Irish politics discussion thread

TAXPAYERS ARE facing the possibility of losing several hundred million euro through the State’s toxic property loans agency, the National Asset Management Agency (Nama).

The Government originally said the agency would deliver a €4.8 billion profit to the exchequer.

Only about 20 per cent of the loans are generating any income, that is repayments or interest payments, and the rest are currently producing no returns at all. Nama originally expected that 40 per cent would be income-producing.

No news of any borrowers being prosecuted as yet, as was promised 'within 30 days' under this scenario.

But it definitely wasn't a bailout, let's be clear on this.

LAND values have fallen by up to 75 per cent and in some provincial towns they are down by up to 90 per cent compared to the peak in 2006, according to a review of the development land sector by Savills

.....

Taxpayers are facing the possibility of losing several hundred million euro through the State’s toxic property loans agency, the National Asset Management Agency (Nama).

The Government originally said the agency would deliver a €4.8 billion profit to the exchequer.

Only about 20 per cent of the loans are generating any income, that is repayments or interest payments, and the rest are currently producing no returns at all. Nama originally expected that 40 per cent would be income-producing.

......

Opposition parties have objected to a Government proposal that the Dáil should take a three-month holidays.

The Dáil is due to rise today, and it will not sit again until the September 29.

This year's Dáil holidays are a full 12 weeks, longer than in previous years.

Read more: http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/opposition-parties-object-to-three-month-dail-holiday-464678.html#ixzz0tfZKo1NQ

.......

Ireland's fiscal consolidation plan through to 2014 is "appropriately ambitious" but the adjustment needed may be larger than the authorities envisage, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said today

this country is about to get awesome

Credit agency Moody's has downgraded Ireland's government bond ratings to Aa2, blaming banking liabilities, weak growth prospects and a substantial increase in the debt to GDP ratio.

However, Moody's lead analyst for Ireland Dietmar Hornung said it was a "gradual, significant deterioration, but not a sudden, dramatic shift", and the agency believed Ireland has "turned the corner".

The general government debt-to-GDP ratio was at 64 per cent at the end of last year, up from 25 per cent before the financial crisis took hold, and is continuing to rise.

“Today’s downgrade is primarily driven by the Irish government’s gradual but significant loss of financial strength, as reflected by its deteriorating debt affordability,” said Mr Hornung.

:)

We've turned the corner!

(I'm just c&p'ing stuff now as a record of the deterioration, at least until the govt can't pay the leccy bill anymore- when i suddenly stop posting you'll know what happened)

I want you to look at these sombitches right here

"lack of gratitude" eh?

Here's something we have reason not to be grateful for

The posited costs of Anglo-Irish Bailout keep rising

Fintan O'Toole, in the Irish Times again. I don't necessarily always agree with his solutions (in this case he reckons Anglo-Irish should be left to the ECB, for instance), but he rights with the right kind of anger, incredulity and searching in the right areas to make his articles on the banks/givt/property required reading since day 1 imo.

The intro to today's article is p good.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2010/0907/1224278367177.html

he 'writes' with the right kind of anger

skip vicky pollard analogy, that's uncharacteristically cheap tbh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pifibs_q7ec

lol

cant watch at work but lol anyway

bookmark it! it's amazing...

oh it's on my to-do when i get home.

emmmmmmmm

did you watch it?

i couldn't sit through all of his presentation, not gonna lie to you (is he creepy or is it just me?) but i got about 5 mins in total of the intro.

the dancing, oh boy. lol.

GET READY

(europe are gonna demand tax regime harmonisation in return for allowing us to fuck ourselves for decades with the debts of private banks- this is about to get real)

he is massively creepy. the way he dances is funny, i'd never thought of how one would want to dance on someone's grave in order to fully disrespect them before. personally i think i'd favour a more sexual and outrageous dance to truly show my disdain for the ceremonial resting place.

yeah, you either want rave or contempt to come out. not..... lust for children.

i don't suppose anyone is inclined to reproduce this FT piece that scurrilously broke ranks with international congratulations on our handling of this mess?

MINISTER FOR Science Conor Lenihan will not now launch a book in Dublin which describes evolution as a fantasy and a hoax, after the author asked him to withdraw in the wake of controversy on the web.

The Minister was to launch The Origin of Specious Nonsense by John May at Buswells hotel tomorrow, with actors playing the parts of Charles Darwin and King Kong.

MINISTER FOR SCIENCE MINISTER FOR SCIENCE MINISTER FOR FUCKING SCIENCE AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH FUCK THIS COUNTRY

Mind you he's still probably a better fit for his brief than most of the other cuntyfucks

The 7 bullet points from the author on this page are hurting my head. Is it opposites day?

