Democracy is all about numbers and 300000 plus is a big number to start annoying also its a lot of money to take out of the economy a lot of businesses would suffer so its not really a matter of public servants others will be affected

Unfortunately,I’m afraid, I agree with your comment….

Creamy
The economy is actually growing.
Taxes on income are higher than expected.
Exports are ahead of last year.
House prices in major urban centres actually rose last month.
Now if you stopped your whinging and allowed positive sentiment to replace your constant negativity then things may improve at a faster rate but when I see your postings I automatically reach for the antidepressants.

The people who voted Fine Gael and Labor will regret their decisions when these taxes come into force. At least I will be voting Sinn Fein because they will abolish property taxes and replace them with a tax on the rich.

Agree creamy the budget will be the breaking point for the majority of working families. @ Tim I do regret voting FG!!! Tipping point is nearly there

what happens tim when Sf gets in to power will they have a real investigation in to our banks and our judiciary or will sf go under the bed like this goverment as well

Creamy unfortunately thousands of people have passed the breaking point years ago. They live begging welfare for emergency payments and urgent needs payment to CWO’s and in the majority of cases the answer is no because there is no more money left. Poverty is alive and well. The capuchins in Dublin have thousands lining up for food parcels every day and they are people who once worked and have families and paid all their bills and now they are reduced to poverty. There are people in this country who have never even touched the reality of a Recession. Recession is a word they see in the paper. It has no impact on their lives whatsoever and we all know who they are. basically the wealthy and the very well paid. Try tell them their are people suffering and they will laugh at you and say where, who. Denial because it suits them and because they know their interests are protected by the powers in government. Their way of life is promoted while ours is eroded and degraded.

@ MIck. Denial is a dangerous thing. Its not Creamy bringing the bad news its REALITY.

Well Tim I voted for Labour the last time and yes I am sorry now as things in government haven’t changed so next time I will vote Sinn Fein for the same reasons. We’ll just have to see will they do as they proposed.

@Mick think you might wanna check some of those stats from an independent source,government sources at best are less than truthful.

this goverment is condoning criminal activity ,nobody ever will go to jail for what has gone in our banks. because the banks have to much dirt on politicians and senior civil servants

PROOF:

Spending Minister Brendan Howlin is today backing down on his threat to cut some of the €1.5bn worth of allowances paid to public servants.

well the sooner the dirt comes out the better and then we can have a clean slate.

Which suggests they are either teachers or Left wing politicians just back from their annual re-education camps.

@Mick which are you so?

Mick is a holier than thou Fine Gael troll,keyboard warrior,best to be ignored!!!

Fine Gael and Labor really need to go. When people finally vote for alternatives like Sinn Fein / Independents, maybe Ireland will do better in terms of the €600 million bondholder payment made yesterday. On October 1st, there is a €1 billion bondholder payment to AIB.

Also SF pledged to abolish property taxes and water charges.

Thats kind of obvious now Dec. People are saying that for a long time.

Tim those figures are just staggering and depressing when you think they are basically coming from the health service and the welfare of the poor. From the poor to the rich. What a disgusting unequal society we live in.

Tim. Unfortunately there is no alternative. SF and the independents don’t have the real numbers to win an election. This country is CRYING out for an alternative but nobody is taking the lead in uniting the independents with one economic policy. If a party started up in the morning that declared they would cut government pay, lucrative un earned pensions, long holidays, unvouched expenses I would vote for them or even run for them. We are taking from the poorest in our society and giving it to the clueless politicians & faceless fat cats of Europe. Enough is enough. This madness has to stop.

What have the sitting times of the British Parliament to do with us unless you are suggesting harmonising the way we do things with them. In that case we should immediately reduce all Social Protection payments by fifty per cent to bring us in line with them. That includes pensions and unemployment benefits. That could save us a huge proportion of the nineteen billion spent under this heading very year.

Mick were you ever unemployed or on the dole. If you were can you please tell me how you paid a mortgage, food, bills, etc etc because if you think by halving this to 94 euro and still paying the same bills then its obvious you were never unemployed and dependant on welfare.

@Mick did you miss the point on purpose or do you use every chance you get to berate another commentator just for kicks?

