@Eric: lowering the cost of medicine is not as easy as typing it. Local authorities breaking even is an ideal to strive for, but how will this be achieved? Higher rates, no free public amenities, higher parking costs, … I’d love to see us achieve it, but I truly wonder how.

Things are bad but what would people power achieve given the debt burden we’re under and the fact that it costs more to run the country every week than the government gets in in tax?

Sinn Féin would of course tell us to ‘burn those wicked Bondholders’ but then who’s going to loan us cash to pay to keep the country going day-to-day?

Who is giving Iceland cash? And why is their growth levels much higher than ours. We were sold a pup . Plain and simple

Iceland was given money by other Scandinavian countries, it’s a tiny economy (even compared to ours), it’s not part of the Eurozone and its bank debt was so enormous that repaying it simply wasn’t an option.

The key point is that they’re running a surplus so can effectively support themselves. Even without the bank debt we’re in deficit every single day and if people want taxes to go no higher or don’t want to give up benefits we’re stuck with what we have as it’s better than the alternative as we need to borrow to keep the lights on.

Will people lend Ireland money going forward? Yes, because almost no matter what we pay our debts. Would you want your pension fund to give Iceland money? No, and for that reason they’ll pay for not paying.

The final point is that Iceland’s debt was almost all investment banking which is high risk with creditors more open to writing off their debt or being sufficiently hedged to do so.

In Ireland most of our debt was retail driven with money leant from pension funds etc. and writing it off would hurt real people and would be much harder to drive through.

We’re in a different situation, and though we deserve a better deal from Europe, it’s in large part our own fault for buying houses and taking on huge mortgages and them’s the facts.

The bond holders have been paid. We are tied to returning money we used to prop up the banks in the form of promissory notes. The terms of which are destroying our domestic economy. why ? because quantitive easing does not suit the counties in Europe who have money. Ordinary people buying a family home did not cause this mess but they are paying for it.
It is more likely we will not be able to return to the markets at a sustainable level due to the debt burden we are smothering under. Had we shafted the bond holders in the first place ironically we would be viewed as a lesser risk now

@Brendan: The Icelandic spin machine may be whirring at 20,000rpm – http://studiotendra.com/2012/12/29/what-is-actually-going-on-in-iceland/

Iceland didn’t bail out the bankers they jailed them

@Dee To the best of my knowledge only two bankers have been jailed (one for insider trading). He served 6 months of a 2 year sentence. I’d be interested to know of all the other bankers that have been jailed, I sincerely doubt only two were responsible.

It seems that Iceland tried to bail out the banks but were unsuccessful. The creditors now own two of the three “national” banks in Iceland.

@Rob: Nice pub politics soundbite. “There is no doubt” – source? “absolutely adore us” – source? “they know well” – source?

Its a 4 year term you can expect an election every time ya dont like what the goverment does but belive me they will be scrambling for votes soon enough

Right, because there are so many worthy alternatives!

@Marc: would you care to share with us how you intend to solve our economic problems?

@Practial Mind: Be careful, sensible comments will be ignored.