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Economy

142 posts
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Ireland’s inequality increases

New figures released for 2013 highlight how Ireland is a country of widening inequality, with a massive divide growing between the super-rich elite and big business on the one hand and the majority of the population subjected to brutal austerity on the other.
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Youth guarantee: forced cheap labour

The Youth Guarantee was the crowning achievement of the Irish Presidency of the EU in 2013. The Labour Party have hailed it from the rooftops, Emer Costello MEP, has even gone to the bother of holding meetings around the city to promote it. But what does it really guarantee?
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Capitalism – “Working for the few”

We are living in a world where there is massive social and economic inequality. This situation is outlined in the Oxfam briefing paper “Working for the Few” which shows that the top one percent of the population have increased their income since 2008 and seven out of ten people live in countries where economic inequality has increased in the last 30 years. While multinationals get away with paying a minimal tax rate we are bombarded by such unfair taxes as the property tax and the up-coming water charge.
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Bailout ‘exit’: a return to sovereignty or Troika rule by another name?

With the government preparing to milk the 15 December 'exit' from the bailout, hyperbole is being heaped upon hyperbole to welcome the 'return of sovereignty' to Ireland. The government, and in particular the Labour Party, want to use this supposed success story and the good mood it creates to carry them through the difficult local and European elections next May. What is the reality of this 'exit' and the true state of democratic control by people in Ireland over economic and other policies?

The PDF of this paper can be downloaded and printed here.

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Southern Irish economy – analysis & perspectives

Caution is necessary when investigating figures for the economic situation in Ireland. There are economic vested interests at work that benefit from spinning every scrap of positive news. The media fully assist this and try to manufacture a mood or belief that substantial progress is just around the corner. So as well as trying to identify perspectives, it is necessary to take up the arguments and the propaganda that is being put forward constantly.