Medicine in Ireland - an ennobling profession.

Some maintain that medicine is a noble profession. Well, in dear old Ireland it is more like an ennobling one, given the great financial rewards enjoyed by its practitioners.

Why else would it consistently be the vocation that requires the most CAO points each year?
1) Because we Irish are caring people who leave Florence Nightingale in the ha'penny place.  We desperately want to help our fellow man / woman.
2) Because you get paid a shitload of money for it.

       Now, now. Which of you cynics replied “1”?

Only last week I had to fight back the tears when I read that a doctor’s investment property was being repossessed. AIB had advanced the medic the princely sum of €1,650,000 in February 2007 for the house which was “close to the family home”.  The mortgage was to be repaid by progressively increasing monthly installments ranging from €5,600 to just under €11,000 according an Irish Times report.

Well, so much for intelligence then. I can clearly date the sudden dawning of reality in the Irish property market – “the crash” I think they call it – back to September 2006, when Michael McDowell started talking about abolishing stamp duty.  And like a particularly crazy wall of death ride, once the participants stopped for a second to reflect on what they were doing, they promptly fell to Earth.  By February 2007, that particular sideshow had long left town.

But the medical profession is one of Ireland’s great cartels, and it is predictable that when the Government made a big show of introducing wholesale deregulation, in the form of hitting the taxi drivers, Ireland’s professional classes continued their market-rigging unmolested.

A friend of the blog emailed a piece that appeared, again in the Times, last week. It referred to a 2009 OECD report which found that the Irish medical profession controlled entry to the market to keep fees artificially high, a process that begins right from the inadequate number of places available at medical college.  It found a correlation between the high incomes acquired by doctors and the fact that the number of doctors per 1,000 of population in Ireland was only 60% that of most other European countries.

The same study found that Irish hospital consultants were even “more successful than GPs in restricting competition, which has resulted in many of them earning incomes which are up to four times the average earnings of consultants in other EU countries.”

Allied to all this are various other restrictions on qualified doctors from abroad becoming GPs here, with the Irish College of General Practitioners still "considering" a proposal by the Competition Authority to allow doctors with appropriate hospital experience to enter the GP clinic phase of training directly.

Of course, while all this racketeering is going on, we have people who are dying because they cannot get MRI scans and subsequent early intervention that cancer patients in other countries take for granted.  We have people who are being told their babies are dead when they are very much alive. We have cystic fibrosis patients who are told that there are no isolation wards. We have people who are seemingly paid too much to qualify for medical cards but yet cannot afford doctors' extortionate fees, and who put off going as a result. 

As usual, it's everday life - and death - in Ireland.

Back to Gombeen Nation main page

Irish drivers won't go topless - no matter what the weather

“I am a poseur and I don’t care, I like to make people stare”

Poly Styrene and original punk band X-Ray Spex (see below).

Let me say it first, I drive a convertible. You can call me a poseur and all that, but there it is. You could say it’s deeply irrational and impractical to own such a vehicle on our soggy, miserable isle – and you might even have a point.

Thing is, if you’ve ever been interested in two-wheeled forms of motor transport – and I had a (proper) Vespa scooter and a Kawasaki GT750 as my first two vehicles – you will love them.  Even when the sun is at its meekest, you can drop the top, dial the heater up to 11, and enjoy the troposphere rushing past your ears and the distant canopy of sky above your head. So it’s not about posing. Well not completely, anyway.

Then why, why, oh why, do so many Irish convertible drivers keep their lids shut as tightly as Bertie's money box, even as we bask in sunny, dry weather with temperatures  into the 20s?

I went out for a spin to the Devil's Glen last week, and spent a bit of time driving around Dublin at the weekend, and could not believe the number of convertible drivers skulking about like shy clams, shutting out the world around them.

Consider this. If you own a ragtop, you have to fret like an over-anxious mother every time you park the thing, for fear some skanger will slice it open with a knife.  If you own one of the folding steel top variety, you have to accept you can never carry more than a toothbrush and one change of jocks/knickers if you go away for a week in it.  Then – biggest killer of all – you have to pay a massive premium on your insurance for the privilege.   So how good does the weather have to get for these people?   Why do they buy them?

I seem to remember a few years back, when BMW was thinking of replacing the 3-Series' cabriolet fabric roof with a steel one, its marketing department carried out some research on the issue.  Among the negative feedback it received with regard to tin-tops was that some people feared their car might not be recognizable as a convertible when the roof was up. I kid you not.   Maybe that explains all the above? 

Now that’s the most pathetic type of posing I’ve ever heard of.




Back to Gombeen Nation main page

IMF supports bail-out for mortgage holders?

Where have all the free marketeers gone, long time passing?

The IMF (International Monetary Fund) has declared that Irish banks – bolstered by the Nama bailout – “could” now offer support for “vulnerable” mortgage holders in arrears.   An Independent editorial on the issue even uses the phrase “suicidal nightmare” in relation to the phenomenon of negative equity.

