Economic Experts Say Government Policy is Failing
A group of economic experts - including Congress Economic Advisor Paul Sweeney - have signed an open letter to Government which says its policies are failing and will prolong the recession. The letter has been signed by leading economists and analysts and was published in the Irish Times. It was an initiative of the independent think tank Tasc.
"The Government's economic strategy is failing. The Irish recession has been deeper and longer than almost any other in the industrialised world. Consumer spending has collapsed while at the same time unemployment and emigration have soared. Crucially, investment has plummeted off the chart. Not only have Government policies failed to stem this haemorrhage, they have actively contributed to this collapse." Read the full text and the full list of signatories here
Rewarding Incompetence
Congress has expressed serious disappointment with new Government proposals on restructuring Ireland's pension system.Congress General Secretary David Begg said the proposed new framework fell significantly short in two key areas.
"Firstly, they propose to force people to hand over a portion of their wages to the private Pension Industry in order to facilitate gambling and stock market speculation. Given that Irish pension funds - and therefore those who manage them - have been the worst performing in the developed world, this is like a reward for incompetence.
"It is also worth noting that the some of the blame for our current financial crisis lies squarely with the foolish investment decisions made by private pension funds....and yet Government proposes to give them even more money. This is wrong.
"The second major failing relates to the absence of any initiative to protect people when a scheme gets into difficulty - a Pension Protection Fund. This is required by EU law and the workers in SR Technics and Waterford Glass are living proof that it is necessary. This is not the response that the crisis in our pension system requires," Mr Begg concluded.
Turning Recession into Depression
The Government's ill-advised deflationary policies are driving the economy deeper into recession and will mean even higher unemployment and worse public finances, according to Congress General Secretary David Begg.
Mr Begg said Ireland's jobless rate was worse than either Iceland or Greece.
"Alone among developed nations we have no plan to save or create jobs. We have lost over 110,000 jobs since January 2009. Over and over again Congress has said that you cannot deflate your way to recovery and If Government persists with this perverse deflationary strategy, the jobless rate will rise steadily. The OECD is predicting a figure of 14 percent for 2010 and we fear they may be proved correct.
"Even troubled Iceland has kept unemployment to 7 percent and Greece to 10.4 percent. Our jobless rate is among the fastest rising in the EU."
The Union Post