WE  PAY

When some of the benign Dictators try to re establish their foot holds in their post revolutionary countries by handing out rewards to those who stood by them in their hour of need and then rebuilding the bombed out shells of Cities destroyed by their own forces .Will we have to pay increased oil prices to fund the Benign Dictator Father Of the Nations survival .Most of these countries only have one commodity to sell OIL .

The Tennessee Drug Tax

Across the road the old red bricked building that was once the county workhouse had been turned into a hospital by the local healthboard.The old lady lay in her bed surrounded by other geriatric patients nine in all .The nurse struggled to cope with attending to everybody .A young local girl mopped up a puddle of piss and removed the shit stained sheets and blankets from old Johns bed .she looked grey and worn out .Her wages had been cut and her electricity bill was overdue.

Across the road the staff had just completed bathing precious as she liked to be called .They had washed every part of her body and blown her dry in preparation for her lovers visit

Old Maureen who was 93 years of age and worked since she was 11 till she retired at 70 was getting a bed bath .then one of the orderlies inserted a suppository .To deal with a urianatory tract infection that Maureen had .Not even pulling across the screen to protect her dignity from the other patients.

Handsome had arrived in a chauffeur driven customised vehicle and was escorted by his entourage  into the awaiting lady .his excitement raised and he mounted his lady .seconds later it was all over .Without a backward glance our man retreated to the luxurious carriage and was gone .

In the hospital Paul had just died and the nurse pulled a sheet over his face.Everybody in the hospital was treated the same they were all public patients and had paid for their care through a lifetime of taxes .

Across the road the mare was taken to a paddock  where she would remain for a few weeks until the Vets could confirm that she was in foal .She was a champion race horse and her sutor was a champion also .His owners had been handsomely paid for his services 200,000€ and it was all tax free money .In a full breeding season he might earn 5 or 6 million Euro all tax free.This was as a result of a previous horse loving ministers intervention.

The workers in the stud farm cleaned down the mating parlour sterilising every inch to prevent infection of the next beauty to use the facilities.Talking in an unfamiliar language they completed their task and returned to their billet which was provided by their employer at a subsidised rate from their minimum paid wages.

Lets see if this loop hole is removed in the budget .I doubt it .The big stud farms are mostly in Lowry country .

With all the money being taken out of the economy we can expect a major contraction in our quality of life.Our bailout will come with strings attached .Policies of cut,slash and deregulate will be forced upon us in return for a helping hand.A contraction of about 30% in living standards can be expected during the lifetime of the next administration assuming they go the distance .In the small print of our bailout agreement ,will be a proposal for deregulation.This deregulation model being the alter on which we were sacrificed in the first instance.

Fine Fails relentless desire for power has led to this sorry impasse .The embracing of the Now defunct Progressive Democrats untried in a small economy free market economic  policies in return for their support in forming a government .Deregulation and letting the market find its own level being the mantra.

One of the mainstays of this flawed model was to reduce the  interference of government on business Deregulate  and unregulate were both considered to be the same thing .The failure of this policy can be demonstrated at the top and bottom of our economy.

The government deregulated/unregulated the banks .They removed the government from responsibility for watching over the banks .Appointed a banking regulator and unleashed the banks to find their own way.Forgetting what the banks had previously done when allowed to divert from standard banking practices.The Insurance Corporation Of Ireland debacle which nearly brought down a previous  administration was forgotten .The poachers were now in total command of the henhouse.

Just in case the ship of state needed to adjust course .Compliant finance ministers were  appointed One such was Charlie Mc Creevie.He who once said “In a number of member states particularly some older ones there is a fear that economic reform will undermine social protection…Such fears is not only misplaced but is counter productive”.With the malice of hindsight we now have to look at the SSIA .This was sold to us as a mechanism to slow down an overheating  economy.in any other economy tax increases would have been applied to put the brakes on spending .We now have to ask the question was this the biggest gamble in Irish political history .Was the purpose of this scheme to boost the capital base of the banks  that backfired.Mc Creevys exodus to Europe should of alerted us . If the SSIA was perceived as a great success amongst his fellow TDs why did he not stay on in the Dail he would of been a certainty for the office of Taoiseach.like many finance ministers before him.Was Mc Creevy aware of the failure of  the free market economic policies that he and the Progressive Democrats had espoused.

