Finance Minister Michael Noonan hints at the easing Irish austerity in budget
The budget will save less than €3.1 billion euro in tax hikes and spending cuts, Finance Minister Michael Noonan has revealed.
Despite warnings from the Central Bank not to ease off on austerity, Mr Noonan followed up a report on strong Exchequer returns with a hint that the October 15 adjustment may be less harsh than anticipated.
The Government has been buoyed by an increase in tax this year, a fall in spending and steady drops in unemployment, with emigration playing a key part.
“We think we can do it somewhat less than the €3.1 billion, but we still have a lot of number crunching to do to see where we come in,” he said.
The Central Bank warned the Government that any let up in austerity risked Ireland’s hopes of exiting the bailout.
But Mr Noonan said getting the deficit down to at least 5.1% nextyear remained a priority.
In its latest quarterly bulletin, the bank cut its previous economic growth forecasts – 0.5% this year for all goods and services, including multinationals as measured under gross domestic product.
That was down 0.2% on the original estimate.
It also cut its projections for the Irish-owned sector of the economy, gross national product, down to 0.1% and 1.2% next year.
“No easing off in adjustment,” was the message from the bank ahead of the October 15 budget.
Amid planning for Budget 2014, official Exchequer figures showed the tax take to the end of September was up €768 million to €26.9 billion, while spending had been cut by €1.6 billion to €31.6 billion.
Some of the most significant improvements were in VAT, up 3.9%, and corporation tax, up 7.1% on the year.
But the VAT take for the year was running 2% behind schedule despite a boost from new car sales.
Mr Noonan described the figures as “pretty good”.
“The first thing to note is that the anxiety coming out of August has now disappeared,” he said.
“VAT figures are very strong.
“We’re on target to meet the deficit target of 2013 of 7.5%.
“The significance of that for the budget and 2014 is we’ll be starting the nextrace from the starting line, not five yards behind it, which is the problem if you don’t meet your target in the preceding year.”
Other figures of note in the Exchequer returns were €200 million euro collected from Local Property Tax receipts, of which €9 million were received in September.
Corporation tax for the year was 10% ahead of the target.
Elsewhere, the Central Bank estimated that the economy would push on nextyear and turn out growth of 2%.
It said its figures pointed to continued gradual recovery, but slower than it originally anticipated after exports slowed and consumer spending dipped this year.
Ireland’s unemployment was forecast to be 13.6% this year and 13% next year.
The report noted that full-time employment was growing for the first time since early 2008 and it said this suggested that consumer spending would be boosted.
The bank warned of three remaining challenges – fiscal consolidation, banking soundness, and competitive wages and prices.
“Market participants will focus closely on how Ireland is likely to perform outside the (bailout) programme and whether the sustainability of the overall debt position is firmly secured,” it said.
“These considerations underpin the bank’s view that there should be no easing off in adjustment.”
EY accountant's targets Irish emigrants to ‘come home’ to work
‘Big Four’ accountant announces plans to create 80 jobs and increase graduate intake to 160
The company said the new jobs would be spread across its Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford and Belfast offices, and were as a result of “client wins”. EY said some of the roles would be in its business and transaction advisory divisions.
It said it would also hire accountants and business executives for its financial accounting, fraud investigation and dispute services. About 40 of the new jobs will be filled before Christmas by its auditing department.
Strong growth
The company, formerly Ernst & Young, said it had experienced strong growth in Ireland in the past three years, increasing its revenues by more than 20 per cent with “almost half” of the growth coming this year as the economic recovery gathers pace.
EY has increased its number of employees in Ireland by 18 per cent over the past two years to 1,260.
The company has started a “targeted” campaign to woo Irish emigrants back to work for it on home soil.
“We aim to attract local talent but we are also reaching out to those who have emigrated to Australia, America, South Africa and beyond to ‘come home’ and build a future with EY. We have already commenced a targeted recruitment campaign in these locations.”
As mergers and acquisitions activity increases, EY said it had invested heavily in this area in the past two years.
“We anticipate growth in transaction services as there is an ongoing demand for corporate recovery services, supported by the re-emergence of a more normal transactions market,” said managing partner at EY Ireland Mike McKerr.
The 160 graduate roles, such as trainee accountant jobs, will become available next year.
Richard Bruton, Minister for Jobs, welcomed EY’s announcement. “Today’s announcement of an additional 80 jobs is a further boost [to the economy], and the recruitment campaign targeting Irish people living abroad is a strong sign of the progress [Ireland] is making.”
