Social welfare spend up 1.5% to €20.8bn last year

Almost 2.2 million people were benefiting from a weekly social welfare payment at the end of 2010, according to the latest data from the Department of Social Protection.

Publishing her department's annual report for 2010 this evening, Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton said over 2 million claims were processed during the year with over 85.3 million payments made.

Minister Burton noted that weekly payments are made to over 1.4 million people as well as payments in respect of a further 190,000 qualified adults and over 494,500 children.

"Supports administered by my Department provide for the complex and multi-faceted needs of people at every stage of life," Minister Burton said.


Read more: http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/social-welfare-spend-up-15-to-208bn-last-year-512380.html#ixzz1SU0qQwlm

€20m scheme has only put eight in jobs

THE Government's €20m jobs initiative has only set up eight internships in its first two weeks of operations, despite advertising hundreds of positions.

The Department of Social Protection has been inundated with applications from businesses and county councils seeking to partake in the scheme. To date, more than 700 internships are on offer on www.jobbridge.ie.

While some of Ireland's top businesses are interested in taking on interns -- companies like Quinn Group, Smurfit Kappa, and Aer Lingus have all signed up to jobbridge -- very few of the country's 400,000 social welfare recipients are applying for positions on the national internship scheme.

To date, only 65 individuals have been selected to participate in the jobbridge scheme. Out of these, only 27 met the criteria to qualify for the scheme. In order to qualify, an individual must be in receipt of Jobseekers' Benefit for at least six months. Only eight individuals have started internships.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/euro20m-scheme-has-only-put-eight-in-jobs-2823683.html

Minister Burton attacks young people on the dole.

Social welfare has become a "lifestyle choice" for many leaving school, a situation which is totally unacceptable and will no longer be tolerated, Social Protection Minister Joan Burton has said.

"What we are getting at the moment is people who come into the system straight after school as a lifestyle choice. This is not acceptable, everyone should be expected to contribute and work," Ms Burton said.

Speaking to the Sunday Independent, Ms Burton said those who failed to cooperate with her department by not taking job or training opportunities would lose up to €44 a week.

Her comments come as savage cuts to services to the poor, schoolchildren, the sick and elderly are among proposals being considered by Public Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin from his cabinet colleagues.

In what is the first stage of achieving budget cuts of at least €3.6bn, proposals from every cabinet minister presented to Mr Howlin's department in recent days reveal unprecedented cuts to many essential services in health, education and social welfare, which are set to impact most on lower- and medium-income families.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/burton-vows-to-end-dole-lifestyle-choice-2823665.html

Taoiseach vows that there will be no public pay cuts ‘at all costs’

THE GOVERNMENT AND Taoiseach Enda Kenny will avoid cutting public sector pay ‘at all costs’ despite the downgrade in the country’s economic growth forecasts which means even more spending cuts could be needed in the next budget.

A confidential memorandum sent to all government departments states that the government is committed to exploring and prioritising all other avenues of possible cuts before further pay cuts for the public sector workers will be considered, reports the Sunday Independent. Taoiseach vows that there will be no public pay cuts ‘at all costs’ despite growth downgrade · TheJournal

So Who is going to pay for the public service to continue with there golden pensions and salaries? The country is broke and yet it looks like the people who cant afford to pay will be the ones who will.

It looks like the government know that the only people who will protest and cause problems are the public service so why not hurt everyone else who wont protest.

NASA issues warning of solar superstorm 2012 - One Billion could die

Could a superstorm generated by the sun destroy civilization as we know it in 2012?

No less than NASA thinks it's a distinct possibility. In a remarkable move the normally conservative US space agency has taken the extraordinary step of warning the world.


during a solar superstorm most communication will be blasted out of existence; power will fail. Cities will be left without light and water and food will run out. Civil unrest will surge as society collapses in a matter of days. The US federal and state governments will be hard-pressed to restore order amongst 300 million people as mass starvation sets in and sources of fresh water dwindle.

One billion could die

http://www.helium.com/items/2144934-nasa-issues-warning-of-solar-superstorm-2012

If Nasa are warning people then surely the threat should be taken seriously, but how would a small country like Ireland survive? If our power grids are knocked out could we rebuild them? Would we be able to feed and heat the people of the island? Are the Irish government preparing in anyway for a situation like this? Somehow I doubt it.

Ireland 2015

IRISH NEWS HEADLINES 2015

Ireland finally balances its budget!

Fans at Croke Park celebrate.

Irish Highways Agency argue for increased road expenditure.

New National Hospital opened

 

Still no sign of Enda Kenny leaving the Government Bunker

Nama still fails to find buyers for housing estates

€7,065,176: The cost of dumping our outgoing government TDs

THE 42 OUTGOING TDs from Fianna Fáil and the Green Party who tried – and failed – to keep their seats in the Dáil will be comforted with payoffs worth over €7 million between them.

The TDs – 36 of whom were from Fianna Fáil, while all six outgoing Greens also lost their seats – will benefit from a combined first-year payoff of €7,065,176, according to figures compiled by TheJournal.ie.

http://www.thejournal.ie/government-pensions-fianna-fail-green-party-election-ireland-2011-03/

COUGHLAN’S GOLD-PLATED €225k PAY-OFF AND €104k PENSION PLAN

Mary Coughlan to get €225k pay-off AND €104k a year in pension payments

SHE may have been a loser in the election but outgoing Tanaiste Mary Coughlan is a winner in the money stakes.

