not counting the number of people who have left the country -- as immigrants who have gone home and young Irish people who have emigrated to Australia and elsewhere.

"One in every three young men in the workforce is out of work. It impacts on the level of poverty experienced by households and the self-esteem and morale of those out of work," he said.

Fine Gael finance spokesman Kieran O'Donnell said the latest figures show the domestic economy and the labour market are still mired in recession.

"The ongoing collapse in investment spending revealed in theCSO's Quarterly National Accounts, and the large rise in benefit claimants, confirm that the Government's recovery plan is failing.

Mr Cowen said: "Everything that can be done to find opportunities for people to up-skill and train is being done. Increased resources are being applied."

"The difficult decisions that we are taking have to be taken and are absolutely necessary.

"I do not suggest for one moment that there is any degree of satisfaction or complacency about these figures.

"But we will only turn this around on the basis of doing the job of work which the Government is engaged in -- reducing our costs, getting exports going, as we are doing, and making sure that people can sell goods and services in the marketplace in order to maintain the jobs we have, take on part time people in due course and then turn those jobs into permanent jobs," he added.

Reported in the Irish Independant

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Budget Cuts Ahead

Irish Times

FURTHER DIFFICULT decisions lie ahead Taoiseach Brian Cowen warned yesterday, but he expressed confidence that the economy had turned the corner.

Mr Cowen told the annual conference of the Chartered Accountants Ireland in Dublin there was a need to acknowledge that the outlook for the economy and the international outlook in particular, was not as secure as we might like.

“That is why we must keep a clear focus on those factors that are ours to control. We are heading in the right direction. And that is the direction in which we must continue,” he said.

“And it is important that we should understand fully what went wrong and how it went wrong. This is not just so that individuals can be held to account, as they will be, but also to ensure that we can be confident that a recurrence can be avoided,” he said.

“The decisions we have taken are difficult, even unpalatable in many cases. But I am convinced that they were necessary and are proving to be effective.”

He said the objective had been to apply the burdens of adjustment fairly and to encourage recovery and long-term prosperity, while dealing with the crisis swiftly and credibly.

He said decisive action taken by the Government since the crisis broke had restored stability during 2009. The latest indicators are consistent with expectations of a return to growth in 2010, he said.

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Interest rates are on the rise,banks will be cutting rates on savings accounts,increasing rates on loans and mortgages,budget cuts of €3,000,000,000 or more is imminent.These are just some of the things we know about-what do we not know?

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Who is running the country???

Sargent resigns ministry over 'error of judgment'

Green Party junior minister Trevor Sargent has resigned following revelations of his representations to gardaí on behalf of a constituent facing prosecution on a public order charge.

In a brief statement to the House this evening, Mr Sargent said he accepted that "although my actions in contacting An Garda Síochána were not a criminal offence, under Section 6 of the Prosecutions of Offences Act 1974 such a communication could be deemed not lawful.

"In this regard I accept I made an error of judgement. Accordingly I hereby tender my resignation forthwith as Minister of State for Food and Horticulture."

The Irish Times

Yet another blunder in what is fast becoming a shambles.Can we really expect this Government to help our current situation when they keep making one error after another,and im certain there is plenty more to come.

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