This might sound a tiny bit flippant, right, but why not bail out those who lost last week's wages to Paddy Power too? Where does it all end?

During the boom you had half-wits sleeping all night outside booking offices so they could  put down a deposit on a “unit” which the developer had not even started building. Then there were idiot parents buying apartments for little Oisin and Roisin (aged 2 and 4) who “wouldn’t be able to afford their own places in Ireland when they got older.”

So, if gawms like these are bailed out, how are they ever going to learn?  And why should those who have acted responsibly have to subsidise them?  But that seems to be the culture in Ireland (see Nama), which has suddenly become remarkably more Berlin than Boston in the past few years.

The thing is, the IMF call is a bit of a nonsense really, and might only serve to give false hope to those who are in arrears due to greed – rather than genuine bad luck or unemployment.   There is currently a moratorium on house repossessions and, even if there was not, banks would have to sell repossessed properties at a minuscule fraction of their original mortgage valuations, anyway.  Then there's the backlog of Nama developments they are already trying to drip-feed onto the market to keep property prices artificially high. 

What the IMF called for is happening as we speak. Mortages are being extended and deferred, and arrangements are being made for those  in genuine financial difficulty - and that is right and proper. But the same should not apply to those who were pushing up prices through investment, speculation and flipping.  They were "The Market's" greatest supporters, before their sudden conversion to socialism (Irish style).

Let’s make sure we keep the distinction between the needy and the greedy.

Back to Gombeen Nation main page

Eurobarometer report and Merrill Lynch study offer different perspectives

You wouldn’t know what to believe. Today’s Irish Times carries a report on an EU Eurobarometer survey, conducted last month, showing that nearly three out of ten Irish people “fear they may run out of money for food, ordinary bills and daily consumer items." 15% fear for their jobs and a whopping 45% would have trouble coping with an unexpected outlay of €1,000.


Switch over to the Metro Herald and you’re greeted with the headling “RICH LIST GROWING DESPITE THE SLUMP”. Despite Nama and all the other banking/property developer bail-outs, a Merrill Lynch / Capgemini study claims that the number of Ireland’s millionaires hit a peak in 2007 (20,400) before falling by more than 4,000 in 2008. Last year, it seems that the number crept up by 2,000 to 18,100.

According to the Metro piece, the phenomenon is due to investments on the stock market, which rose overall by 24% from a low base in 2008. “Experts” say the number of developers and property investors going bust “would not have had a significant impact on ‘high net worth individuals’”

Hmmm. That’s very surprising, considering that during the Irish property-buying frenzy, the world, his wife, and the whole extended family were in on the act.

Something doesn’t add up.

Back to Gombeen Nation main page

Watch out, piggies about!

There's never a policeman/woman around when you need one.   The other day, I noted  a red Garda gatso van with blacked-out windows on my travels, on the road between Leixlip and Maynooth - the R148. I thought it might be an idea to go out there with a camera and snap them in the line of duty today, but alas, they were not there.  Typical.

Now, I am as much into "saving liiiives" as the next person, so I can only congratulate the Garda Siochanna for hiding in their covert vans to clock people going a few k/mh over the limit in pursuance of this noble aim.  There's a slight niggle though.  Surely, if someone is driving dangerously, the coppers should be out stopping them, rather than hiding behind blacked-out windows to take their reg number?  Just a point. 

You'll see them, on occassion, near the bridge opposite the Carton House entrance before you reach Maynooth. 

Back to Gombeen Nation main page

GAA bans the vuvuzela - no foreign instruments, please...

It has long been acknowledged that the GAA contains some of the greatest minds of the 19th Century.  An organisation that – right up until the 70s - banned its own members from playing or attending “foreign” games, and only reluctantly allowed the hosting of soccer and rugby matches in (the largely publicly funded) Croke Park a few years ago, having come under enormous political pressure.


Now the GAA is turning its sights on the vuvuzela. Most of us will now be all too familiar with the awful buzzing tones of the instrument played by fans at the World Cup finals in South Africa  -  and sure, they make a frightful racket. 

The vuvulela’s supporters claim that the plastic horns, which are blown like a trumpet, are based on traditional African instruments, but this is debated.  Whatever the truth about that, there is no doubt that the vuvuzela sounds as sweet as the most sugary Mozart symphony in comparision with our own "traditional"  uileann pipes.

But GAA fans be afraid, be very afraid. If I heard today's Morning Ireland correctly, it seems that the GAA is set to bar the vuvuzela from its citadel, Croke Park.

The justification?   Ostensibly, because it falls foul of present regulations applying to bugles and air horns. But GAA spokesman Alan Milton added that "it is impossible to say how popular it would be, because it's not a traditional Irish instrument”.  

 Let's hope that decibel-hungry GAA fans don't look for indigenous alternatives.

Back to Gombeen Nation main page

Saville Report clears Bloody Sunday civil rights protesters

It took 38 years, but the innocent civilians who were shot dead by the British Parachute Regiment on Bloody Sunday, while taking part in a peaceful civil rights protest,  have finally had their good names cleared.