The Deregulation/unregulation  of the Irish banking system led to an unlimited inflow of money from over seas lenders to the Irish banks.Ireland became a proving ground for overseas banks and lenders to try out this deregulated/unregulated banking model.It was a no brainer by foreign banks to throw cash at the Irish market.They only had to look back at the record of previous Irish governments to see that if anything went wrong the government would step in and help.The to big to fail idea encouraged them to grow to make sure they were to big to fail.

At the lower end of the economy we have the taxi industry.Progressive Democrat Minister Bobby Molloy deregulated/unregulated this.The taxi industry was an optical exercise in selling the benefits of free market economics  to the public .If deregulation/unregulation of the taxi industry worked it would demonstrate that that the market could find its own level  and could be relied on to regulate itself.How would we judge success in the deregulated/unregulated taxi industry .If people didn’t have to wait to long for a taxi.That would give the illusion of success.No waiting time and a bountiful supply of taxies.No concern for the welfare of the driver or the safety of the passenger.No concern about congestion ,pollution. The influx of unqualified operators into the industry.The inactions of the regulator to achieve one endgame the optical illusion of deregulated/unregulated success.

In banking the illusion of success was written across the skyline in big new buildings. Rows of roof tops all reaching off into the distance financed by Irish banks .Occupied by people who could not affordto own the property but believed that property inflation would negate the negative and result in an ultimate profit for their investment.

Workers who invested in the taxi industry in the hope of providing a job for themselves and a means to  pay for their homes .Have seen their investment wiped out and their prospects of earning a living obliterated by free market deregulation/unregulation.Caused by oversupply.

The free market policy of deregulate/unregulated will always fail .Because it cannot regulate the human element out of the equation .Greed ,Avarice ,Pride  are all human desires and cannot be eliminated by deregulation/unregulation.

In banking the deregulation/unregulation model has failed yet the IMF,ECB will insist on more deregulation/unregulation as part of the conditions for their bailout.In banking the freemarket dictated .That if somebody wanted to borrow money from a bank and the bank could borrow that money off of someone else for less than you are willing to pay them in interest.That was all that mattered. Do the deal there was no regard for the purpose or value of the loan only the profit margin.

In the deregulated /unregulated taxi industry the same rules applied cheap entry with no regard for quality or viability of service.The only difference between the two deregulated/unregulated  industries Is that banks got to big to fail.The taxi industry got too big that it is guaranteed to fail as we know it .

The IMF will insist on more deregulationof services .Transport,Energy,Water,Hospitals,this will lead to a race to the bottom.a minimum of services available without charge.A big reduction in wageswhen we accept this bailout and the regime that goes with it .We can expect to see about a 30%reduction in our incomes over the lifetime of the next Dail if they go the distance.This will lead to a further collapse in property prices which will lead to greater losses for NAMA.and this in turn will lead to a total collapse of the Irish banking system.This is inevitable if we don’t find a way forward and quickly.

The FG policy of divesting of the family silver by selling off state assets like the ESB ,CIE.Coilte and any thing else of value.Is the last throw of the dice to try to avoid total collapse of the state.Ireland needs to exit the Euro currency as soon as possible and set a rate for the Irish currency against the Euro which would allow us to trade out of our difficulties.

We should introduce a working visa exemption for American Citizens.This would incourage American multinationals to invest in Irelandas they could bring in their own management teams.

One of the qualities of the Irish is we understand Grey.Things don’t have to be black or white they can be grey which can be described as dark white or light black.Its this charisteristic that has led to our present predicament.Fine Fail,s lust for power which led them into the grey area of coalition with the PDs.That tempory little arrangement that will now stay with us forever.We possibly have one more chance to get this right and should not be forced into making rash decisions.

