Fionnan Sheehan and Moore McDowell combine to opine:- The core proposal is to invest €18bn in internet, energy and water networks to create 105,000 jobs within four years.
While there’s far more substance to it than to any of the platitudes coming from the Labour Party, NewEra still has a whole lot of question marks hanging over it.
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Damien Kiberd is a sound commentator in my view. His article supports my abhorrence of the NAMA project from the outset. Brian Lenihan Jnr has not been a good Minister for Finance depite the rumours to the contrary. He could be worse in the usual Fianna Fail manner but he has been enveloped by the establishment from the beginning. Kiberd in essence details the evidence that forces him to conclude that Professor Morgan Kelly of UCD is correct in his recent apocalyptic pronouncements in the Irish Times article when he concluded we are bankrupt – only a question of time.
RTE reported on a hands-up speech by An Taoiseach Mr Brian Cowen on the fact that domestic policy played a huge role in the collapse of the banking system. This is progress for him because it may free him to offer some leadership now because the country needs it. I hope the taste of humble pie was not too sour for him! I disagree with him regarding the inclusion of Anglo Irish Bank in the 2008 bank guarantee. With the right noises eminating from government, contagion to Bank of Ireland and AIB was unlikely. Nice try Brian but wrong decision! The other point in this is just how wrong the “experts” can be on the economy. Obviously, nobody added up the size of the property loan book and did stress tests that looked at a price collapse that had been signalled by the OECD or the Economist Intelligence Unit. This should have been done by somebody in the Department of Finance. I wonder did the Secretary General and senior staff receive good performance bonuses that year??? Is the Pope a Catholic?
Professor Patrick Honahan governor of the Central Bank told the small firms association that the cost of Irish Nationwide €2.5 billion in net budgetary costs NAMA will break even because of low price paid for purchases of property Anglo Irish Bank <€25 billion at worst Honahan describes this cost as “manageable”
Tell that to the unemployed.
The €21 billion extra cost of the Anglo / Irish Nationwide bailout will cost €2 billion in cuts every year for 10 years. This is the equivalent of an extra 10% on the top tax rate over that period.
Putting last years €4 billion for Anglo into the General Government Deficit has forced the government to be real. This is money down the drain and finally brings into stark relief the error in the government’s bank policy.
This week, I think that Alan Dukes and Dr Garret Fitzgerald should be saluting Richard Bruton for being correct over NAMA and the government bail out policy. But I suppose that is too much to expect.
Greedy actions of rich elite undermining national will
INSIDE POLITICS: Many who contributed to this mess are still feathering their own nests without a thought for the public purse, writes STEPHEN COLLINS
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