Little man still suffering – but it’s good at the top

CSO survey reveals 6.5% pay rise for managers but at who’s expense?

Trade union Unite has claimed that clerical and production workers’ pay is being cut, not to reduce overall pay costs, but rather to subsidise significant pay increases for management staff. It’s jobs for the boys again all over Ireland.

Unite has accused Irish management of profiteering based on these findings. The CSO data on wage earnings of almost 200,000 workers in manufacturing shows that management awarded themselves a 6.5 per cent increase in the first quarter of 2009.

The little people of Ireland, i.e. the majority of taxpayers, who God forgive them for voting FF in the first place, have  only themselves to blame. Here, slap me on this side of my face, the other side is well and truly bruised.

So as the majority continue to bail out the chosen few cronies who the Government insist is the best thing to do (well I’m sure it was discussed in the Galway tent). Remember, least you FF voters forget, last November, when Taoiseach Bertie Ahern refused to back down on his €38,000 pay increase, saying it would be “pure tokenism” – most of you will be lucky to be earning his increase

Remember, I think JFK said this - ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. The Government version of this runs as follows – ask not what your country can do for you but what your country can do for you as a Government Minister, unlimited expense accounts to be abused, a salary that can buy you a house. A pension on top of a pension on top of a pension.

It’s no wonder the country is ruined. Let’s not forget my friends in the judiciary who are too miserable to help out the economy by taking a wage cut (a few have God bless them). I can never remember if  ‘judiciary’ is spelt with  one ‘i’ or two, I certainly know that there are no balls in it.

Little people of Ireland, if you are old enough, then perhaps you will remember the tax marches (this might jog your memory, the marches took place around the same time as CJ was having silk shirts flown in from Paris). What this country needs is a nationwide strike to stop money going into the coffers of the elite few.

Slash, cut, chop I don’t care what you call  it but get rid of 100 TDs and 60% of HSE management and cut the judiciary salaries by 30% and ministers salaries to go back to 1996 levels and if you want to serve in Dublin you must live further than 120 km from Dail Eireann (as you will hardly be there anyway) before you can claim expenses. If you want to stay overnight, get a bedsit for you and the mistress – i.e. the country, because that’s most certainly what you are doing – screwing the country.

Little man gets it in the neck again.

Union asks public not to abuse Permanent TSB staff.

The big wigs, mates of the Government, pass on a rate increase to the goose that laid the golden egg, i.e. the taxpayer and who gets the brunt of their anger the little people in Permanent TSB. The small workers are only doing their job and have no say in interest rate manipulation.

If people want to vent their anger, then either riot in the streets, something we should be doing, or become a shareholder and go to the AGM and throw rotten eggs at the policy makers. It is the jobs for the boys with their big increases and pensions to finance want to raise the rates and these are the ones that joe bloggs taxpayer should be venting their anger at.

It didn’t take long for the greedy to come back to the trough, they should remember if it wasn’t for the humble taxpayer, they would be looking for a job by now.

Chambers Ireland: Proposed cuts not enough

Chambers Ireland has said An Bord Snip Nua’s recommended cuts “are not enough” for the Govt to balance the books. According to Ian Talbot, Chief Executive, Chambers Ireland, said: “Our chief concern given the collapse in tax revenues witnessed since 2008 is that the cuts sought will not go far enough to enable the Government to balance its books in an orderly fashion.

“In light of the swingeing job losses, pay cuts and productivity enhancements delivered by the approximately 1.4 million workers and managers in the private sector, we believe the public sector must reciprocate via a specifically focussed reverse benchmarking process and, critically, productivity enhancements to ensure that current spending does not crowd out vitally important capital investments.

“We question the merits of reducing the local government fund by €100m in the absence of firm commitments to introducing a local tax. The real issue is ensuring that adequate local services are delivered and funded cost effectively for business. We need a locally derived tax now to deliver locally controlled services.”

“In terms of the agenda of merging the Health and Safety Authority and the National Employment Rights Authority into one Work Place Inspectorate we fully welcome this recommendation and reiterate our call for a parallel consolidation and simplification of all HR-related legislation to enable business to deal with this legal minefield.”

