The Irish budget or how not to run a country

From the 2009 Irish Budget

But nobody foresaw the speed with which the global and the domestic downturn would gather pace. In the past few months, the world financial system has been turned upside down. Household names in global finance have been rescued by governments and blue chip companies have either failed or been subsumed into other institutions.

Yeah no one could see that coming! No one could see the housing bubble in Ireland for what it was. No one could see the ridiculousness of the banks offering 120% mortgages. Believe me Lenihan, if you didn't see it coming, then you weren't paying attention.

All they know how to do is tax

I am increasing the Standard Rate of VAT by ½% to 21½% from 1 December. There will be no change in the zero rate which applies to food, children’s clothes and footwear, oral medicines and several other products. The 13½% rate which applies to new houses, labour intensive services, gas, electricity and home heating fuel will also remain unchanged.

21.5 % VAT. Is there anyone who can still afford to live in Ireland? I certainly can't.

Petrol will go up 8 cent per litre. That's some cheek when the public transport system is in shambles and the government increases the price of petrol.

Consistent with moves by other EU Member States such as the UK and the Netherlands, I intend to introduce an air travel tax from 30 March 2009; the tax will apply to all departures from Irish airports. A rate of €10 per passenger will apply, with a lower rate of €2 on shorter air journeys. This new tax is estimated to yield €95 million in 2009 and €150 million in a full year. Further details are contained in the Summary of Budget Measures.

Air travel tax of €10 per passenger departing from Ireland, €2 for shorter journeys

Air travel tax? Air travel tax? Those bastards. I am livid. As an Irish expat who hopes to be able to make it home at least once a year, I am truly disgusted at Brian "the idiot" Lenihan who puts $10 of an air travel tax to leave the country.

Cambodia, on of the poorest countries in the world, has a US$25 tax to leave the country. And the Celtic tiger wants to emulate this strategy. A strategy that makes it difficult to leave the country.

Since 1997, the Fianna Fail government has done nothing but squander the surplus. When this global financial crisis loomed, Ireland should have been sitting pretty. In 2008 the government proposes a air travel tax, in one stroke killing tourism and alienating the Irish abroad.

And I know I'll hear "erra it's only 10 euro". Yeah it's only 10 euro every single time to fly to London, Paris, New York, Bangkok, Glasgow... How many people can only barely afford to travel on budget airlines anyway? With the price of petrol and this new air travel tax, it has become very expensive to come home. 10 euro each time adds up. It is a considerable fee to have to pay.

Welcome back to the 80s where we have Brian Cowen instead of Charlie Haughey. Bloody wonderful

This Budget serves no vested interest. Rather, it provides an opportunity for us all to pull together and play our part according to our means so that we can secure the gains which have been the achievement of the men and women of this country. It is, a Cheann Comhairle, no less than a call to patriotic action.

Yeah except the builders. There was plenty snuck in for them.

All citizens will have to tighten their belts because of reckless spending and mismanagement by a government more concerned with destroying our cultural heritage and pandering to their interest groups.

I'm too pissed off to write more at the moment.

*shakes her fist at Fianna Fail*

Pictures from NYT

There are some pretty pictures in the slideshow accompanying the New York Times article 36 hours in Phnom Penh.

Irish politics: they're special!

From That's Ireland

1. In October 2007, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern became the highest paid Prime Minister in the democratic world at €310,000, more than US President George Bush at €279,000. Fianna Fail Ministers such as Willie O’Dea are paid more than US Vice President Dick Cheney.

7. In September 2007, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, while being questioned at the Mahon Tribunal, said that he must have given £30,000 to somebody else (to make a transaction that the bank had no record for), but he didn’t know who he gave the money to.

11. In July 2007, after a strenuous seven days of work since being elected in mid-June, the Dail adjourned for a three-month summer holiday.

14. In June 2007, Fianna Fail changed the law to create three new Junior Ministers with salaries of €150,000 a year. They had previously done this in 1977 and 1980. When Fine Gael did the same in 1995, Fianna Fail called it an abuse of the taxpayer and an act of hypocrisy, and Bertie Ahern vowed to abolish the new posts.

And so much more. Read the whole post.

Why do they keep getting voted in? Truly incomprehensible. Enough to make one stew in impotent rage, being so far away.

Irish expats have no voting rights. Prisoners can vote. Non nationals can vote. Almost every other developed country (France, Finland, Sweden, Germany, UK, US...) has an overseas voting system; Fins can even vote any Swedish embassy if there is no Finnish presence. Poles can vote in the UK.

Irish abroad have no voting rights. It is a shameful state of affairs for a developed democratic society. The Irish I know would travel to vote. There are Irish embassies in Vietnam, China, Malaysia and Singapore. If the citizens of so many other countries can manage then why cannot the 'second most globalised country in the world', as we so proudly boast, get the finger out and organise voting for its citizens abroad?

Interesting facts

There are 325 kilometres between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore

There are 171 kilometres between Dublin and Cork

It costs US$15 to travel by train from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore (that's with a bed).

It costs US$104 to travel by train from Dublin to Cork.

Does not compute unless one factors in the general incompetence of the public transport in Ireland