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Sustainable Economy > Published by Will Straw, December 18th 2009 at 3:26 pm

Irish budget is “charter of exploitation”

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Brian-LenihanThe General Secretary of the Irish Trade Union Congress has spoken out against the controversial Irish budget announcement last week, describing it as “charter for exploitation.”

In an exclusive article for Progress, David Begg writes:

“The Irish economy is currently the subject of a rather dangerous experiment, of the sort that might be nurtured in thinktanks or the minds of obsessive ideologues.

“As the rest of the world combats the downturn through judicious stimulus and state support, Ireland will attempt to deflate and cut its way out of the crisis. There is only one modern precedent for this policy – Japan – and it endured a decade long slump as a result.

Left Foot Forward outlined last week how the Irish budget was praised by Daniel Hannan MEP as well as the think tank, Reform who claimed that Irish Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan, had “again grasped the nettle on the Irish public finances.” Tory bloggers including Guido Fawkes and Iain Dale also lauded the package.

Writing for this blog, Duncan Weldon said the budget “gave a taste of what a future Tory budget might look like.” He went on to say:

The results of Ireland’s policy are plain to see:

• Irish unemployment is 12.5 per cent;

• The country is experiencing deflation at –6.6 per cent;

• GDP has fallen 7.4 per cent over the past year and 10.5% from its peak;

• And despite the cuts they have still had their credit rating downgraded.

  • http://twitter.com/paulstpancras/status/6799563000 paulstpancras

    RT @jessica_asato – Irish budget is charter of exploitation – @broxted #eire #ireland See http://bit.ly/4TyRwZ

  • Sharkboy

    You seem to be mixing up cause and effect. The collapse in the Irish economy happened before the recent budget not because of it. Oh, and what’s this from the BBC website?

    “The Irish economy emerges from recession with growth of 0.3% in the third quarter of 2009,”

  • http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=5000 SOCIALIST UNITY » ROUND THE BLOGS

    [...] Irish budget, which possible gives a taste of what a Tory economic policy in Britain might be like. Well worth reading. Michael Burke covers the same theme at Socialist Economic Bulletin: this makes a detailed [...]

  • http://socialisteconomicbulletin.blogspot.com/ Michael Burke

    @ Sharkboy

    You seem to be confusing the Irish recession with the effects of the Irish government’s unique fiscal experiment.

    The latest Budget was the 4th such measure since October 2008, all of them austerity Budgets. Their effect has been a fiscal contraction of 6.4% of GDP (OECD). Yet, predictably, the government’s own forecasts for the deficit keep rising.

    This stands in contrast to nearly every other European country (except Berlusconi’s Italy) who have been attempting to reflate their way to economic recovery, and find their deficit forecasts declining and bond yields falling. Reflation is the only antidote to deflation.

    Ireland’s 0.3% growth was achieved solely because import demand is falling much faster than exports. Everything else, govt. spending, personal consumption are declining massively, with investment leading the way. Some ‘emerging from recession’.