“In positioning Ireland for the future there are very significant gains to be made by the State focusing seriously on the e-commerce/e-payment agenda. We welcome calls for a dramatically enhanced focus on a fully integrated e-commerce strategy.” “The Government was elected to govern. Accordingly we call for the hard decisions to be taken now to ensure Ireland’s control of its future,” Talbot concluded. Read more: http://breakingnews.ie/business/chambers-ireland-proposed-cuts-not-enough-418968.html#ixzz0LT05B7Mj

Unemployment Rate

The wonderful Irish Dictator – Brian Cowen said this morning that the total number of jobless on the live  register is now 413,500.

With things to get worse there will be no sign of a recovery for over 18 months.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said the economy was in crisis and that the Department of Finance was in paralysis.

The Labour leader said the Taoiseach’s comments that the figure represented the slowest rate of increase this year was akin to saying the country is sinking, but sinking more slowly.

But, things are not all bad as the Government and opposition parties head for 2+ months holidays. What a great country Ireland is. Not to worry the Government ministers will be hard at it, those expenses accounts have got be re-jigged somehow now that the spotlight is on expenses and Government waste.

Will the Government take the lead and start the process for a reduction in TDs, we have about 50% too much. We never had jobs for the boys junior ministers before, they are a product of the gravy train. Get rid of the junior ministers, the country does not need them nor does it want them.

Super Currency

China has renewed its call for the creation of a super-sovereign currency to reduce the US dollar’s domination of the world’s monetary system. Why shouldn’t we dump the Petrodollar from the country that invades other countries looking for non existing Weapons on Mass Destruction (WMD). Is the European Union going to back Ireland as we invade the US looking for their already existing stockpiles of WMDs. Ask  most villages in North Vietnam what terror is from napalm and to educate the young jobless Celtic Tigers – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev2dEqrN4i0

In its annual financial stability report, China’s central bank did not mention the dollar by name but said it was a serious defect that one currency should tower over all others.

‘An international monetary system dominated by a single sovereign currency has intensified the concentration of risk and the spread of the crisis,’  the People’s Bank of China said.

In a veiled call for the US not to erode the value of the dollar through excessively loose monetary and fiscal policies, the PBOC urged closer supervision of those countries that issue the main reserve currencies.

The report dusted off a call by the bank’s governor, Zhou Xiaochuan, for the creation of a super-sovereign currency.

In an essay in late March, Zhou caused a stir by suggesting that the Special Drawing Right, the International Monetary Fund’s unit of account, could eventually displace the dollar as the principal reserve currency.

Today’s report not only advocated a full role for the SDR but said the IMF should be entrusted with managing a portion of its member countries’ foreign currency reserves.

Chinese officials have expressed growing concern in recent months that the big US budgetary and monetary stimulus will generate inflation, handing Beijing big losses on its large portfolio of dollar-denominated bonds.

Judge not and you shall not be judged !

Well we can see that it is still jobs for the boys as members of Ireland’s judiciary are too greedy to help with the economy.

Only 19 of the State’s 148 judges have so far made voluntary contributions. Between them they have paid just over €60,000 so far, just over €3,000 each and they were exempt from the Pension Levy cuts.

WHY, WHY, WHY should one class in our society, whose salary is paid for by the hardest hit, i.e. the ordinary tax paying worker, not have to make any contribution to get this country up and running.

Is it because the little people of Ireland do not matter, well we know this is the case from meetings in Galway tents. The so called Government probably rubbed shoulders with the judiciary at the various colleges, boarding schools around the country and don’t want to upset their other mates. God, the property developers have been upset enough they don’t want anybody else to feel pain, except Joe Bloggs.

So this was what 1916 was all about, so that we could replace one repressive foreign Government for our own!

Pensions to go !

No, it’s not a serving in Starbucks or McDonalds, but nice if you can get it.

The government has confirmed former ministers still serving as members of parliament (TDs) and currently in receipt of a ministerial pension will see their benefits cut by 25%.

Brian Lenihan, minister of finance, outlined a number of changes to the remuneration of deputies and senators in the Oireachtas [the Irish parliament] as part of the supplementary budget in April, following concerns about fairness and transparency of costs in the current economic climate.

