Ireland In Chaos, Massive Cuts, Massive Strikes Planned

Whether the government will last much longer is an open question. The Irish government, or rather, what is left of it, tabled today their plan to cut the deficit to 3% of GDP. The plan itself will vut GDP signficnatly, so that target  is actually a moving target, and ne that will get increasingly more diffiocult as time goes by.

The measures are draconian and spare no one, from students, to healthcare, to pensions, to the VAT. Massive strikes are already planned for thor weekend.

* €15bn in measures aim to bring deficit under 3% GDP by 2014

* €6bn of adjustments to be front-loaded in 2011
* An extra €1.9bn sought via income tax changes
* Standard VAT rate to rise from 21% to 23% in 2014
* Entry point for income tax to fall to €15,300 – from €18,300 currently – by 2014
* Minimum wage to be reduced by €1 to €7.65
* Reduction of social welfare spending of €2.8bn targeted
* Domestic water charges to be introduced by 2014
* Introduction of a site value tax in 2012
* Students' contribution charge to rise from €1,500 to €2,000
* Reform of capital acquisitions, capital gains tax
* Pension-related tax changes to yield €700m
* Tax savings of €240m on public sector pension deductions
* Site valuation tax to be introduced
* Cut in public service staff by 24,750 from end-2008 levels to 2005 levels
* Overall pay adjustments of €1.2bn by 2014
* 10% pay cut, new pension scheme for new public sector entrants

Ouch.

Interesting to see that they don't pay for water overthere, and new water charges are pending the installation of water meters! We wonder what their per capita average water consumption is.