 Shortly after the horrific events of January 30th, 1972, the British government of the day set up an inquiry, presided over by Lord Widgery.  Far from being a genuine inquiry, however, it was a whitewash.  Worse, it was full of weasel words and innuendo which cast doubt on the innocence of those who were butchered on the day, implying that many of them were armed, or had been in the presence of those who were.

Yesterday the Saville Report, which began investigations in 1998, finally concluded that those who were killed in cold blood were unarmed, and that the army had fired on them without warning.  It should be borne in mind that the people on the march were demonstrating for civil rights and fair treatment in a society in which there was widespread discrimination, prejudice, and gerrymandering.

The civil rights protests of that time were peaceful and progressive, but the actions of the British Army on that day ensured that the IRA would have a plentiful stream of eager recruits for years to come, and that Northern Ireland - already on a tipping point after the provocations of Paisley and the Bombay Street pograms - lurched into a cycle of wholesale destruction, sectarianism, bombings, shootings, hatred and suspicion that lasted over a quarter of a century.

You have to wonder how different things might have been had successive unionist governments, and those of the "protestant" majority in that State, been more open to the simple idea of civil rights and equality for their "catholic" countrymen/women?   If they had included them, instead of unleashing a wave of State brutality against them?

By the same token, you have to wonder how a more measured response to the 1916 Rising in Dublin (by a relatively small number of people) by the British Government of the day might have facilitated a similarly measured transition to independence (or even diminshed the desire for same) for some, or all, of the island we live on - rather than creating two nasty little statelets equally backward in their own respective ways?

It would be nice to see prosecutions come out of today's report.  If they do, it would be a sign that the powers-that-be are at least learning something.

 Let's not get our hopes up, though.

Saville Report full text here


Back to Gombeen Nation main page

HP boss questions time and resources spent on Irish in education.

It has long been the contention of this blog that the promotion of Gaelic, as a badge of supposed “authentic” Irish identity, has been a divisive waste of time, money, effort and resources. A cultural-nationalist, State-sustained industry that, to me, sums up much of the nonsense of this place.

Since the State’s sorry conception it has been a badge of honour for those who subscribe to the old Dev and Paddy Pee-inspired vision of a Gaelic, crossroads-dancing (with Peig Sayers as cheerleader) hate-the-Brits Ireland.  And, of course, a tool for others to advance their careers in its burgeoning, elitist, taxpayer-funded bureaucracy.

Here’s an example. Some years ago, a lobby group called Stadas campaigned to have Gaeilge made an official language of the EU. One of its declared motivations was to secure EU jobs for "Irish speakers".  Well, a couple of Sundays back the Tribune’s Martin Frawley reported that €750,000 was spent by the government paying 40 lawyers to attend courses in Gaelic “so they would be available to work in the EU”. To date, the report said, just four laywers have been hired by EU institutions to work through Gaelic. Something, remember, that is totally unnecessary and has been created only through bureaucracy and lobbying.  And this is just one small example.

Interesting then, that Hewlett-Packard Ireland’s Michael Murphy has questioned the amount of time and resources spent on Gaelic in our schools. In a statement that is guaranteed to get the Little Irelanders, Gaelic educationalists and grant-grabbers up in arms, he says we should be giving more attention to languages such as Mandarin.

In today’s Metro, the HP managing director is quoted as saying that our education systems needs a “shake up”, with nothing being treated “as a sacred cow… Everything should be looked at – nothing should be ruled in or out. An enormous amount of time is put into Irish”.

HP, by the way, employs 4,000 people in Ireland. And to think there are nutters out there, many of whom seem to have a fatal attraction to Gombeen Nation, who want Gaelic “restored” as the lingua franca of Ireland. Oh dear, we’ll be back to seaweed cultivation and famines so, when all the international companies flee.

Interestingly, although Murphy believes that more languages should be introduced to Irish education, he says that “a language teacher should not be necessary in every school any more”, maintaining that there are now ways of using technologies such as virtual classrooms.

If that is the case, surely we should be also looking at ways to cut down on language-based bureaucracy not just in education, but in the public service, the EU, and the legal sector? 

Given the economic climate, EU-wide, there has never been a better time to start - even if it does cut off a few career paths.

Back to Gombeen Nation main page

RTE 2 World Cup coverage

I’m a great fan of Brian Carthy, one of RTE’s many GAA correspondents. Whenever the alarm goes off at the appointed time for the 8am news, and I remain in the scratcher throughout “What it says in the Papers” right up until the 8.30am news and its sports report, Brian’s piercing, nasal, highly irritating whine is always guaranteed to get me out of bed.

This morning he came on (at 11am, it being a weekend)  and gave a preview of the day’s great sporting events. Naomh Mhuire camogie team were playing Scoil Erin go Bragh in the Offaly regional under-14 Quinn Direct play-off qualifier. At the end he mentioned that there was a "soccer" tournament taking place somewhere in Africa. Patrick Kavanagh's "Epic" and roods of land and all that.

