Oh dear Diarmy,
I’m just trying to wonder here how old you are!!??……Can I suugest you read Conor McCabe’s post above for an accurate picture of governments in recent years…….as a long standing employee of the IDA, I think I am qualified to talk about what led to the boom…..and I can assure you that the current government had nothing to do with it………..but have in fact by not addressing the “competitiveness” needs of the economy in the last 5 years actually put it at great risk……infrastructure deficits……developer led planning……inflation at 5%…..domestic construciton boom…etc etc…want me to go on???…….The reason the Tayto man and PD’s have been able to cut taxes since 1997 is BECAUSE of the boom…….not a cause of it…….The 12.5% tax rate was agreed by the Rainbow Govt in 1997 as a compromsie with the EU who stated that we could not have differing tax rates for domestic and overseas industry……FF/PD’s had to reduce the Corporation tax rate for ALL companies in the state as a result and this was phased in over a number of years with all party support…….

REASONS for CELTIC TIGER……….in no specific order and for FF/PD learners on economics

1) Corporate Tax
2) Free Second Level Education leading to well educated workforce
3) Lost cost skilled labour ( especially influx of women into economy )
4) Most Employer friendly labour regulations in Europe ( along with UK ) and clsoer to US
5) US Tech/Pharma boom

Rant Over

This was announced and had you listened to the launch of the NDP, you would know that. 500 beds at the cost of €180 million. Now, if the oppositions beds amount to €825 million, that means that €645 million is taken away from other services which were also outlined at the launch of the NDP – these services included cancer services etc.

Phrase the issue of the prison in anyway you like – they blocked the continuing with the building of that prison – its as simple as that.

http://www.irishelection.com/05/what-were-they-watching/#more-1836

“A – Chapter ten of the NDP 2007-2013 page 213 to 220

http://www.ndp.ie/documents/NDP2007-2013/NDP_Main_Ch10.pdf

There is no mention of the figure of €180 million for 500 beds. Nor is there any other break down of the €2.4 Billion figure in the areas of the children’s hospital.

Re: the prison I was saying that as FG were in opposition and lacked the votes to alter government policy how would they have been able to block the building of Thornton Hall.”

As I noted above there is no costing in the NDP for the 500 beds. Or if there is then please show us where it is.

I’m off to bed.

If Brian Cowan ripping Rabbitte and Coveney on RTÉ One now doesn’t show that the ‘Alliance for Change’ is pure rubbish ideology doesn’t make you see sense, then I guess Friday evening’s results will.

Oíche Mhaith

Fianna Fáil has held the Finance ministry for 56 of the last 74 years. They held it during the disastrous trade war of the 1930s. They held it in the 1950s when emigration was at its highest and soul-crushing poverty was endemic. They held it during the 1970s when the mohair suits were consolidating power in the party, and again during the Haughey years when borrowing was undertaken by the government in order to pay the wages of newly-hired civil servants, and silk shirts were flown first class from Paris.

The five year Fine Gael-Labour government of the 1980s inherited a bankrupt economy. It struggled to keep the country afloat, while at the same time preparing the groundwork for what became social partnership. The economic policies of that government were wisely accepted by Ray McSharry, who showed himself to be more than willing to continue proper fiscal policy, and who received the backing of Fine Gael under Alan Dukes – the so-called ‘Tallaght Strategy.’

The only time when Fianna Fáil has ever shown initiative in the finance ministry was during the Lemass years and again under Ray McSharry, who held the office for a total of twenty one months.

So when Tayto Ahern gets up and brushes the cheese and onion from his suit, telling us that a Fine Gael/Labour government would be a disaster for the country, let us be clear what cards he is playing.

Since the 1970s an influential block within Fianna Fáil have used power to enrich themselves. They have made millions in the process while billions have been made by property developers who have thrown up legolands along the M50.

That money could only be made if the right planning decisions were passed by the appropriate councils in the appropriate drip-feed way. This was done, but could only be done with Fianna Fáil in power.

The desire for power that drove Haughey and his fellow-travelling pimps was the desire for money. Politics was where the pay-off happened. And planning decisions were made not in the interests of the public, but in the interests of a very small, and very rich, slice of Irish life.

The payoff culture that surrounded Fianna Fáil was such that apparently no-one saw anything unusual about having a whip-around for the Irish finance minister at an after-dinner speech in Manchester. The circumstances behind the whip-around were different, but the culture was not.

We have yet to see a Fine Gael / Labour government fuck up the economy as spectacularly as Fianna Fáil did in the 1970s and early 1980s, as they had done before in the 1940s and 50s, and have done again from 2002. The ‘boomer’ times, as Tayto calls them, are fuelled by half a trillion euro in mortgages secured to a worrying degree by PAYE employment in the construction industry and ancillary services. The borrowing is paying for the jobs, man, just as it did with the civil servants in 1981.

Maybe it’s about time Labour started offering some real alternatives and shut the arrogant Mayo leader up from closing the door with Fianna Fail!

I don’t care what anyone says, for the first time in my life of my parent’s life, I do not have to emigrate to earn a good living and keep my family afloat. If Labour wants to ‘change’ this government, presumably to change its direction too, we’re all screwed.

If FG/LAB get into power, you won’t need 2,300 new hospital beds – the level of emigration following that election will surely free up 2,300 beds a week for the next five years! Maybe that’s the plan!!!