StatusIreland

In total, €27,200,000,000 (€27.2 bn) in bad loans has been taken from banks and put into NAMA. NAMA in turn paid €13,000,000,000 (€13 bn) for these loans. That is a total discount so far of 52.3%.

The banks are Allied Irish Banks, Bank of Ireland, EBS Building Society, Irish Nationwide Building
Society and the worst of the worst Anglo Irish Bank. €11,900,000,000 (€11.9 bn) of the €27.2 bn belongs to Anglo. Separately, Anglo will be receiving a total of €24,500,000,000 (€24.5bn) in recapitalisation from the Irish state.

The total tax revenue in Ireland for 2009 was €33,043,000,000. The budget for the Irish health system is €14,830,000,000. The budget for education and science for 2010 is €8,888,000,000.

Ireland’s national debt stands at around €87,000,000,000. In order to just service this debt we will need to spend around the same as we spend on education.

Finance, ireland Allied Irish Banks, Anglo Irish Bank, bank of ireland, budget, EBS Building Society, education and science, Irish Nationwide Building Society, l tax revenue, nama, National debt

There has been much talk of energy prices over the past while and therefore we have put 2 new charts onto StatusIreland. These 2 charts show the cost of electricity across Europe and as you might expect Ireland is up there as one of the most expensive.

As the prices of electricity are calculated in bands we have posted those which are most relevant and informative. The lowest band for domestic is usage of under 1000kWh and for commercial <20 MWh, and the following chart illustrates what the average cost is for customers who fall into this bracket.

Ireland is clearly leading the pack here due to what seems to be outrageously high standing charges and network charges in comparison to the rest of Europe. Holiday homes which stand empty for most of the year would fall into this bracket.
The following chart illustrates the D band which represents usage of between 2500 kWh & 15000 kWh in 1 year for Domestic and between 2000 MWh & 20,000 MWh for Commercial:

While more in line with Europe it shows Ireland still up there as one of the highest in Europe in a band that many people would fall into.

Obviously electricity prices are very complex and these figures are only some of what is available so for more information it is worth a visit to www.sei.ie which can help answer some more questions.

Finance, ireland cost, Department of Communications Energy and Natural Resources, electricity, Energy, European Union

100,000+ have marched the streets of Dublin today in protest of the economy and the government’s handling of the situation so far. The protest was organized by Unions but I can’t help but feel that a savings of 100,000 * €20 (a month union fee) would be better spent on anything other than unions.

How about a protest by union members who have got nothing for their money except an almost hyper inflation over the past few years. A real protest would be to stop paying your union membership and join with others who actually care about jobs, the economy and this country. Join with them and figure out a way to make a real change. Clogging up the streets of Dublin on a mild Spring Saturday afternoon has about as much impact as a punch from Willie O’Dea’s granny.

Finance, Humour, Jobs, ireland change, dublin, Irish government, march, protest, strike, Unions

Daft.ie today came out with there (as always) interesting quarterly report. At the same time the Bank of Ireland have announced some sort of cheap mortgage scheme using €1 billion of tax payers money. To be honest the details are not even worth reading. People should not be buying houses now.

They should be renting:

Finance, Property, ireland bank of ireland, daft.ie, housing, mortgage, Property, tax

As the country braces itself for a sustained period of economic contraction it is obvious that there is a tough time ahead for the majority of Irish people.

It is somewhat unsurprising that the public sector unions are digging their heels in already. Dublin Bus and Bus Eireann have voted in favour of industrial action. Teachers are also being balloted for industrial action and over the next few weeks we are set to see much disruption to the areas of society where disruption resonates most.

Industrial action by a public sector with guaranteed pensions and guaranteed jobs will clearly win no fans.

Yesterday TUI president Don Ryan said “Our members are prepared to take their fair share of the burden”

This evening on Today FM general secretary of ASTI John White said that they were “willing to play their part in dealing with this recession”

It seems that everyone wants to do their part, as long as it is deciding others should suffer.


This chart from our site shows just how industrial action has declined over the years. 2007 being the year when the least ever amount of hours were lost to industrial action. I think that record is safe for a while:

Finance, Jobs, ireland ASTI, bus eireann, dublin bus, economy, industrial action, public sector, strike, teachers, TUI

Every person is fully aware that in the past week there have been some very bad announcements when it comes to jobs but given that it is a new year January was always going to be a bad month. The big companies were always going to wait until after the holidays to make major announcements. The smaller companies, however, didn’t have the luxury and December saw 16,300 people going onto the live register topping off the highest single year rise on record. A 71% rise in unemployment in 2008.