Actually, I just made that paragraph up. In fairness, Carthy actually mentioned the World Cup.  And you have to congratulate RTE 2 on their coverage of the tournament. You’ve the best Irish player and pundit ever, Johnny Giles, along with professional controversist Eamonn Dunphy, ex-Liverpool midfielder Ronnie Whelan, Arsenal maestro Liam Brady, and token hun Graeme Souness (but he did sign Ranger’s first-ever high-profile “Catholic” player) doing the discourse - all conducted by 72-year-old evergreen Bill O’Herlihy, and it's usually quite entertaining. And whatever Bill is taking, I want it.

So, for an armchair football fan like me, it’s great – a few weeks of always-on entertainment. A pity we’re not there. But that’s football - dodgy refereeing decisions and all.

And what about Thierry Henry claiming handball against Uruguay? But there you go. The greatest game in the world - life writ large, with all its irony.

Back to Gombeen Nation main page

Honohan and Regling-Watson banking reports. Fianna Fail's culpability.

You will probably have heard a little this morning about two reports on the Irish banking collapse commissioned by the Government - one compiled by the head of the Central bank Patrick Honohan, the other by international banking experts Klaus Regling and Max Watson.

Both  will form the basis for a Statutory Commission of Investigation to be carried out this year. The Government, however, has excluded its own role in the terms of reference of investigation. Some investigation, then. It sounds like holding the Nuremburg trials without the presence of war criminals.

Of course Fianna Fail wanted to portray the economic mess as something caused by outside factors, or the banks alone, but even the two reports it commissioned show the Government itself culpable.
The two reports are here: Honohan report      Regling-Watson report

Here are some snippets I found interesting. The range of property-based tax shelters and dodges is breathtaking, as is their duration (you can still see them on the property pages of the papers today):

Honohan Report, pages 31-32.

2.27 Throughout this period, the Government made extensive use of taxation incentives aimed at the construction sector.21 The rates of stamp duties, which were high, were lowered several times in recent years (in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, and 2007), sometimes with the aim of improving the affordability of housing to first time buyers (as was the case with the Bacon initiatives 1998-2000).

 In addition, different classes of construction investment have attracted sizeable income tax concessions extending over long periods. At the height of the boom, in 2004-06, schemes existed for urban renewal, multi-storey car parks, student accommodation, buildings used for third level educational purposes, hotels and holiday camps, holiday cottages, rural and urban renewal, park and ride facilities, ―living over the shop‖, nursing homes, private hospitals and convalescent facilities, sports injury clinics and childcare facilities.

 After some transitional arrangements, most of these incentives were abolished by 31 July 2008, after the expiration date of the schemes had earlier been extended on several occasions during 2000-08.

Regling-Watson report.

In relation to taxation policy and competitiveness.  Page 22.

Of course, some loss of competitiveness is the natural mechanism through which growth is slowed in a euro area economy that is overheating. In Ireland, however, an imprudent expansion of bank lending, accompanied by an unwise policy on tax exemptions, resulted in this natural economic cycle becoming much more extreme than should have ever have been the case.

In relation to tax policy and property.  Pages 27- 28

...Ireland is one of very few countries where interest payments on mortgages can be deducted from income tax yet there is no property tax (which would provide a stable source of revenue for the public sector). While this approach narrowed – again – the tax base, it also interacted in a negative way with the emerging real estate bubble by giving additional incentives to households to invest in real estate.


Third, the Irish tax system includes a large number of “tax expenditures” (tax allowances, reliefs and exemptions from income tax which – to some extent – reflect the income tax cuts mentioned above). According to the OECD, by 2005 the cost of “tax expenditures” had become larger than the remaining income tax receipts. As a percent of total tax revenue, tax expenditures in Ireland are more than three times larger than on average in the EU. Again, this excessive reliance on tax relief narrowed the tax base.

In addition, it contributed – again – to the property bubble, as some of the tax relief was directed to the property sector, often in particular regions of the country. And it contributed to a more general misallocation of resources as some of the tax concessions seem to have been granted on an ad-hoc basis in a not fully transparent way. After a review by the Department of Finance in 2006, a number of tax expenditures were eliminated and some restrictions on the use of certain tax reliefs were imposed.  Nevertheless, the system remained distorted.

And it still is. 

The opposition must not allow Fianna Fail to detract from its central role in creating the property bubble.  And they should also ask themselves what they were doing/saying at the time.

Back to Gombeen Nation main page

Fingal County Council "Growing Places" project. A get-out-of-cutting-the-grass scam?

Anybody want a lawnmower? Petrol, about four years old, starts first time? You see I’ve decided to let the garden and the tiny rectangle of grass on the street in front of the house go to meadow, “wildflower meadow” to be precise.

Our local rulers on Fingal County Council have decided not to cut the grass on many open space amenity areas in Dublin 15. The council claims it is to “add more colour and wildlife”. As if we don’t have enough wildlife as it is in the locality.

