We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
THE GROWTH IN the jobs market is a major positive for the Irish economy, but now is not the time to cut back on austerity, a new report says.
In its latest economic outlook, entitled “A Jobs Friendly Recovery”, Goodbody says investment continues to be the key driver of the recovery of the economy, citing a growth of 25% in investment in the last three months of last year.
However, Dermot O’Leary, who is the chief economist with Goodbody says that now is not the time to start looking beyond austerity.
“Although the recovery in the Irish economy is gaining strength, we are cautioning against the temptation to ease back on austerity in Budget 2015.
“Stronger domestic momentum means that budget deficit targets look readily achievable but it would be wrong to suggest that the job is done.
“While we believe there is scope to reduce the planned €2 billion in austerity measures in Budget 2015 by up to €500m, it would be unwise to abandon the programme completely, especially when Budget 2015 could prove to be the last of a long and painful period.”
The stockbroker’s GDP forecasts are left largely unchanged for both 2014 (2.6%) and 2015 (3.1%), but within that Goodbody expects domestic demand to grow by 2.5% this year and 2.7% next year.
However, Goodbody says that GDP and GNP are “increasingly irrelevant” because of the pharmaceutical patent cliff.
Maybe the headline should include that it’s a report by a stockbroker firm..
Of course a company that makes money by facilitating rich people’s investments is going to say austerity is great.
Austerity is fantastic if you’re very rich. That’s why we have it!
What is your alternative to restrained government spending?
Better taxation. Cutting spending in better areas not attacking education or the sick. Stimulate the economy by cutting vat drastically, this will create more spending then more jobs. They take about creating job yet lash on more taxes to curtail spending. Explain that one to me?? Please do. I could go on about bank debt not being related to the peoplenbut you get the picture.
Apologies for the odd typo. Silly phone not designed for ranting
Well… Where should spending be cut?
The vast bulk of expenditure is on S/W, health or Education.
If not there, then where?
I’d happily welcome a big cut in taxes, but only if spending was cut to match.
My generation has been given enough debt to repay as it is.
Better taxation? What does that mean? Where would you suggest cuts happen outside of education and health? Genuine question. I agree that reducing VAT “may” help.
It hard to write a thesis on my phone. So i cant really debate this however we could cut spending outside the provision of services.
What about all the public sector allowances that supplement wages? How can the HSE justify so much administration while denies SNA to children with needs?
As for taxation the fact that 32800 or more is hit with a blanket 52% tax is wrong. It should be on a better method or more tax bands. The USC is plain theft.
I believe less taxation will increase spending and therefore more jobs and more tax take and less welfare. Plus it’ll make people feel better might help reduce stress, self harm etc..
Water charges etc are wrong. Property tax designed for local services? Wasn’t that stamp duty? And where did property tax go? Central government!! I haven’t even touched on bank debt and the shitty deal we got from the troika.
You know the rest.
You may have noticed that public pay & allowances have been already cut.
If you want that cut further, you may run a foul of the unions!
Fair point but I’d leave salaries alone.
Allowances are there for altering. Revenue have no problem altering allowances and rates. They lowered mileage rates a few years back and nobody died.
But I’d rather upset people over additional payments to their salaries and close down quangos than deny a a child and SNA or deny somebody treatment.
Tough choices indeed but fair ones. Unlike the Austerity we have suffered through mindless cut and increases to taxes.
No on an admitted he needed more vat and just lumped on 2% instead of figuring out how to get the extra cash through stimulating spending. Terrible behaviour
*noonan admitted
The cost of running our …..public services…government…councils etc.. are the highest in Europe… we start by cutting them….we protect front line staff i.e. Teachers, Nurses and Doctors etc… and cut the arse out of the pointless pen pusher sectors. We would be out of the woods in no time.
Oh please give us more austerity, we love it.
These folk remind me of Bart Simpson campaigning for more asbestos.
“That’s not enough! We want more asbestos! More asbestos! !”
Stockbrokers telling us what is good for us..like they have our best interests at heart. They only care for their rich clients. .Nobody denies cuts were needed but to hammer health and education in the manner it was made a mockery of “we are all in this together”.
Austerity has ripped this country apart for very little gain. Our banks are still in the shitter, taxes are sky high and a huge amount of our family and friends are gone. For what gain??
How about a rich peoples austerity tax. I bet the heading would change to austerity is not working pretty quick.
Is 57% income tax not enough?
What would you have it set at?
(I’d like to see some sort of modest wealth tax, however the well off already pay a lot).
Ya lets get the evil rich people who probably got rich from working hard. How dare they. Let’s get them. Witch Hunt anyone?
You don’t pay 57% income tax
Its not the rich that pay 57% they have advisors, accountants, lawyers etc ensuring they pay much less tax or avoid tax altogether
Its the ordinary paye taxpayer that has to pay 57%
Who are these “rich”?
At what point is one rich?
What would you have done.
57% is Notting for people earning 100s of thousands who also have good accountants. Compared to people on 33000 paying 52% tax.
