Economy- Page 14

Tax hikes and cuts while government gives away €540 billion for free! By Paul Murphy WHILE THE government puts the boot into ordinary people in another vicious budget, the giveaway of billions of euro of gas continues. Figures from the Department of

By Helen Redwood “THERE’S NO way of preparing for Christmas, that bonus is actually Christmas”. This reaction from one single parent spells out what the Scrooge-like scrapping of the Christmas bonus will mean for the 1.3 million people previously eligible. Minister Lenihan’s

By Stephen Boyd COMMENTING ON the aftermath of the budget, Stephen Collins political editor of The Irish Times said: “This year the silence has been eerie, mainly because the large body of PAYE workers who are being hammered by the budget have

By Kevin McLoughlin AT THE start of his speech, Brian Lenihan talked about taking from each according to their means. It sounded as if he was just to about to quote Karl Marx. Alas, very quickly it became clear that he was

By Michael Murphy IN A graphic validation to the old adage “one law for the rich and one for the poor”, the decision of the Fianna Fail/Green Party government to buy the bad debts from the Irish banks for up to €90

recorded 16/04/2009 by Cathal Brennan Videos from last night’s debate in Wynn’s Hotel in Abbey Street Dublin. Jim Power, economist with Friends First, debated Joe Higgins, of the Socialist Party, about the current economic crisis and the way forward.

By Ann-Katrin Orr THE GOVERNMENT have come up with yet another outrageous claim; this time we are expected to believe that the rich pay their fair share of taxes! Brian Lenihan is trying to paint the image of a “highly progressive” Irish

By Michael Murphy THE DECISION by the government to nationalise Anglo Irish Bank and now recapitalise AIB and Bank of Ireland (BOI) to the tune of €7 billion of tax-payers’ money is an attempt to shore up the Irish banking system. All

By Paul Murphy JANUARY 2009 saw the worst ever increase in unemployment. Those signing on to the live register rose by 36,500 to a total of 327,900. Brian Cowen has admitted that unemployment could reach 400,000 by the end of the year,