But maybe they mean butterflies and ladybirds, as opposed to gangs of flagon-wielding skangers necking cider on neglected waste ground? Have a look at the pic here, taken on Delwood Road, and tell me which you think is more likely.

It is obvious that Fingal County Council want to save money by not cutting the grass on amenity areas currently used by kids to play football and the like, but in keeping with the bullshit we are constantly fed by officialdom in this country, they are dressing up their laziness/tightness by making it out it is for the benefit of us and the environment.

Yeah.

Back to Gombeen Nation main page

Ivor Callely and Larry Butler expenses fiddling.

IVOR CALLELY - WORKING WITH YOU.

"As the most severe difficulties hit the Irish and Global economies, we are all faced with a massive task to come through this difficult period.

I understand that there has been very careful assessment of the extent of our problems and of the exceptional effort it will take to improve the situation. We have to turn the tide of our present difficulties and put our economy back on a sound  footing once we have our public finances under control.

I am determined ‘with every beat of my heart’ to resolve the difficulties this country now faces. Our ability to come together in difficult times has never been more important. Working together, we can help each other climb out of these difficulties. We all have a share in each other’s success, because the more each individual succeeds, the more we all succeed.

We are at a point in our history where we have never been able to see more clearly what we can achieve. Ireland has undergone a transformation, we are a small, open and pulsating economy, now energised by some of the most sophisticated industries and services in the world.

We have a proven track record in our economic performance, especially during the period 1995 to 2005 which consistently reflected our success, our determination and our ability to succeed. Our ‘can do’ attitude has characterised our success before, all the more necessary now. We have the basic ingredients, an entrepreneurial and well educated population, a good infrastructure, diverse markets, established trade links and a tremendous reputation on the world stage.

I have a clear vision that involves new thinking of getting us moving again along the road we successfully travelled in the past ant learning from our mistakes."
Ivor Callely

The above is an excerpt from Ivor Callely's website (big thanks to C).

Well it seems that people like Ivor Callely and Fianna Fail senator Larry Butler never do learn, because there is no incentive to do so. Butler is the latest politician who has been caught claiming travel expenses - from the public finances - claiming through a distant holiday home rather than his actual residence, this time to the tune of €20,000 a year.

Callely, of course, had to resign his cabinet position in 2005 after it was discovered that a builder who had public contracts painted his house (his main residence) for freepence. He subsequently lost his seat in the 2007 general election, even though 7,003 upstanding citizens of Dublin North Central still thought him worthy of their first-preference votes. But that is a constituency with a particularly sorry history. A constituency where Sean Haughey, son of Charlie, the godfather of corrupt politicians, romped home with 9,026 first-choice votes - presumably on the strength of daddy's bad name.

That lot are beyond hope, but some of us in Ireland would like to see corrupt and expense-fiddling politicians brought to book. Nothing short of expulsion of Callely and Butler from public office will discourage such behaviour in the future.

The ultimate goal, however, must be to abolish that institution of undemocratic freeloaders, the Senate, in its entirety.

Back to Gombeen Nation main page

Niamh Kavanagh and Ireland's Eurovision bum note - why it happened.

Right, it’s taken me this long to comment on it, so you can safely deduce that I’m not a huge fan of the Eurovision.

OK, I had a peek when Dustin was on it a while back, but only because so many bonnets were buzzing with swarms of angry bees (including Dana's) at the idea that Ireland’s entrant was a foul-mouthed turkey puppet taking the piss out of the whole thing.

I heard Niamh Kavanagh’s Irish entry a few days before this year's competiton, when RTE were going on about how great it was. I have to say, I thought it was awful. Awful. In fact I think John Waters could have written a better song, tune and all, and that is saying something.

So imagine my surprise at all the fuss and whingeing when it finished third-last in Eurosong. “What went wrong?” was all I could see in the papers and hear on the airwaves.  Well, what went wrong is that it was a crap song, full stop.  Musically, a good song should have a hook, a rhythm, and a melody.  “It’s For You” fell down in this regard as it had none of those things. Not one.

Out of curiosity, and to satisfy the strict standards of research and objectivity for which Gombeen Nation is famous, I had a quick listen on You Tube to the winning German entry, “Satellite” by Lena, and thought it was alright for a Eurovision song. At least it had the quality of rhythm anyway.

But for those who for whom winning the Eurovision Song Contest is considered an achievement, and who prefer to see Ireland’s lack of recent success as the consequence of demographic changes and culturally similar voting blocks conspiring against us, a tongue-in-cheek letter in yesterday's Irish Times from Jake Walsh of County Louth might have an answer.

He suggests that we encourage the UK to enter as Northern Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales to increase the voting power in this corner of Europe. Greenland, the Isle of Man, and Iceland should also be encouraged to abandon all taste and enter.