The two examples offered of Deregulated/unregulated industries should alert people to the possible outcome of any bailout .After the dust of deregulation /Unregulation settles and we have reached the bottom .It will become obvious that we cannot sustain our low cost low paid economy .The big players will survive and gobble up the small ones .Then prices will increase as all our services will be controlled by monopolies  we will have to pay up .There are no free lunches .Bailout an interesting word .To bailout a sinking ship .Or Bail the price you pay to get out of jail while awaiting your sentence.

As a child growing up in Inchicore, Dublin, I always wanted to be worker who made stuff. I got a Meccano set for Christmas when I was 7 years old and my dreams of building bridges and big sky scrapers was put into practice .Nuts and bolts turned shiny bits of steel strip and yellow and blue panels into all sorts busses trains bridges.

Why was I so fascinated by mechanical things? What had ignited my interest in engineering? What makes a farmers child want to farm? It must be the environment, it must be their surroundings. Coming from Inchicore I was surrounded by engineering .As a child making my way to school I would be brought up Spa road to Goldenbridge convent and Sister Jarlet .I remember stopping outside the gates of the Spa Road works and looking in at all the men making buses. The grey gate into the yard would be closed over at 1 o’clock and the men would come out through a small wicker gate and head home for dinner .This was possible as most of the workers lived locally. I had a collection of pop rivets that I had collected on my way to and from school every day. Rivets were used to fix sheet metal to the frames of the buses that were being made at Spa Road. Rivets to a small boy looked like a nail wearing a top hat.

As I got taller it was possible to stand on my bed and look out my bedroom window and see over the wall into the Inchicore Works of CIE and see all the trains. Big new bright ones and old black ugly things .Now I appreciate how beautiful the ugly black trains really were .Thousands of  local men women and boys were employed in the works. Men from Ballyfermot  ,Drimnagh ,Bluebell from all over Dublin they came to work. Mothers would insist that we played up our end of the road and away from the main gate of the works on Tyrconnell Park when the horn blew in the works to announce the end of the working day for the men .It also blew early morning and at lunchtime. The CIE horn was complimented by the bells from the Oblates church on the main road that struck on the hour and rang out the angelus at noon and 6pm every day. The 5 o’clock horn would signal the stampede from the gates of the Inchicore Works .It was the 1970s and bicycles were the preferred method of transport. There were very few cars and mothers were afraid we might get knocked down .The charge of the bicycle brigade was intermingled with men running to catch the 21 bus at the green on the top of Ring Street .All this excitement was over in a matter of minutes and everything returned to normal. Boys played football and girls played ball or beds. This exodus of working men could also be seen from the front gate behind the big wall and by the Ballyfermot workers who preferred the Khyber pass gate .This was a narrow passage that ran down from the works to the Ballyfermot Road beside the Seven oaks nuns.

Sometimes we would visit in Ballyfermot on a Sunday .Walking up the Naas Road, past the chimney of the Lambs jam factory where all the girls got summer jobs turning the fruit harvest into jam and some of the boys got picking jobs. Walking past Landsdown Valley where the record factory and the shoe factory were. Looking up the road to the big redbrick tower of the Mercedes factory seeing what time it was and how long it would take my little legs to walk the length of the road while holding onto the side of the pram. In the shadow of the big tower was another car manufacturing plant-Datsun. This was not as big as the others but my friend’s da worked there with hundreds of others. They made the 120y.Walking down the Kylemore Road you came upon the big one – the FIAT car plant. This was one of the really good jobs in the area. Thousands worked there making cars. Sometimes when we would visit we would get Coca Cola from a friend who worked for Coke at the top of the California Hills (hundreds of people were employed there)and  we would get some Kit Kat from the woman next door who worked for Rowntrees (hundreds worked here too ). She was able to buy bags of broken chocolate from work. I remember one of the people we visited asking would we bring her collection of minstrels off the side of the Lyons tea packet. (40 minstrels got you a share in a prize bond for a year) to the Lyons factory on the canal beside Kelloggs.  All these brands still prosper today but all these jobs have been lost to the locals.  People in Rialto worked for Guinness who  even built some of the houses for their workers .Fleetwood and Varians made the paintbrushes locally. Today most of the locations of these jobs have been developed into housing units that the locals can’t afford to buy and many lie vacant.