Irish Families now up to €500 worse off a month due to budget changes
Working people are having to live on 10% less than they were used to because of the impact of harsh budgets during the last five years.
An analysis by Grant Thornton, said income tax changes, the introduction of the universal social charge and cuts to child benefit have had a stark impact on the disposable income of middle-income households.
Even if workers have been spared unemployment or pay cuts, the accountants have worked out that budgetary measures have left the average family between €300 and €500 worse off each month.
In the case of a family in which two parents work and earn €40,000 each, and they have two children, the analysis indicates they are €6,100 worse off on an annual basis.
This equates to a 10% drop in their disposable income or €511 a month.
It is marginally worse than what would be expected for single people, who also earn €40,000; and couples who do not claim child benefit.
The biggest hit all workers have had to endure is the controversial social charge, which is levied at 7% against the entire income of all earners.
Tax partner at Grant Thornton, Peter Vale, said low and middle-income earners have paid a heavy price to help address the annual national deficit that opened up after the property crash: “Whilst five years of austerity was necessary to restoreeconomic stability, it’s clear low to middle-income earners have paid a heavier price in terms of the percentage increase in taxes they pay.”
He also said the lack of spending money had a knock-on effect for the wider economy: “With disposable income sucked out of the economy to shore up government finances, it is no surprise that consumer spending remains weak and the strength of any economic recovery uncertain. It’s worth noting the effective tax rate for well-off families has risen close to 40%, with high earning professionals likely seeing disposable income down a minimum of €10,000 since 2008.”
Grant Thornton said it expected there to be additional hits in the upcoming budget, especially in the area of tax relief on pension contributions and increases in DIRT to discourage saving.
The analysis was published on the eve of the final set of monthly exchequer returns, out today. These are the figures that will guide Finance Minister Michael Noonan’s key budget decisions.
Eamon Gilmore sets out his position as the party leader
LITTLE DISSENT TOWARDS TÁNAISTE AT LABOUR PARLIAMENTARY PARTY MEETING
Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore at a press conference in Dublin yesterday. Rumours of pressure on his leadership have been circulating in recent weeks.
Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore addressed his party’s poor showing in recent opinion polls when the Labour parliamentary party met yesterday.
During a meeting that lasted for about two hours, Mr Gilmore was said to have given a firm address in which he set out his stall as leader, and pointed out that the party was doing what was best for the country’s economic recovery.
Party sources who attended the meeting said that despite obvious concerns about the party’s recent difficulties and public perception, there was little to no dissent towards the Tánaiste and that his leadership was not questioned.
One member who attended the meeting said however concern was expressed about Mr Gilmore’s role at the Department of Foreign Affairs and his regular absences from the country. Members believe the party would be better served if he had a more domestically focused ministry.
Mr Gilmore was said to have told the meeting that if there were concerns about his leadership there was a mechanism to remove him.
An MRBI poll on Tuesday showed support for Labour had fallen to 6 per cent, its lowest point since 1987, and was 13 points below where it was in the general election 2½ years ago.
The poll also showed more of Labour’s own supporters were dissatisfied than satisfied with Mr Gilmore’s performance.
Rumours of pressure on Mr Gilmore’s role at the helm of the party have been circulating in recent weeks, and Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton, seen as his most likely challenger, has had to publicly state her support for Mr Gilmore on a number of occasions.
On Tuesday the Tánaiste said he intended to complete his term as leader of the Labour Party notwithstanding the result of the poll.
A number of TDs and Ministers have since offered their public support to the leader.
Following yesterday’s meeting, one backbench TD said that while the poll result was daunting there was a “unity of purpose” during the discussion at the parliamentary party meeting, and it had been taken on board that the party may need to “communicate its message differently” to the public.
“Since he became leader in 2007, everything Eamon has put his mind to has been achieved,” the TD said, before pointing to the party having its best ever general election result in 2011, its candidate Michael D Higgins had won the presidential election, and Patrick Nulty, who has since left the party, had won the Dublin West byelection.
Another TD described the meeting as “frank” and “positive”, and said there were no serious mentions of discontent when it came to Mr Gilmore’s leadership of the party.
Improve its standing
Party members believe the continued return of positive jobs and exchequer data will help Labour improve its standing before the local and European elections next year and the general election in 2016.
Party members believe the continued return of positive jobs and exchequer data will help Labour improve its standing before the local and European elections next year and the general election in 2016.
“Until people start to feel they are better off we do not expect the party to get a huge bounce,” said another TD.
An Irish study finds most people who died by suicide had relationship problems
AN NORTHERN IRELAND STUDY FINDS MEN REMAIN MUCH MORE LIKELY TO TAKE THEIR OWN LIVES
Almost four out of five people who died by suicide in Northern Ireland suffered relationship problems in the lead-up to their deaths.