If any of the other countries object that the newly independent UK “countries” - for reasons of Eurovision expediency - are disqualified on the grounds of having no national broadcasting companies of their own, he says (though I’m sure there’s a HTV, a UTV, and a STV), any objections  “can easily be allayed by the simple provision of a brass plate or two bearing the names of said corporations in our very own IFSC. After all, this is one area of international competition in which we are still truly world class!”

Douze points, Jake.

Back to Gombeen Nation main page

Ireland's high birth rate and the economy

Many years ago, while living and working in London, we came back home for a few boating holidays on the Shannon. Once, we moored the hire boat at Rooskey and took a walk to a big barn of a pub called the Kon Tiki. The place was empty, with the exception of the barman and an old guy we got chatting to. The old guy told us that there was hardly a young person left in the area, as most of them had emigrated just as we had.

So although Ireland had a young population then, as now, if you wanted to work then sometimes the only choice was to get on the boat, and we are talking Stena Sealink rather than Carrick Craft here. Which makes you wonder about the logic of predicting economic growth or property prices on birth rate.

In 2007, Marc Coleman published a book with the unfortunate title of “The Best is Yet to Come”. I haven’t read the book, but from what I can gather, it is written on the premise that Ireland will experience major economic growth in the future based on net migration and domestic population growth.

The problem about making predictions based on the trends and conditions of a given period, however, is that trends and conditions have an awful habit of changing. Coleman reckons, based on reviews I’ve read, that Ireland (I assume the Republic) will boast a population of 8 million by 2050. You can just imagine the builders’ eyes lighting up at such a prospect.

Thing is, Ireland actually experienced net emigration in 2009, according to CSO figures, with 7,800 people leaving the country. This, I assume, is due to the simple reason that the work has dried up. Add in the fact that all of the old EU 15 states will open up their borders to workers from the assession countries next year, and it gets more interesting.  Up until now, people from countries such as Poland, Lithuania and Latvia have only been allowed to work in Ireland, the UK and Sweden.  Now let’s face it, if you were from one of these countries, would you not rather work in nearby Germany or maybe the south of France in preference to Ireland if you had the choice?  I know I would.  So that’s the increasing migration aspect dealt with, then.

Ireland’s birth-rate is another matter of course. While the rest of the EU’s population is greying, we are still popping them out like there’s no tomorrow, comparatively, with women in Ireland giving birth to an average of 2.05 children a year as opposed to 1.98 in France and 1.92 in Britain. Poland’s figure was 1.31. (CSO report, May).

Mind you, it’s all relative, as 2.1 is the figure deemed necessary for a population to stay at the same level, excluding migration.  Even so, the CSO still predicts a population of 5 million by 2021. There will have to be a major run on Viagra if Coleman's figure of 8 million just 29 years later is to be reached.

Fast forward 40 years, though, and it’s pretty likely that the Irish powers-that-be will be using emigration as a safety valve – as they have done since the State’s inception with only a few minor interruptions along the way.

Back to Gombeen Nation main page

M8 Dublin to Cork motorway opens today

So the final motorway section of the Dublin-Cork motorway is opening today, four months ahead of schedule.  Not that I've plans to go to Cork anytime soon (where exactly is it, anyway?), but it makes sense to have all our major cities/towns joined up by good, safe roads - not only to shorten journey times, but to "saeve liiiives".  

The N7 to Limerick won't be complete until later this year, it seems, but they mentioned on Morning Ireland that it will bypass a notorious stretch of road between Mountrath and Borris-in-Ossary that has seen 30 road deaths alone. 

By monitoring statistics in regions like this over the coming years we will confirm that better roads equal fewer road deaths - regardless of the fact that Go Safe, the private speed camera consortium, will be let off the leash in the meantime to raise funds for speedo infringements (it needs to generate €16 million a year in fines to cover costs) and claim the credit for what was happening anyway.

Back to Gombeen Nation main page

12 women travel to UK for abortions every day. We need abortion rights in Ireland

“And what about the rights of the unborn”, I hear them say. “And what if YOU had been aborted”, is another refrain I hear in my mind’s ear.  Well, in answer to the first question I’d say I care more about the rights of the born. To the second I can only say, sure, I wouldn’t be here - but nor would those asking the stupid questions. And given a few of the Youth Defence specimens I’ve seen over the years, maybe that would not be a bad thing?

Don’t get me wrong. I am not in favour of using abortion as contraception. Contraceptives are available all over Ireland now, I hope, so there is no excuse in that regard. Unlike in the not-too-distant-past.

But as mentioned in an earlier post of about a year ago, there will always be crisis pregnancies because of economic/emotional circumstances, medical anomalies or complications, incest and rape. What’s more, as a man, I will never be faced with the dilemma, and will never have the State dictating what I should do with my body. But a woman should have choice.

The stark fact too, is that the longer Irish women are denied abortion rights, the more the chances their abortions (when they eventually arrange and procure them) will be later-term ones.

This topic is up again due to figures (Metro, 26th May) indicating that 12 women a day travel to Britain for an abortion, with 4,422 patients giving an Irish address to UK clinics last year. Neil Behan, head of the Irish Family Planning Association, is quoted as saying that at least 142,060 women travelled to Britain for an abortion since 1980.

