I can’t believe he said that – his head is not in the Clouds of earth any more. His head in the clouds of Jupiter at this stage. So far from the reality of things it sickening.

Niamh, sure tiz a fact that any money saved by irish consumers goes on polishing cloths for our vast diamond collections and silk fabric to wipe our bums with. Have you missed the memo?

@David – Just as you mention it I knew I was to buy more polish earlier

And Noonan sings “Dream dream I’m dreaming my life away” Sorry I cannot think of the title of the song, and now I cannot get rid of the few words of it now ggggrrrrrrrrrrr lol

No he doesn’t and yes it is.

On that logic Noonan is saying he shouldnt give us any money at all, as we wont spend it. What a twit. You have to start somewhere

Yeah, but the cycle is 100 years long … can you not wait for that?? Pull on the Green jersey and spend your money to get the economy moving, but don’t spend too much, because as a green jersey Paddy, you need to save at least 600 euro per year, starting next year for the Household charge, and an extra 500 euro per year after that for the water charge, and oh, yeah, if you complain about any of it, you are a Shinner and unpatriotic.

THey always up the taxes on fuel in their budgets.What brings down the price of fuel is the price if the barrel.

@Grant Grieve

Jesus, I had no idea how fast it went up until you said it above. That’s just bloody crazy. Went up as fast as the overpricing of bloody houses! Nonsense! Bring it down a little Noonan for Christ sake. I am trying to run a little business, unemployed since August 2008. Used any redundancy that was left and put it into the business. Since last October, I cannot get around the country because I cannot afford the petrol. If I want to go to Cork, Kerry, Sligo etc. from Dublin I need to put at least EUR80 petrol in the bloody car. No, I can’t take public transport because I carry boxes in the boot (supplies). I still don’t get an income from it and no social welfare! My savings are on their last leg. I think I am too.

sorry disposable income

Why is this ex teacher Minister for Finance when in this statement alone he has shown he doesn’t even have a grasp of simple economics.

Richard, who are you going to trust to do the job, economists, bankers, auditors?

The country is in Nightmareland Michael Noonan since you ”got into power”

John, can you tell me how we get to those jobs if we don’t have public transport in the location or should we all learn to ride horses again?

Create Jobs that no one to get to, with the cost at the pumps. Or do you live in a world where only people living in Cities should work in the cities and everyone else in rural areas should just work on a local farm or something.

Good news for you john. Carbon tax out next week.

Just a stupid comment John, maybe if we had a good transport system I would agree but we dont.

It’s a bit of a chicken and Egg. Cheap oil has created a situation where many people have being able to live in one off housing far outside villages and towns. That will come to an end as oil dries up globally. Governments should prepare people for that. High taxes on fuel is one way. Though we should be putting those high taxes in to proper public transport not Angle debt etc etc.

Kerry, can you tell me why the Irish can’t share cars to get to work? It works well in Germany. I’m sure we can do better than horses!

I’m sure that some do share cars Colm. I would if I could but my partner and I work in different towns and one of us brings 5 kids to school every morning the other family we share that transport with brings them back from school in the afternoon. There is no public transport that could get me to my place of work let alone back home in the evening. We do our best to cut the cost of transport believe me as much as practicable.

I’m glad to hear you share school runs, Kerry. I realise public transport can’t take you from home to your workplace but if you’re driving a good distance then there ought to be a way to drive to a location where you could park and either ride with others who pass your workplace or take a bus. Of course that requires an IT system to assist in solving these routing problems – like the Germans use.

Colm a bus does go through my local village times wouldn’t be ideal would mean I’m away from home an extra hour or more a day. Problem is while it does stop in the town were I work it stops 1&1/2 miles away from where I work funnily enough even though it does drive past my place of work when I inquired if it could stop there I was told no because it would interfere with the time table. Mind this is the same company who once the local by pass had been completed decided not to service the village anymore to improve it’s time table. Need to get a petition organised to stop that. Needs to be a hell of a lot more joined up thinking before even talking about a system such as used in Germany.

Of course incompetent/corrupt planning decisions hasn’t exactly helped our oil dependence, nor did the housing bubble. It made decisions to live in one off housing in the middle of no where seem viable. It also made vast housing estates that lack soul/community/public-transport (aka commuter towns) a reality for a generation of young Irish people.

Fair play John, the most idiotic statement this week on The Journal. I’ll just change my habits and walk 80 miles home at 4am when I finish work, what a bat habit I have developed, putting petrol in my car. Idiot.

Sorry you live 80 miles from work. That’s a lot of driving which must have an impact on your quality of life, not to mention wallet. If you had any sense you’d realise the habits I was talking about are those who drive when they haven’t alternate means, eg public transport, car pooling etc.

Doh, that should be ‘have’.

But we know it creates a certain amount of employment BUT it all goes to
Central Government and gets swallowed up just like all our taxes and levies USC’s and PRSI and Vat ??????