David, got this from an accountant after Budget 2023. It includes
Job Seekers Allowance; Qualified Adult Dependent; Qualified Child Dependent; Back to School allowances; October Double Welfare Payment; Christmas Bonus; Max HAP Allowance per month; Fuel Allowance 28 weeks; Fuel Allowance Once Off Payment; Double Child Benefit Payment; Child Benefit.
Avid listener Jim and Chris, thanks for putting out such valuable content every week.
I have a question about the CBI announcement last week on our GDP growth. One point I didn't see mentioned is there seems to be an increasing gap between our GDP and GNP over the past few years. According to the CSO for 2021, this gap was at 25%(up from 19% in 2017), or in other words €90 billion of our GDP leaves the country.
In comparison to other development nations besides Luxembourg, this deficit is by far the highest, I would like to ask for your opinions on this. What is it an indication of and should our government be doing more to close the gap?
*Thanks very much Jim for sharing your insights on this in the latest episode. Totally agree that we would be shooting ourselves in the foot were we to try reduce the gap. I think my point was more along the lines of considering 25% of our GDP is not directly contributed to our economy (besides the corp tax taking) and over 50% of our corp tax is from just 10 multinationals, it leaves our economy in a perilous position as it is overly exposed to global shocks, which I feel is not a healthy position for us to be in long-term, so our government strategy should be looking at how to stabilize this situation.
Your points about welfare and tax are well made and are fully supported by independent evidence. The OECD reports that Ireland has the most redistributive taxation and welfare systems in the OECD, which literally means in the whole world.
In addition, it reports that Ireland has the lowest Poverty Gap in the OECD. But it seems that most voters are unaware, or perhaps disinterested. Instead a culture of selective distortion, populist narratives, personal frustrations and faux rage have become mainstream, driven by Sinn Fein, People Before Profit and other leftists and lobby groups.
The proportion of taxation paid in our society is overly-concentrated in just two segments: higher wage earners and multinational companies. The Department of Finance Annual Tax Report 2022 raises this fact as a highly significant risk in our taxation system, stating clearly that our economy is heavily dependent for tax revenue on a small base of higher-paid employees and multinational companies. Sinn Féin and People Before Profit, if elected to government, intend to compound this problem and to narrow the tax base by imposing more employment taxes, income tax, wealth taxes, property taxes and inheritance taxes on these two highly mobile segments of society. Notably, no media outlets appear to have questioned either party on their taxation plans in light of this Report which makes clear that the state is already vulnerably dependent on these two segments.
Regarding your points on health and housing, I must pick you up on the implication that Ireland is underspending in these areas. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Strong evidence suggests that we have well-funded public services that, sadly, underdeliver continuously, on both quality of service and value for money assessments. OECD and IFAC data show that Ireland is a top public health spender compared to all other developed world countries (health spending must be correctly measured as a % of GNI). €23.5 billion is this year's health budget. We also face an annual budget overspend on health. The dramatic increases in public health spending every year indicate the desire on the part of successive centrist governments to deliver strong public health services for citizens, but the health system has failed to deliver. The problem is therefore not spending, it is delivery, which is down to the collective systems, management and staff within the health service.
Likewise housing expenditure by government is growing enormously. This year there will be €6.3 billion of housing expenditure, with circa €4.5 billion of capital provision including funding by the Land Development Agency and the Housing Finance Agency. The issues related to housing delivery are not expenditure issues, and you have more than adequately covered the real issues in previous podcasts. These are issues related to planning, NIMBYism, objections by left-wing politicians, interest rates, rapidly growing population, construction inflation, construction capacity constraints etc.
That said, last year's 30,000 new homes delivered is a pretty good number by any balanced assessment of what is really possible.
Finally, I think it is really important that we realise as an educated democratic society what the real facts are, instead of being taken in by certain narratives, so thank you for pointing out the true picture on welfare provision by this state.
Overall, many thanks for the podcasts and please keep it up.
Jim, really enjoyed the podcast as usual. I have to say I was shocked when you said that an unemployed couple with 3 kids would get 53K from the state - I assume not taxable. How is this figure made up? As the sole earner for a family with 3 kids, I am wondering how much I would need to earn to match this and it's significant.