Remember too, that these figures only account for those who gave Irish addresses. Many will give UK addresses if they have Britain-based friends or relations who are assisting them through what is already a very distressing situation.

There is a great Irish tradition of ignoring reality, I know. But ignoring reality does not make it go away. It’s time that the Irish authorities faced up to this one, and allowed Irish women the abortion rights most of their European counterparts are entitled to.

See also:

The Story of Paul and Mandy

The above map originated from a BBC article of 12 February, 2007

Back to Gombeen Nation main page

Shell to Sea, Ray Burke, and the irresistible gombeenism of Ireland

There is a strong element of NIMBYism in Ireland. If you want to widen your gateposts in Dublin, there’s always a chance that someone in Kerry could object - redefining the very concept. Or if you want to link towns and cities with a motorway (statistically the safest roads) or replace death-trap bridges (see Slane) there will be no shortage of consciensious objectors trying to put the mockers on it.

So I have to admit when I heard, way back when, that protesters were out blocking the roads in Mayo - reciting the Rosary as Gaeilge, no less - in objection to Shell’s proposed gas pipeline going over their land, I was a bit sceptical to put it very mildly.

But just as the State took such a major role in suppressing dissent when Ronald Ronald Reagan visited these shores many years ago - with a special fondness in his heart for the imbeciles of Ballyporeen – you have to wonder if they have some kind of point. Oh, and at that time the Irish prime minister was espoused liberal, Garret Fitzgerald. Welcome Ronnie the warmonger.

Remember too, that the Irish government has never been behind the door when prostitiuing us to the multinationals. OK, we’ve more jobs nowadays than we did in the ‘80s, but there is such a thing as protection.

Then there’s the payoff. While having Google and Microsoft here gives us jobs, you have to wonder about us being the prime facilitators of corporate tax-dodging in the EU. Ask anyone employed in one of these concerns and the answer will be predictable. And understandable. But?

So, no surprise tben, that the Irish government sold us so short when they wrote the Corrib exploration rights off to Shell. Professor John M Simmie, from the chemistry facuilty of NUI Galway, maintained in the Irish Times of August 23rd, 2005, that “ at that time, the country had neither the trained personnel nor the funds to wildcat for oil and gas. It would have been a giant gamble at a time when our economy could not have sustained such a shock.”

OK, 50/1 are odds that the most optimistic gambler would shirk at, but even if your horse wins because the rest of the field falls down, you wouldn’t have backed it unless you thought there was some chance of winning. But it seems that corrupt Fianna Fail politician, Ray Burke, lobbied to abolish existing legislation of the time - which gave the State a 50% stake in any discoveries - to facilitate Shell’s deployment here. You can look further into this at the Shell to Sea website here.

For my part, I know we need energy resources, I know we need investment, I know we need infrastructure. But I also know that if someone like Ray Burke was involved in Shell’s investment here, you have to wonder.

In times like this we need to make the most of the few assets we have to get some semblance of profit for our pains - whilst keeping within international safety standards .

Is it too much to ask?

Back to Gombeen Nation main page

Potholes.ie - campaigning to make our roads safer.

Just a quick post to inform you all of a site called potholes.ie, whose organisers are doing their bit to make our roads safer by drawing attention to the perilous state of our highways and byways and the threat they pose not just to our vehicles, but to life and limb. See below a comment from Graham, one of the people behind the site, to an earlier Gombeen Nation post:


Hi Mr. GM,
I'm not sure if you've heard about our little site potholes.ie which is trying to highlight the issue of... you guessed, potholes across the nation. We've tried to involve as many CO. Co. as possible to have a balanced view on the topic and allow them some floorspace to illustrate the massive efforts being put in by all of their hard working employees (cue the sarcasm if you haven't noticed!). In fairness, DCC have been the most accommodating Co.Co. so far, giving us little tips on how the information we provide could be better laid out etc. etc. However, the best response was from the nice people of Drogheda Borough County Council, who told us;

"This Website has no official status and we will not be contributing. You need not send on any further correspondence." The first thing that jumps out is that no-one has had the balls to put their name to the email and secondly, who says I can't send an email to a public body email address?? We pay for the bloody email address, so I'll email it if I want to!!! Sorry, rant over.

Anyway, I would appreciate it if anyone would like to logon to our site and report a few potholes. Those of you from Drogheda are even more welcomed!

Thanks, Graham
The Potholes.ie Team

 It should be borne in mind that a recent AA survey of 7,000 motorists (Sindo 9th May) revealed that 22% of drivers had hit a pothole which caused enough damage to justify calling out the AA or visiting a garage. 24 per cent of affected motorists reported the damage to their local authority, but in only 17% of cases were repairs carried out.  

If you know of any tank traps out your way, at least if you report them to the site above, it will be on  record... even if the councils do nothing and someone ends up getting killed.