In order to assess exactly where this country is in terms of unemployment it is worth looking at 2 charts. The first is the number of people on the live register:

The second is the unemployment rate:

Looking simply at the first chart it is clear to see that the amount of people on the dole is shooting up and within the next few weeks it will be at the highest point it has ever been.

Comfort will be taken from the second chart where we can see that as a percentage of the labour force the situation is nowhere near what it has been in the past few decades, at least yet.

Nothing more needs to be said other than keep an eye on these charts through the next few months. They will be the reason behind every other statistic, from house prices through retail sales figures.

Finance, Jobs, ireland Employment, house prices, Jobs, jobs in ireland, live register, Seasonally Adjusted Standardised Unemployment Rate, unemployment

irish times clickity click click

Finance, Humour, ireland 372 million, central bank, irish pound, Punt

When the government announced their budget, earlier than usual in October 2008, they predicted that we were in for some tough times. A levy here, a cutback there and a prediction that we would need to borrow €4.8 billion to run the country in 2009. Ouch!

The Agency that monitors this borrowing is the National Treasury Managment Agency and about 10 weeks after the budget was announced they have issued their end of year results. They have stated that the €4.8 billion will rise to €13 billion. As a result the national debt now stands at €50.7 billion.

The National Debt/GNP ratio increased from 23.3 per cent at end 2007 to 32.5 per cent at end 2008.

While Ireland’s national debt is still considered fairly stable and manageable the question remains how the government could make a prediction of €4.8 billion only for that figure to balloon so drastically in such a short space of time.

What other predictions and assumptions are they relying on? How will the inevitable gulf between prediction and actual fact impact the nation? Will they be able to sort out the banks? Will they be able to sink the public sector bloat boat? How will the Lisbon treaty be handled, again? How do they help small businesses who are struggling? Is our manufacturing and export sector doomed due to high costs and weakened pound/dollar? What about rising crime rates? What about…. everything?

It’s January 1st and we’re screwed already!

Finance, Jobs, ireland budget, financial crisis, lisbon treaty, National debt, National Treasury Managment Agency, NTMA, public borrowing

House prices are continuing to fall as indicated by the latest ESRI/ permanent TSB House Price Index. The chart below illustrates just how much has fallen of the average house in Ireland since prices peaked in 2007.

Expectations of a return to a vibrant market are very hopeful. The property donkey is dead and if we compare our situation to other countries then we can expect a 40%-60% drop in prices. Dublin prices peaked in April ‘07 and have since seen a drop of 16.6%. With a stockpile of empty property, banks not willing to lend, people not willing to buy and a very uncertain future for the economy it is inevitable that property prices will continue to slide.

In the first 10 months of 2008 there were 43,513 property completions. The total for 2007 was 78,027. A signs of the times. 2009 is going to be a tough year for the sector and as a result the country that relied so heavily on it.

Finance, Jobs, Property, ireland esri, house price index, house prices, ireland, Property, property completions

It was noted back in January of this year that the government were closing their little visited and very useless website reachservices.ie.
The site was approved at a cost of €14,000,000 by a committee on eGovernment. It ended up costing €37,000,000 to build. It then had annual costs of €15,000,000 a year.

The local and European elections on 11 June 2004 should have been the dawn of a €50,000,000 e-Voting system. Instead due to the lack of public confidence on the back of an ICTE submission to the independent Commission on Electronic Voting which said the machines had a technical flaw the machines were shelved. Cost of this shelving is about €2,000,000 per year.

A small glass tuck shop on the grounds of Leinster House on Kildare Street was built between March 2007 and opened in January 2008. The bill for the 40Sq m glass house was €1,280,867.

Today (15 December 2008), it is reported that a senior manager in An Post was awarded a total of €106,000 for his 11 weeks work in 2007. Following a restructuring of An Post some employees who were surplus to requirements i.e. didn’t accept a move elsewhere, were moved to what is known as the “rubber room” or officially the resource centre. Here they had little or no work to do but still qualified for full pay and bonus.

These are of course just some of the many, many examples of waste in the public sector. The idea of reform of any sort in the public sector seems to be the least of the governments priorities. Due to bad management and a lack of willingness we are finding ourselves living in a country which costs €50billion a year to run. €20Billion covers the wages in the public sector alone. There is surely some fat that can be trimmed off and some wiser choices that can be made. There better be because so far this year the government has pulled in only €40billion in taxes and that is why we need to borrow, borrow and borrow some more.

Finance, ireland, technology an Post, Dail, e-voting, eGovernment, Irish government, Leinster house, reachservices.ie, revenue, Rubber room, tuck shop