The local tradition of turning out top quality trades people for generations is denied to our young people .Good quality production jobs have been transferred out of the area or out of the state completely .We have gone from being the engineering heart of the country to being one of the darkest unemployment black spots in the country .Over the last 40 years a whole tradition of engineering excellence has disappeared and no efforts to replace these quality trades has  been made .We must bring pressure to bear on government to bring jobs into our area to promote the Inchicore works site as a base for manufacturing and return the tradition of engineering excellence to our community .To promote apprenticeships for boys and girls who do not wish to follow an academic future. So once again granddads and fathers can sit with their sons and daughters and discuss the family tradition of supplying plumbers, carpenters, welders or whatever trade they choose to follow .We have become a community in turmoil. Our young people cannot see any hope of a career in the future and those who have lost their jobs are loosing hope of gaining employment .We need a new direction ,we need to promote ourselves as a nation of quality crafts people with the skills and trades to make and develop any product .

How many more jobs have gone? How many more jobs will go?

I would like to suggest for your consideration an equity release scheme based on the value of your primary domestic property to subsidise your retirement pension. As many people find that their pension fund has not returned the forecast pension pot. The proposal for consideration I am offering is that up to 40% of the value of your property at the time of or after your retirement should be made available to you over a period of time for the purpose of demonstration I offer the following example.

Value of property 300,000 @40% =120.000 over 20 years =6000 per annum or 500 per month. The funds should only be released on a yearly basis. On the demise of the property owner/s their estate will return to the state any sum received interest free.

The benefit to the state of such a scheme would result in capital being injected into the economy by the recipients increasing tax revenues and jobs.As homeownership is nationwide the capital released will be widely dispersed .

It will  reward those who have invested in their own homes and removed the burden on the state to provide housing  and  their affords will be rewarded later in life.

It should also stimulate the housing market as the value of your property will have a real bearing on the quality of your retirement.Incouraging first time buyers to invest in a home and have the benefit of a pension fund  as well .It should also stimulate the trading up in properties as the value of your home will have a direct link to the size of your retirement pot.

This should also lead to an increase in stamp duty and help the government sell off some of the domestic properties held by nama.

(not all homeowners will want to avail of this scheme as the equity released combined with the state and any private pension might become a tax liability)

Working people who are struggling to keep up mortgage payments would appreciate that their affords to hold on to their property will have a pension benefit. While still being able to leave a legacy.

I believe the pension’s deficit is possibly the next great financial crisis that will face the state and it must be dealt with as a matter of urgency. The nursing homes bill introduced into the public conscience that your property may be used to fund your retirement .I believe that any property that you accrue during your lifetime may be considered part of your retirement provision.

My suggestion is that the state should meet the cost of funding this proposal but if it is oversubscribed in time another government may introduce a subsidised interest rate on monies to be advanced. This interest charge could possibly be negated by any real increase in house prices.

This proposal would need considerable research and costing but looks like something that would receive broad approval by homeowners. The large amount of Irish citizens who do not have any pension provision should receive great solace from this proposal. They can part fund their retirement .Live out their last days in the security and familiarity of their own home and leave a legacy to their beneficiaries .This is a caring family focused policy which should receive widespread approval especially amongst those who do not have any pension provision.

Government are calling for an economic stimulus and job creation .This proposal would allow Irish citizens invest their money in their community .Increasing cash in circulation which will lead to job creation and a better quality of life for our older citizens.People will once again be able to be part of a community not just part of an economy .

The controlled release on an annual basis of monies will prevent any inflationary impact .With the new government pensions requirement this scheme should have a limited lifetime but would support those who have invested in a home but could not afford a pension

At present it would not be economically viable for the government to carry the cost of this scheme but a promise to consider such a proposal in the future would be welcomed by those who do not have any pension .

