If the IMF cometh

johnfás wrote:

It may happen, it may not. Obviously we need to be aware of the situation and our Government needs to develop a strategy whereby core infrastructure can be protected if the situation were to arise. However, I think the following text, in bold, is misleading because there is not the evidence to state it as a factual position, probable or not probable. Surely the words, could, might or perhaps even the preface probably would be more appropriate.

cactus flower wrote:

The point of the IMF is that they would tell us to privatise Eirgrid. I think we should be prepared to do anything necessary to keep them out.

It's an assertion, nobody is relying on it as a matter of fact and nobody's stopping you from questioning it. It's what cf evidently thinks would happen if the IMF came(th) aand it is not an unreasonable assertion judging by the IMF's track record.

I do not want Ireland to be in the hands of the IMF. It sounds to me to be analogous to a junkie being hit up by a drug dealer for coming up short. Maybe they'll be much nicer to us than they have been to others in the past but it's unlikely. If the IMF come and start taking our country apart like a third world nation I'm out of here first chance I get.

What power/interest has the EU to step in and protect us from the IMF if worst comes to worst? Forced unilateral deregulation could have a detrimental effect on the four freedoms.

cactus flower wrote:

coc wrote:

An emergency supertax on public servants could raise €140million if we clawed back an average of €10k each from all those earning over between €100k and €150k and 20k from those (5000) earning over €150k. Numbers of public servants from Sarah Carey on Q&A a few weeks ago.

Public service pensions need to be taxed heavily as well. Any pensioners drawing down more than €50k should be taxed heavily as part of this emergency supertax. Does anyone have any ideas of how many of them there are?

So, we're up to €240million already. Any other ideas?

Why only on public servants? Why not just right across the board as income tax? Why is the Government allergic to raising income tax. They would cut cancer tests and education and anything rather than a progressive income tax.

Even Ben Dunne was saying they should lash on the income tax. At least then it is transparent and fair.

I agree. If they are going to increase taxes, better they do it simply and directly through PAYE, PRSI and so on. It doesn't do to have a byzantine array of levies, charges, taxes etc. These are complicated, inefficient and add to the workload of the Revenue Commissioners. It is not in keeping with one of the canons of taxation - economy. The tax system must be run as cheaply as possible.

Indirect taxation in Ireland, our very high VAT in particular, its just another way of shifting the burden from the rich to the less well off.

Judges in the High Court etc. get paid wads of money and don't pay any pensions now - they get paid like 300k a year, get a 400k lump sum on retiring and then a pension of 150k for the rest of their naturals.

Would these lads be getting a paycut in the event of the IMF landing here ?

Would Mary McAleese be still earning 300k a year and the Presidency costing 3m per year ?

Introduce Pfand now.

This would be a tax on bottles which you would get back once you returned them to the Pfand centre. One could be set up in every small town in the country and from there the bottles would be sent on to be cleaned and reused.

So we'd be drinking from coca cola bottles that had been reused several times and why not - the Germans do it why don't we ?

Pfand could be set at the rate of 50c for a small bottle and €1 for a big bottle, glass and plastic, returnable when you deliver it to the centre. It would be revenue neutral (?) but because not everyone would bring all their bottles back immediately the Government could raise potentially millions per week plus it would have the advantage of not contributing to pollution or recycling costs and overheads.

If we use 1 million bottles a day then potentially the Government could raise 1 million. For the first month that Pfand was in operation, you couldn't bring your bottles back so the Government would have this money in the meantime. It could be 30 million in the first month.

If you're going to Germany to ask Angela for money then tell her you're implementing Pfand and she might even give you some Pfand machines to clean the bottles.

It would be a small contribution but worth printing money for as it's a great system. It would give some employment too.