The study by University of Ulster academics Professor Siobhan O’Neill and Dr Colette Corry showed that 78 per cent of the deceased had experienced relationship difficulties or a breakup in the period prior to death.
Financial crisis was recorded in 13 per cent of cases and employment related problems in 12 per. In around a quarter of deaths, the illness or death of a relative or friend was noted.
The academics described their study as the “first ever detailed analysis of deaths by suicide in Northern Ireland from 1995” that draws on data from the Northern Ireland coroners’ files.
The findings show that men remain three times more likely to take their own lives than women. Suicide rates are similar across all the middle age cohorts with rising rates among the over 70s. More than two thirds (67 per cent) of those who died by suicide had a recorded mental illness while 59 per cent had a recorded physical illness.
“This study provides us with the most detailed information to date, upon which to base future suicide prevention initiatives in Northern Ireland,” said Prof O’Neill from the Bamford Centre for Mental Health and Well-being at the University’s Magee campus in Derry and of the Irish Association of Suicidology.
“We need to find ways of helping people of all ages, and men in particular, to seek help and support for mental health problems during stressful life events,” she added.
“Suicide prevention is not simply a matter for health care providers. Politicians and policy makers all need to remain cognisant of the impact of their social policies on mental health and suicide. Suicide prevention is everyone’s responsibility,” Prof O’Neill said.
Russian Police charges 14 from Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise with piracy after protest
Russian authorities turned their informal descriptions of Greenpeace activists as pirates into legal charges Wednesday, the latest escalation in a saga that began two weeks ago as a protest against drilling in the Arctic.
Prosecutors charged 14 people — including a British journalist — with piracy, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison. An additional 16 await formal charges. All 30 had been ordered detained for two months while the investigation proceeds.
The next day, members of the Russian coast guard boarded the Arctic Sunrise in international waters, seized the ship at gunpoint and towed it to the northern city of Murmansk, where it arrived Sept. 24.
Even before the ship reached Murmansk, more than 50 Russian environmental groups had signed a letter to President Vladimir Putin asking him to release the activists. The petition, organized by the World Wildlife Fund’s Russian branch, said the drilling project had been extensively criticized by Russian experts concerned with safe oil and gas extraction.
“Detention of environmental activists looks especially cynical in Russia’s Year of Environmental Protection,” the letter said.
Russian prosecutors, who declined further comment until all 30 have been charged, said Greenpeace put workers aboard the oil rig — which is expected to begin pumping by the end of the year — in danger.
Greenpeace said it had launched the protest because the platform threatens the fragile Arctic environment, describing the rig as poorly built and ill-equipped to deal with oil spills.
The arrests were an attempt to intimidate Greenpeace, Human Rights Watch said, alluding to Russian law, which defines piracy as an assault on a ship. The oil rig is on a platform that cannot move.
Kumi Naidoo, Greenpeace International’s executive director, called the charges an assault on the principle of peaceful protest. “Any claim that these activists are pirates is as absurd as it is abominable,” he said in a statement. “It is utterly irrational, it is designed to intimidate and silence us, but we will not be cowed.”
Those charged with piracy Wednesday include Kieron Bryan, a British videographer who was documenting the protest, and Dmitri Litvinov, an activist with Swedish and American citizenship, as well as the ship’s doctor and cook.
The captain, Peter Willcox, is an American who was captain of Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior when it was blown up by French security agents in 1985 during a journey to protest French nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific. Naidoo called the arrests the most serious threat to Greenpeace’s peaceful environmental activism since that time.
In an interview on Ekho Moskvy Radio on Wednesday, Shevchuk, the rock singer, dismissed the piracy charges as ridiculous.
“The whole world knows Greenpeace,” he said. “Greenpeace is the organization that helped save the Antarctic . . . and penguins and scientists live there happily. And what about saving whales?”
Then he said he had a secret to reveal: He had planned to sail with the ship himself. He had even bought warm clothes. He had a ticket to Norway, where he would have met the ship. At the last minute, he said, family reasons prevented him from going. “I am really sorry about it,” he said.
“They are hooligans, of course,” he quipped about the activists, apparently likening them to the three young women convicted of hooliganism last year for singing a protest song in Moscow’s main cathedral. The Pussy Riot members were sentenced to what was widely considered an excessive two years in a labor camp.
Now, some activists have begun referring to the Greenpeace ship as the Pussy Sunrise.
No comments:
Post a Comment