Never let the truth get in the way of a good rant :)
While 33k is far too low to hit the higher tax rates, people on 33k pay 52% on the last €200 only.
Good point
Austerity is the tool this government is using to privatize everything. They will sell off Irish water and health care and they need to be stopped. Goodbody is looking for “Jobs Friendly Recovery” this roughly translated means slave wage for everybody so more profit for shareholders and the political parasite class.
No point in taking years reducing the FF deficit only to blow it now.
If austerity was leading to real reform then it would be acceptable. It’s not!
So despite volumes of evidence to the contrary a professional stockbroker has come to the conclusion we should continue with austerity.If there was ever a sign we need to start ignoring ‘reports’ put out by financial institutions this is it.The economy is on the brink of tipping over but the sheeple will lap this up and bend over backwards just for the slim chance the ‘good times’ will return.
How much does d o Leary get in wages ,austerity probably doesn’t affect him
Gets a fortune for presenting X Factor too
I love having some unelected arsehole in a fancy suit and generous wage telling me that I should continue the slide into poverty.
“Dermot O’Leary, who is the chief economist with Goodbody says that now is not the time to start looking beyond austerity.” Stock brokers and all venture capitalist vermin were the cause of the crash, why would anyone take the word of these self pleasurers seriously?
Actually the cause of the crash was….(1) the banks for inflating a housing bubble…(2) the Fianna Fail government for enabling it (3) the public service unions for inflating wages beyond unsustainable levels thus being a major cause in the 100 billion borrowed just to run the country between 2008 and 2013 and (4) the Fianna Fail bank Guarentee. Its safe to say the “Uber Culprit” for the state of the country would be a card carrying mamber of a public service union who voted Fainna Fail and bought a house between 2004 & 2007
“safe to say the “Uber Culprit” for the state of the country would be a card carrying mamber of a public service union who voted Fainna Fail and bought a house between 2004 & 2007″ How nice in your take Anglo, FF, sundry banks, land speculators, venture capitalists all fall below the radar and the “demon Public Service Worker” (note worker not speculator) was the cause, away sir and take your reality tablets!
Actually FF and the banks were front and centre in my comment but the unions thought they got away without any blame coming their way. I have no beef with any worker but you can’t detach personal responsibility from what happened either. The sad fact is someone voted FF into power, someone aided the housing bubble by paying crazy prices and someone supported the unions in the “government is an ATM” years. These things didn’t happen by themselves
I’m inclined to agree that we shouldn’t blow the work that’s been done already. I think the austerity programme may have been necessary but as usual it was hard working middle income families who fared the worst. The overpaid privileged section of society quite a few of who actually contributed to the fiasco have got off very lightly.
Mary what work was done ? All these people have done is emptied the country of its youth and destroyed the health service sold Irish water to private enterprise They have destroyed the middle class and increased the number of working poor.
Ridiculous hyperbole.
No alternative.
Look the problem is that the slightest sniff of good news causes the public service unions to come out of their bunkers looking for money…higher salaries and more benefits…. As Eddie Hobbs said on newstalk the other day “the screaming baby always gets the milk”. The unions destroyed this country in 2008 and they would like to do it again….they know how to sit out a depression in comfort now…it doesn’t bother them one bit.
That was my point precisely, Joseph. Perhaps you haven’t read the whole of my comment.
Mary I think you have communicated your point badly.
A few jobs here, some investment there. Do people actually realize how indebted we are…hunker down y’all
Austerity : a word used in ireland to cover up the reason our government has robbed the ordinary people . To pay for the gambling debts of the rich . The biggest heist in the history if our irish state .
Cut the number of T.D’s by half ,
Cut the number of Councilors by half
And cut the number of senators by half
And all their pensions by half .
And make the rest of them work for their money , and not pay therms of advisers for them .
If they don’t know their jobs they should not be there in the first place.
How much would we save ?
About 0.4 of a single percent of the deficit.
So you just need 99.6% more to go.
Cool. Let’s just make that the first 0.4 % and then we can worry about the rest
Modern politics seems to be about amatures (politicians) tinkering around the edges of complex financial systems. What they should do is (A) balance the books…prefereable with a small surplus. (B) keep cost of governing down…i.e. stop paying huge civil and public service salaries. (C) Cut all unnecessary spending… i.e. 2 million to Pavee Point and other such pointless quango’s. (D) look at what people need…i.e. a home, schools, hospitals, a public library…..and create a plan to bring them all into being.
2 million is worth cutting when it supplies support services to nearly 1% of the population?
Couple of points there Conor.
1. I’m not just talking about Pavee Point, here’s a list of quangos for a bit of light reading http://quangos-ireland.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Irish_Quangos… count the number of quangos just related to Fisheries…. there must be 10.
2… what “service” does Pavee point actually provide to Travelers apart from defending the indefensible and targeting journalists that stick their head above the P.C. parapet?
Who the f believes them gov spew
How about fairly taxing flashy stockbrokers. I would guess that these stockbrokers are probably riddled with white collar crooks from other countries.
Stockbrokers do reports, they do pro austerity reports haha
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
These cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
Non-TCF/GVL Vendors
have your say