David, got this from an accountant after Budget 2023. It includes
Job Seekers Allowance; Qualified Adult Dependent; Qualified Child Dependent; Back to School allowances; October Double Welfare Payment; Christmas Bonus; Max HAP Allowance per month; Fuel Allowance 28 weeks; Fuel Allowance Once Off Payment; Double Child Benefit Payment; Child Benefit.
Avid listener Jim and Chris, thanks for putting out such valuable content every week.
I have a question about the CBI announcement last week on our GDP growth. One point I didn't see mentioned is there seems to be an increasing gap between our GDP and GNP over the past few years. According to the CSO for 2021, this gap was at 25%(up from 19% in 2017), or in other words €90 billion of our GDP leaves the country.
In comparison to other development nations besides Luxembourg, this deficit is by far the highest, I would like to ask for your opinions on this. What is it an indication of and should our government be doing more to close the gap?
https://www.cso.ie/en/interactivezone/statisticsexplained/nationalaccountsexplained/grossnationalproductgnpandgrossnationalincomegni/
*Thanks very much Jim for sharing your insights on this in the latest episode. Totally agree that we would be shooting ourselves in the foot were we to try reduce the gap. I think my point was more along the lines of considering 25% of our GDP is not directly contributed to our economy (besides the corp tax taking) and over 50% of our corp tax is from just 10 multinationals, it leaves our economy in a perilous position as it is overly exposed to global shocks, which I feel is not a healthy position for us to be in long-term, so our government strategy should be looking at how to stabilize this situation.
Excellent summary of events again Jim & Chris.
Your points about welfare and tax are well made and are fully supported by independent evidence. The OECD reports that Ireland has the most redistributive taxation and welfare systems in the OECD, which literally means in the whole world.
In addition, it reports that Ireland has the lowest Poverty Gap in the OECD. But it seems that most voters are unaware, or perhaps disinterested. Instead a culture of selective distortion, populist narratives, personal frustrations and faux rage have become mainstream, driven by Sinn Fein, People Before Profit and other leftists and lobby groups.
The proportion of taxation paid in our society is overly-concentrated in just two segments: higher wage earners and multinational companies. The Department of Finance Annual Tax Report 2022 raises this fact as a highly significant risk in our taxation system, stating clearly that our economy is heavily dependent for tax revenue on a small base of higher-paid employees and multinational companies. Sinn Féin and People Before Profit, if elected to government, intend to compound this problem and to narrow the tax base by imposing more employment taxes, income tax, wealth taxes, property taxes and inheritance taxes on these two highly mobile segments of society. Notably, no media outlets appear to have questioned either party on their taxation plans in light of this Report which makes clear that the state is already vulnerably dependent on these two segments.
Regarding your points on health and housing, I must pick you up on the implication that Ireland is underspending in these areas. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Strong evidence suggests that we have well-funded public services that, sadly, underdeliver continuously, on both quality of service and value for money assessments. OECD and IFAC data show that Ireland is a top public health spender compared to all other developed world countries (health spending must be correctly measured as a % of GNI). €23.5 billion is this year's health budget. We also face an annual budget overspend on health. The dramatic increases in public health spending every year indicate the desire on the part of successive centrist governments to deliver strong public health services for citizens, but the health system has failed to deliver. The problem is therefore not spending, it is delivery, which is down to the collective systems, management and staff within the health service.
Likewise housing expenditure by government is growing enormously. This year there will be €6.3 billion of housing expenditure, with circa €4.5 billion of capital provision including funding by the Land Development Agency and the Housing Finance Agency. The issues related to housing delivery are not expenditure issues, and you have more than adequately covered the real issues in previous podcasts. These are issues related to planning, NIMBYism, objections by left-wing politicians, interest rates, rapidly growing population, construction inflation, construction capacity constraints etc.
That said, last year's 30,000 new homes delivered is a pretty good number by any balanced assessment of what is really possible.
Finally, I think it is really important that we realise as an educated democratic society what the real facts are, instead of being taken in by certain narratives, so thank you for pointing out the true picture on welfare provision by this state.
Overall, many thanks for the podcasts and please keep it up.
Mark
Jim, really enjoyed the podcast as usual. I have to say I was shocked when you said that an unemployed couple with 3 kids would get 53K from the state - I assume not taxable. How is this figure made up? As the sole earner for a family with 3 kids, I am wondering how much I would need to earn to match this and it's significant.