I love it when rightwing/anti-scientists take the exact same arguments that they hear from their own opponents and just repeat them without any thought for "does this make sense any more?". Just throw in 5 extra words about God at the end and we're done, right?

About the Author:

He describes himself on the website www.theoriginofspeciousnonsense.com as “like Abraham Lincoln, self-educated, and might be viewed as a polymath, left school young and commenced my real education”.

riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight

On another trip, ODL getting fair stick for conducting a dodge interview with Mornign Ireland while hungover this AM. FF think-ins in Galway haven't lost their magic, obviously.

From the other end of your beautiful island, here is a cheery little piece in Ulster Scots* (or thereabouts) from a few months ago regarding the NI Culture Minister's keenness to put up some signs about geology only being a theory at the Giant's Causeway:
http://1690andallthat.blogspot.com/2010/06/giants-causeway.html

* a noble and very real linguistic heritage or a loyalist bid to get in on the money handed out by the EU for themmuns to print leaflets in Irish? well obviously it's not my place to have any opinion

I've always been of the opinion, not exactly researched, that it's a pure cod tbh. The first time I saw a guy (wearing a kilt and a flat cap iirc) speaking this on UTV one night I thought it was just another unfunny 'performance' comedian.

Money for Irish leaflets (and for EU translation in particular)- also a cod, so I'm not misunderstood or anything

don't get this cowen fuss, he sounds a bit slurred and half asleep but...who gives a fuck rly

hey, they got capone on tax evasion, iygwim

While Ireland’s unemployment rate was the sixth highest in the European Union last year, its population remains the second richest of the 27 member states, according to a new report.

think we'll just start printing and handing out a load of €2000 euro notes to fuck, sure won't we be FLYING THEN?

how about dis ting

At Milford District Court in Letterkenny on Monday Judge Séamus Hughes told Joseph McElwee (38) of Aughavennan, Rathmullan, Co Donegal, he was to do the four stations of the famous Mayo pilgrimage as a mark of respect for his fellow Irish people, especially those in the line of duty.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0917/1224279094345.html

can't they let him climb a mountain that doesn't have any religious nonsense associated with it

judge seamus hughes.

worked for the family for a few days once

he's a westport man himself, he's doin his bit for local tourism imo

judges make crap domestic staff ime, all airs and graces and won't play dumb

Garda Nicholas Freyne told the court that while they were on duty in Rathmullan, they saw a large crowd gathered outside a public house and three individuals approached them.

The court heard that the defendant called Garda Freyne a “Mayo w****r” and said “f*** off home to Mayo” continuing his abuse for 10 minutes according to the garda’s evidence.

not sure i disapprove of this kind of creative 'back at ya' sentencing tho tbh

oh right i see what you did there

the bould seamus was state solicitor for the north west region the past few years before his ascension, and he comes from a very nicely established family (portwest heirs, if anyone would recognise the name from outdoor wear). i don't think he ever had to do his own housework, let alone anyone else's.

what sort of negative associations wd someone in donegal have for mayo ppl? cuz that's the most ridiculous 'fuck off back to ____' shit i've ever seen

i'd imagine it was no more than 'oh look, it is a member of the local constabulary, let us mock him about something'

because there are no negative associations between west shannoners, except that city galwegians are a bit arty and city limerickmen are genuinely all fucking remorseless killers

cool.

i never got any sense of stupid resentments between rural irish ppl. i was once on a train w/ kids from sittingbourne and (iirc) gillingham getting into some stupid argument like that and despaired for them. cunts.

it all completely depends.

interfamily disputes are forgotten in neighbour disputes are forgotten in intervillage disputes but christ help us you wouldn't sit by if a fellow st vincents man was fightin with fellas from another parish and yr grandfather couldnt rest in his grave if he knew you'd let someone from the mainland run down the island and sure west mayo before the rest of them and when you get down to it isn't roscommon more dublin than it is connaught but begod you'd always take the side of a roscommon man ahead of anyone from leinster.

it's detailed, but not exactly complicated. my grandfather took knives fightin his way out of a pub in scotland back to back with a fella that he routinely knocked out at marts

disappointed i haven't gotten a rise from galway or limerick heads tbh

i don't think any of my ppl got into goings on like that back in the day

i don't think it was granda mac's style either, the point being that if someone from askill deserved a beating (and it's widely acceptable, judging by this individual's progeny with whom i had the privilege of attending their pre-prison state education, that he probably did) he'd damn well get it at home from fellas that had been waiting this long time for the opportunity, and not overseas from strangers.

my ppl were bourgie drunks and wasters on one side and ira on the other (long time ago)

a lot of nuns too

ah, the drunks and wasters on our side were/are all poor fuckers.

i'll ask the aul fella where we stood with the IRA, i'd imagine there was that in it too alright.