My statement was on about how British MPs are already back to work while our TDs have another two weeks holiday. The MPs also got their holidays after our politicians.

The TDs should be back to work in the Oireachtas this week.

As I said in another article which a young FGer refused to answer to. Why did Reilly stand back and allow the new HSE chief to give himself a 30,000 pay rise when the HSE is 500m over budget? That’s not inherited from FF, that’s pure corruption and ineptitude. FG can use the inherited excuse all they want, it doesn’t change the fact that the man on the street knows they are corrupt and can’t do the job.

That 30 grand pay rise really sticks in my gullet.
By the way he defended the cuts he looks like he is a real hard arsed twit as well.
We’re not going to like this man at all

Yes it should! But surprise surprise it’s all hidden away from the publics eyes, wouldn’t want the masses knowing anything of importance!

Mick, are you on the same planet as the politicians?

Or perhaps you’re some brown-nosing member of a youth FG fanclub?!

Do you think that public servants are not employed tax payers. Believe me I pay my fair share of tax. Pretentious ..!

Penny get back to work and stop stealing your employers time contributing to Social media sites. Don’t give me guff either about break time.

@Mick ever hear of shift work?

It seems as though they are all spineless. It is easy to talk the tough talk but I can’t remember. Single occasion when they have taken on a ‘vested’ interest, be it senior public servants, Unions, ‘Special Advisors’ etc and faced them down and delivered savings.

It seems to be that all ‘savings’ are targeted on those that have no real voice and power. Pick on the weak. So much for ‘we are all in this together’. There seems to be some elements who have no idea there is even a recession!!

I worked in a school and at the staff meeting I used to try to tell teachers (who didn’t even live in the city) the horrible poverty and social deprivation of certain parts of inner city Limerick and one day this horrible arrogant pompous blonde bimbo of a teacher screamed at me across the table that she didn’t live here and never saw this poverty or deprivation when she was driving in her car. I tried to explain that it is hidden in estates out of the main view of the public but that the local papers were full of the stories on this issue every week to which she replied she didn’t read those papers. So at that stage I knew what i was dealing with. She couldn’t care less about the poverty of the kids lives and only cared about her own salary. She told everyone out boldly that only went into teaching for the holidays. The sad thing her attitude was shared among other teachers and not shared among non teaching staff. So my point is these people get allowances for stuff that is so trivial its obscene. They need to cut them out and if a teacher don’t like it then vacate the position and give it to one of the thousands of unemployed teachers out there who would be glad of a steady full time permanent job regardless of allowances.

@ Chris Gardiner

I can assure you that those sentiments are not shared by the wider teaching profession. My colleagues and I are acutely aware of the extremely difficult circumstances faced by our students and the dire poverty that some of them face. That is why we run initiatives like a breakfast club in the morning which is supervised (without pay) by teachers. We run a book rental scheme to help alleviate the financial pressures on students. We also run (without charge) an after school social club to help our students to interact with each other so that they’re not just going home and roaming the streets. To generalise as you have done is nothing short of a slur on the wider teaching profession and is based on one staff room and is a poor reason to scrap allowances. Most of us work hard for our students and do our best for them. Not for credit and most certainly not for an alleged exhorborant lifestyle that most people seem to think teachers live. It’s our job and most of us do it well.

Sorry Tim when did that happen. I have been away for a few days and must have missed it . You say that Minister Howlin has sanctioned the payment if one and a half billion Euros worth of allowances to Civil Servants . Please tell us more?

I agree with this. I worked in this sector and saw daily constant abuses. One teacher used to head into Brown Thomas and do her shopping while supposed to be supervising and her SNA was left to carry the can. I actually saw this SNA in tears one day after the teacher tore her apart after she questioned where she was as she could not cope alone. Needless to say the Principal did nothing even when I formally complained this teacher. She had a list of complaints as long as your arm but he was afraid to confront her as her sister was a solicitor so she carried on abusing her position (she was also vice principal).

Moral hazard will result in the allowances being increased again. Never trust FG / FF / LAB

minus the last ‘and’ in that last sentence!

I just checked rte website Conor and there is nothing live today only the news tonight. Would be interested in seeing it live also.

Back milking the system is it.