Back to Gombeen Nation main page

TDs’ pension “gifts” can be written off against tax

It’s never nice when your holidays are drawing to an end and you’re in the last week. I suppose the only consolation is you’re not compelled to buy the Sindo anymore, if you’re in the habit of getting a paper on a Sunday. That’s the only thing you can get in this part of Spain.

I got it again in an attempt to keep abreast of goings-on in dear old Erin, but I have to say - having read the thing cover to cover - I’m none the wiser. It looks as though an editorial directive was issued by Tony O’Reilly to talk up economic recovery, with hacks and columnists (with the exception of the excellent Gene Kerrigan) spinning out dizzying statistics to convince us that Ireland is out of recession and is going to be the envy of the world once more. Mind you, GDP figures can be misleading when you are host to as many tax-dodging multinationals as we are.

Indeed, I’m half expecting to see the skyline punctured by busy cranes whizzing about like something out of War of the Worlds when I get back, and to learn that Nama is a distant memory that everyone laughs about as they rush off, in their loan-financed ‘10 Mercs, to snap up yet another investment property.

So when I found myself reading that politicians who “gifted” their pensions to the State were to get the total amount back in tax credits, I didn’t know what to believe. But, in an Irish context, that seems far more likely than the economy-as-Lazarus guff.

It seems that due to “legal difficulties” the only way serving TDs could relinquish their multiple pensions, which they receive even as they are working, was by making a gift of them to the State. Funny how the phrases “legal difficulties” and “it would be unconstitutional” are always invoked when the privileged are challenged in some way, isn’t it? Another example being when judges were asked to take a pay cut.

According to the paper’s chief reporter, Daniel McConnell, the Revenue Commissioner says that “any person who gifts money to the Minister for Finance and the State will have that amount written down against their income tax liability.” So TDs who have supposedly relinquished their pensions will be none the worse off, and the exchequer will be none the better off? What??

If that is true, it sounds too incredible even for Ireland.

Can’t wait to get back.

Back to Gombeen Nation main page

Cowen admits FF responsibility for economy. Sort of.

So somebody from Fianna Fail has finally admitted that its property tax breaks and shelters damaged the economy. Sort of. Brian Cowen is reported by yesterday’s Indo as saying that “governments should never again introduce tax breaks which would make a property bubble possible” and that “property tax incentives in place over the period from the mid-1990s should have been abolished many years prior to his decision to abolish them in December 2005”.

Notwithstanding the fact that Section 23s were still being built long after that date – you can still see the developers trying to flog some of them if you buy a Sunday paper – isn’t that a Damascus moment for Cowen? Or is it just the wriggling of a particularly slimy worm on the end of a hook? It’s the latter – as the next quotation in the piece implies:

“While government shares responsibility for its role in these mistakes, it is noteworthy that many of the strongest critics of the government were silent on these issues prior to the crisis and indeed were proposing measures such as the radical reduction or abolition of stamp duty which would have made the position much worse.”

“Some responsibility”? Bloody hell, should that not read “all”? They were the government after all, and they did introduce the tax measures in question. Fianna Fail also slashed capital gains tax, another move which guaranteed to inflate the property market. Cowen does, however,  have a point about the relative silence of the media and many opposition politicians while the bubble was crazily inflating.

Despite Cowen’s, and other government ministers’, assurances at the time that Ireland’s property market inflation was based on sound fundamentals, it was obvious to anyone with a brain in their heads that an economy could not be based on, and sustained on, ever increasing property prices. You didn’t need to go to economics school for that, just high-babies. The silence from the mainstream media (with notable exceptions such as David McWilliams, who was dismissed as a crank and a killjoy) was remarkable.

Now, I don't have a list of TDs' and councillors investment properties at my disposal (assuming it would be possible to collate a reliable list on the subject) but I would say such a list would be revealing. It would be similarly interesting to sift through the capital asset investments of media commentators. I know it sounds very cynical – not to mention analytically simplistic – but how come all these people, who are considered intelligent and are not usually slow about holding forth on all manner of other topics, were – for the most part - so quiet?

And on that very point, just a week or so before I went on holiday, some RTE property guru, from one of those programmes that encouraged gullible idiots to “buy! buy! buy!” was advising people selling property to “hold out” for their prices. I think the longer they hold out, the less they will get.

If anyone expects property prices to return to the levels of 2006 anytime soon, they can forget it. That money was never actually in the economy in the first place. That’s why we have had Nama imposed on the dopey, docile Irish public. That’s why the country is in the mess it is, and no amount of upbeat talk by Tom Parlon or Goodbodys is going to change that.

Another thing. When countries such as Poland, Latvia and Lithuania joined the EU, only three states opened up their doors to them with regard to their labour markets. Ireland, the UK, and Sweden. As far as I am aware, workers from these countries will be allowed to work in the rest of the EU states from 2011. That’s next year.

That will give such workers far more attractive options than Ireland, which could have interesting consequences for our buy-to-let investors and the Irish property market in general.

Back to Gombeen Nation main page