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If enacted, the law would cut payments by about a quarter to those who turn down training courses, while those refusing job offers would have their entire dole payment disqualified.

The bill, published yesterday by Government, also proposes to remove the one parent payment when the youngest child reaches 13.

The current cut-off age is 18 or 22 for those in full-time education and satisfying a means test.

Candy Murphy of the One Family organization said that without access to jobs, training and affordable childcare, the proposals concerning One-Parent Family payments would push more lone parents onto other forms of welfare and into deeper poverty.

Brid O’Brien of the National Organization for the Unemployed underlined the shortage of appropriate courses while criticising the absence of a promised PRSI subsidy for employers taking people off the dole queue.

Labour’s spokesperson, Roisin Shortall called the Bill ‘worthless’ and without genuine job and quality training opportunities and help in areas like literacy.

About  6years ago I was going to return to school as a mature student and study to be an auctioneer and valuer  (it looked like a good move back then) As a mature student my application would be by interview so I started to read up on the property market in preparation for my interview .It became obvious to me a secondary school dropout that something was wrong very wrong So I prepared my self for my interview armed with all the facts and figures i could muster and a speel about wanting to be able to help people find the house of their dreams .Forgetting that this was an interview to go to collage not get a job.

When I got to the interview they had no interest in what I knew only if I would stick to the course for the full two years.The guy doing the interview told me I had made a good choice of career move as the property market was on the up and he could see it carrying on for some time .He explained that trading up was the biggest earner in the industry .You get to sell the existing premises and possibly find the new one .

I then asked could he not see a problem in the property market .Did he not see the flaw.What flaw  he asked .So I offered this example  Dublin Corporation sold off their housing stock  at great discount to the market .This had reduced the available social housing  .So it had become the norm for working people to buy their own homes.I bought my house for 10400 punt or about 14000Euro in1988.In the height of the boom the house next door to me sold for 240,000 euro .Now where I live is a very working class area people have to work to survive .So I offered this example .I defined working class as an average wage earner.He drives a forklift in a factory .She works in the office in the same place .

INCOME

Him =takehome  460

Her =……………..460

Allow  10% for personal use a pint a paper or a smoke -92 or 41 euro each

Car to get to work  =petrol maintenance insurance purchase price =128 per week

Feed and cloth two adults and two children .Electricity ,Heat ,Tv ,Phone =500 per week

You have 200 a week left to pay for a Mortgage and insurance policy .I calculated that the largest mortgage that you could afford over 25 years and be comfortable that you could make the payments on was 85,000.So my argument was that if all you could afford to pay was 85,000 then the true value of the property was 85,000 and not 240,000 So the thing was that based on your ability to pay the property market was on average 60% overvalued . The man with the degree doing the interview told me I was wrongI believed I was right so when I was offered a place on the course I declined .I backed my own judgement .Now the thing is I left school at twelve and I could see the problem.I would never be able to get a job with a bank im not smart enough for them.For those worried about our average couple .They save the monthly childrens allowance to pay for school books ,Christmas and a weeks holiday in Kilmuckridge

Since I first wrote this things have changed .The new Social Charge ,Property Tax and Water charges will impact greatly on your spending power .I now suggest that a 3 bedroom xcouncil house in Dublin is worth about 60.000€ and you can add a little extra for the availability of local schools ,shops and bus or Luas service . Privately built houses in close proximity to council houses are worth very little more .In some cases the x council house is better proportioned ,better built and has larger gardens .

Two bedroomed apartments are worth considerably less than houses and one bedroomed apartments are probably unsalable.

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Now here is the thing.Homes .ie still quote houses in my estate at 170.000 euro .So they are still overpriced .If the government allow the market to truly find its own true worth the losses incurred by NAMA on their property portfolio will destroy the economic recovery So the catch 22 is do the government allow the market to correct itself or do they introduce new tax cuts or reliefs to protect their investment .If they introduce tax breaks to stimulate sales then they protect their investment but the downside is we the purchaser pay over the odds for our homes.The plus side of inflating house prices is that those of us who own homes will benefit from the inflated price and those who have existing mortgages will be insentivised to continue payments and not default.So heads you lose, tails you lose

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THE National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) says house prices here have further to fall as disposable incomes also decline.