An investigation into the the Frosses woman’s entitlements shows she will walk away with a massive financial package including a huge pension after her 24 years in the Dail.

In just five years time Coughlan, 45, will be able to pick up an incredible combined Ministerial and TD’s pension of €103,524 a year – for the rest of her life.

But that’s not the end of the gravy train for the former Agriculture and Education Minister.

She will also get a TAX-FREE pension lump sum of €147,636.

And under the termination of her Government status, the Fianna Fail politician will also get another €78,000 in various payments over the next year.

http://www.donegaldaily.com/2011/02/28/coughlans-gold-plated-e225k-pay-off-and-pension-plan-revealed/


Disgusting.

Who really won and lost this election, it certainly wasnt the Irish people.

Conspiracy against Sinn Féin ?

I won’t for one minute claim to be a Sinn Féin supporter; in fact there are several things I disagree with in regards to them. However they are the only major party to be standing up for the people of Ireland and for that reason they will get my support at the coming general election.

Recently I have begun to notice how in my opinion there seems to be a massive attack against the party from all areas, including the media, the press, opposition parties and I now believe the opinion polls.

In all reality we know that Sinn Féin will not win the general election, but a good strong Sinn Féin in opposition could do a lot of damage to the next government and be a stronger voice for the Irish people. Is this something the establishment are afraid off; is there a conspiracy against Sinn Féin to stop them becoming that threat?

Let’s start here on P.ie, there are several pathetic posts attacking Sinn Féin, including threads in relation to Sinn Féin and Gaddaffi etc. Why these posts are even started? What are these posters afraid off, do they think Sinn Féin will win the election and turn Ireland into an outpost of the Middle East?

Opposition parties especially Fianna Fail spent most of the debating tome they had the other week attacking Sinn Féin, WHY? They all consider Sinn Féin to be a small party with no influence especially if you look at the latest opinion polls.

Opinion Polls, showing Sinn Féin are losing support not gaining, yet if you look at the Boards.ie polls Sinn Féin are doing fairly well, the people I speak to say they are voting Sinn Féin for similar reasons to me and lack of choice and vision from the 3 other main parties.

Media, TV stations like TV3, TG4 and even RTE give no time for Sinn Féin, in the recent leaders debates the 3 TV stations considered the leader of Fianna Fail to actually have a chance of leading the country! Everyone knows Fianna Fail have no chance at all and yet the media including the press continue to give the 3 main parties all the coverage leaving aside parties such as Sinn Féin.

I actually believe Sinn Féin will do far better than expected in the upcoming election, but I feel this will be in spite of a massive conspiracy to try to reduce support for the party.

In summary, if Labour, Fine Gael or Fianna Fail wanted to put the people first then they would have. The only major party to do this are Sinn Féin and yet they are the ones receiving all the negative press.

FACT OR FICTION: whats the real story on letting the banks collapse?

I am fast becoming tired of the old story about the banks.

Fine Gael, Fianna Fail, Labour and the Green party keep throwing out the same old rhetoric about had we let the bank’s collapse or even if we do let them collapse now or in the foreseable future, we wouldn’t be able to pay Doctors or Nurses, Teachers or Gardai. Business would collapse and ATM`s would shut down.

Everything these party’s speak describe a doomsday scenario.

But how far from the truth are we here? Would this actually have happened and would it happen now?

In my opinion the whole idea of bank collapse is fiction, we were told by Fianna Fail not too long ago that the state had enough funds to last us for 2011 and we didn’t need any bailout. We were told we didn’t need any more money from bond markets and we were in good shape.

Ireland had a National Pension Reserve fund of around 20 Billion, this was more than enough cash to plug the hole in our finances for one year, so had we let the banks go we would not have seen wages for Doctor`s, Gardai etc go unpaid.

We would have in fact been in a position where we could have taken the Sinn Fein approach and taken the banks into full state control. We then could have told all the bond holders and people who had debts with the banks that they banks were now in administration and the only guarantee we would honour would be personal bank accounts of Irish citizens up to €100,000.

The banks would then be in a position to continue trading whilst agreeing a debt repayment scheme with its debtors as any administration of a business would normally exist.

Even if we did as Sinn Fein want to do now and end the states affair with the banks I see no reason as to why the doomsday scenario portrayed by the other political parties would exist.

We would simple split state debt from bank debt. We could then work with the people of this country from top down and cut the deficit whilst attracting new business into the country for jobs. Any financial gaps we would have could be plugged by returning to the bond markets with a display of cutting the sovereign debt of the nation with real ideas and fairness whilst cutting all ties with bank debts, this would encourage a positive effect with the bondholders and show them Ireland was getting its house in order without the stranglehold of tens of Billions of banking debt around our necks.

The situation should be that whilst this state is in the mess it is no TD should take a salary above the national industrial wage of €40,000. Its thinking outside the box like this that this country needs and not deflationary ideas such as cutting the poorest people in society as Labour, Fine Gael and Fianna fail wish too.

Finally to summarise I wish to make one final point.

We are told that the debts of Ireland as they exist today will cost every man woman and child around €60,000. Imagine instead that we handed every man woman and child €60,000 in cash instead of bailing out banks, imagine the stimulus this country would have had. Would we even care about banks collapsing if this was the option we could have had?


http://www.politics.ie/economy/152323-fact-fiction-whats-real-story-letting-banks-collapse.html

Time to say Goodbye Fianna Fail