Lenihan proposed that the current arrangement – which sees former ministers paid ministerial pensions while still serving as a member of the Oireachtas – would be abolished, and in a Cabinet meeting last night it was decided that the arrangement will be removed from the date of the next election.

So, nice if you can not only have an overpaid job in the worst recession this country has ever seen, but also have a pension paid to you at the same time. More jobs for the boys perks, while they toss two fingers at the rest of Joe Bloggs voters in the street.

And sure things mustn’t be that bad as they are going to wait until the next election before they do anthing about it, funny the rest of us can see the country going down the creek without a paddle.

Roll on Christmas and my favourite movie, it’s a Wonderful Life, well if you are a Government Minister/TD, sure isn’t everyday a wonderful life.

And if you are a little person, don’t forget to put the FFers back in power, why not, aren’t they looking after you now as they always did, that is, if there was anything left after the big business interests were seen to first.

Poor Planning my backside!

A recent article in the Irish Times from a DIT study states that – Irish car mileage 70% higher due to sprawl’.

It goes on to state that :

POOR PLANNING is responsible for Irish cars travelling 70 per cent more than French or German vehicles, up to 50 per cent more than British cars and 30 per cent more than those in the US, according to a study from the Futures Academy at Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT).

The academy’s report found “suburbanisation” in our planning system has increased dependency on cars and fossil fuels to a point where Ireland is the fifth most oil-dependant country in the EU, and the ninth most oil-dependent in the world…. -read the full report here

Yes it was a combination of poor planning and greed that caused this. Planning that went on in tents at Galway race meetings and places like that. Of course the commute didn’t bother those that caused it, as they were flying over their created mess in helicopters.

But what about those voters (your time will come) who have to commute long hours to and from their jobs in Dublin, Cork, Belfast, Limerick. Yes, hindsight is a wonderful thing and with the panic and hype that was generated by property developers, estate agents etc to get people to queue overnight for over priced property was a total disgrace.

What did the politicians do, nothing. Sorry they did, they got benchmarking to ensure that their salaries and expenses kept them apace with the upward spiral of house prices.

Sorry DIT, you do complete some wonderful studies but please go that step further and in this case get to the root of the problem.

Start of an upturn ?

Could this be the start of the light at the end of the tunnel. As the FFers have laid claim that the Irish recession was the fault of the Global downturn surely when the Global upswing happens the FFers will take the credit.

This article first appeared in Personnel Today magazine and might just be the signal of a jobs upswing. Please note, there is not a comment by any economist to be seen so it should be OK, because as we know 99.9% of economists get it wrong all of the time.

An insurance company has doubled its recruitment drive in less than a month after a “great start” to the year. Hastings Direct announced today it was looking to fill 150 new roles across the company, just weeks after it said it would recruit another 150 staff. The company was acquired from Insurance Australia Group earlier this year and has begun a programme of expansion, including building three pilot high street stores.

Edward Fitzmaurice, chief executive of Hastings Direct, said he was proud to buck the trend of redundancies and recruitment freezes that were “all too common” as a result of the recession. He said: “2009 has started off as a great year for us, particularly in light of the difficult economic climate. Our recent augmentation has meant we need additional people to help grow the business and take Hastings Direct to the next level.” The newly created jobs will be in the marketing, finance and call centre areas of the company.

Anglo Irish Bank woes

Will the Anglo Irish Bank woes never go away, nice jobs if you can get them, bring back Yosser Hughes. So we hear that some of the staff members have impaired loans. Impaired Loans, nice wording for they haven’t a hope in hell of repaying the loans.

I wonder how many other banks are in this position and are staying mute or is the Triple Monkey in situ, see no Evil, hear no Evil etc. Or is it a case of monkey see, monkey do. Well at the Monkey Tea parties the word had to get around, – what you have access to all the lovely lolly and you are not becoming a property developer yourself. You probably looked up to the Alpha Male and said – God I want to be like him, so I’ll ape him and do the same and sure what did the other monkeys say at the tea party – there’s no problem, the gombeen taxpayer, FF voter, will pay it all back if we make a mess of the tea party!