The views are revealed in a wide-ranging review of the economy published by the NTMA last night which was shown to prospective investors during roadshows to drum up support ahead of this week’s successful bond swap deal.

“Residential property prices have further to fall but the commercial market has probably bottomed,” the review says.

The NTMA is the state agency responsible for managing the national debt and controls NAMA, the biggest owner of commercial property in the country and the biggest owner of residential property after the State.

Resilient

The outlook for the property sector was part of a mostly upbeat economic assessment. The NTMA said the economy grew last year for the first time since 2007, thanks to exports that have so far remained resilient despite the global slowdown.

Economic conditions are improving but the NTMA warns the success seen so far could be under threat. Domestic demand may continue to fall this year, hurting the chances of general growth in the economy, the report adds.

It notes families are getting poorer and disposable income has fallen every year since 2008 due to rising taxes and falling wages. Household wealth is back to 2003 levels.

The NTMA says the reduction in the interest rate Europe charges for bailout loans helped make those kind of trends easier to swallow for struggling families. But even with Ireland doing all it can to hit fiscal targets, the euro crisis could still prove a threat to exports, and therefore to the entire recovery.

On a more upbeat note the NTMA says that Ireland is now living within its means — with a current account surplus. The banks have been successfully recapitalised, the threat to the 12.5pc corporation tax rate is gone and the economy has started to become more competitive. The presentation says NAMA could make an operating profit of €600m for 2011.

- Donal O’Donovan

Irish Independent

Sixth class and we could read and write and think a little for ourselves, Now with the aid of our parents and the teachers we would decide would we go to Tech or Secondary school. If you wanted to work with your hands and take a trade you went to Tech .If the teachers thought you might be smart you went to secondary .When you got your Group cert you would leave school age 15 and try to get a job or stay on to do your leaving .If you got a good leaving cert you would do the entrance exam for the civil service or the bank. Very few of the people I knew went on to university .It was the late seventies and the country was in recession there were very few jobs so emigrating was also an option head off to England or America if you could afford it just like some of our parents in the fifties

2010 school leavers are once again faced with the dilemma what to do now that they have completed their education .There are no jobs to go to .There are great further education opportunities but what is the use of being prepared for a job that does not exist ?

Debs balls will follow the end of your schooling. Digital cameras will flash and capture the moment ,the posh frock , the dickiebowed boys all smiling away enjoying the occasion .The photographs of the great occasion will be printed off and placed into the family album. Boyfriends and girlfriends will be invited to look through the album to your great embarrassment .Your first haircut, your first tooth, the photo of you in the bath, your first day at school when they started to prepare you for your future .Work hard,pay attention,  you will do well .You worked hard you paid attention .You left school with the intention of going to work .Working hard doing well only to find that while you kept you side of the bargain others did not. There is no work and not for the first time, your fathers and your fathers  fathers all experienced something similar but nobody seems to have learned any lesson from the past. How much of this situation is of our own making? Just look around your living room – is there anything in the room made in Ireland? The answer is probably nothing .Now repeat the process for every room in the house the answer is most likely the same. Some of the best furniture in the world is made in Navan but we insist in going to IKEA or Argos. We never ask where was that made. The Irish-made produce may be a little more expensive but its cheaper in the long run .As long as we keep people in work we create wealth that filters through the economy and creates more jobs . At the moment the only Irish made product we seem to want to purchase is sandwiches.

The school photo of you sitting at your desk, arms crossed smiling through a toothless grin, school book opened thinking to yourself when I grow up I want to be a photograph man or a teacher cos I love Miss .The school book has now been replaced by a news paper looking through situations vacant or an application for a visa or unemployment benefit. They say as we get older we get more like our parents.