The Irish Debt Clock ticks on inexorably
See the Republic of Ireland's national debt mount up, a measure of the legacy the Irish Government is in the process of bequeathing to the children of Ireland:
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The FINANCE DUBLIN Irish Government Debt Clock was set at midnight on June 30th 2009, when it was €65.278 billion.
Latest Update: (February 6th 2010)
The Exchequer returns for January 2010 confirm our earlier assessments that the Budgetary strategy in the two tax rate raising (but expenditure preserving) Budgets of 2008 and 2009 would prove disastrous for employment, and would not result in boosting the real economy and employment based tax revenues. This is shown in the unexpectedly poor returns for tax revenues (as compared with the originally published Budget forecasts) under several tax headings, such as corporation tax, capital gains tax, stamp duty, income tax, and VAT. (The Central Bank's latest Bulletin shows that employment in Ireland fell by 250,000 since 2008, and unemployment rose in the same period by 150,000, with the rate now edging up into the low teens).
However, our forecast (see December 9th Update below) that the policy decisiveness evident in the December Budget would result in a lift in the economy's fortunes have been borne out in independent surveys of consumer and employer confidence for December-January, and can now be expected to lead to some boost to tax revenues in the months ahead (the January Exchequer returns were also adversely affected by exceptionally poor winter weather conditions).
Overall, despite the welcome for the change in direction shown in the December Budget, the Irish economy is not out of the woods, as evidenced by the fact that the debt clock is still rising by approx. €1 billion a month. Further cuts in expenditure this year of at least €5 billion off current budgets will be needed to ensure a continuation of the turn-around, and restore the Irish economy to the healthy condition that is entirely possible. The Irish economy is one of the most flexible in the world, and this positive feature will be demonstrated again, if a consensus is achieved by Government, unions, public service members, and the nation that the real solution of the Irish economic crisis is the Irish people themselves, left to their own resources to work, and earn their way out of the crisis with their own ingenuity, using the skills and specialist knowledge of their own trades, careers, and businesses to do so.
Update (December 9th 2009):
Lenihan probably right to say 'we have turned the corner' as Budget signals a fundamental shift in the right direction for Irish fiscal policy
The NTMA's latest figure for Ireland's National Debt.
At the rate the debt is accumulating, it is set to double by a moment in the month of May 2013. For an indication of how the debt is growing, subtract the latest figure published by the NTMA at the above link from the current Finance Dublin Debt Clock figure above.
Ireland slowed down and reversed its debt clock between the late 1980s and the beginning of the 2000s.
To find out how it can be done again, read the below articles:There IS a solution to Ireland's economic crisis. It is very simple because ECONOMICS DOES NOT LIE. It is contained in the three pronged strategy contained in the following paragraph:
The 'Bord Snip Nua' Report (of the 'Special Group on Public Service Numbers & Expenditure'), published by the Irish Government on July 16th 2009 identified savings in Exchequer non pay areas of €5.3 billion in a full year. These, once implemented, could have the potential of slowing down the clock by a third. However, the 'Bord Snip' cuts would, in themselves, still not be sufficient, as the Irish state remains on a trajectory of borrowing almost €20 billion a year. However. an across-the-board public sector pay cut of 15 to 20 per cent, IN ADDITION, to the non pay cuts outlined in the Bord Snip (McCarthy) Report, as outlined below, would, in conjunction with large cuts in state capital expenditure projects in the Public Capital Programme, be enough to effect a stabilisation of the Irish fiscal trajectory, and a slowdown in the Debt Clock to a sustainable level.'The need for supply side-focused tax cuts in Ireland's Budget in December' (Op-ed article in the November Edition of Finance Dublin)
'The three pillars of an Irish economic recovery’ (Op-ed article in the October Edition of Finance Dublin)
and on:NAMA and the Irish Taxpayer
'Moral Hazard’, NAMA & the Irish taxpayer' (Op-ed in the August Edition of Finance Dublin)
Potential Impact of the McCarthy ('Bord Snip') Report
(See the full statement on the 'Special Group on Public Service Numbers & Expenditure' Report Here).
The NTMA publishes historical data for the national debt Here
(The NTMA debt total for September 30th of €70,754 million compares with figures it published for the three earlier months of €69,290 million for August 31st 2009, €67,009 million on July 30th 2009, and €65,278 million on June 30th 2009).