Garret Fitzgerald wrote a superb piece in todays [broken link removed] about the real reason for our economic problems. I agree 100% with him. What do others think?
"Clearly this had nothing to do with the housing bubble, which started only after 2003"
If all the AIB's punters behaved like the eminent doctor it would long be passe. This guy does not deserve to be taken seriously. He has got things wrong too many times. His bumbling professor routine no longer cuts it. Nothing new in his latest offering.Goodnight Garrett.Garret Fitzgerald wrote a superb piece in todays [broken link removed] about the real reason for our economic problems. I agree 100% with him. What do others think?
I agree. Garret made a balls of it when he was in charge but that doesn't mean his opinion is worth nothing now or that he can't point out where the mistakes were made.People on this thread should try playing the ball instead of the man . We have lost competitiveness and its the fault of FFs 10 year mismanagement of our once in a lifetime opportunity. People are emgrating once again because there are no jobs at home for them. It's a disgrace.
Excellent and informative posts Protocol.
Starbucks pulled out of Ranelagh about six months ago. There is a GodMore of the same: retail shops closing due to huge rents:
[broken link removed]
"Starbucks wants out of “affluent” Dalkey immediately where it rents the former Dalkey Dispensary on Castle Street for €110,000 a year. It is equally anxious to assign its lease of a two-storey modern coffee shop at The Triangle in Ranelagh where it is paying an even higher rent, €131,622, a year."
These don't seem too bad, 2k-2.5k pw in places where I assume a lot of coffee is drunk???
"On top of the rent, Starbucks also pays rates: €15,300 in Dalkey; €11,259 in Ranelagh; and (wait for it) €23,905 in Tallaght."
Costs are also too high in the local authorities.
+1, though my only problem is the old cliché of "chicken and egg". Was it rents alone that drove everything else up?
I agree with Fitzgerald's analysis but disagree with his conclusion. We'll never find the first mover for this situation and I'm not sure what new light can be shed that will help anyone trying to survive in business at the present time.
It's a combination of everything rents, house prices, wages, cost of living, etc. I don't think it right to pick one and apportion blame on one group. It was a rickety premise to build an economy on. Not one of us refused a pay rise on the basis that it was an unsustainable economic principle.
There was no safety net, there was no look to how to control the increasing operating costs. Sure it'll never happen, sure it'll be grand.
It did and it isn't.
Now business is left in limbo. They can't sell domestically because there's less money around and margins are so low they can't reduce prices much further. But price reduction hasn't been seen elsewhere in council rates (in most cases), energy costs, rents, etc. So the only thing employers can look at is payroll costs, that's the only thing the can actually negotiate on. But there's a limit to how low we can go with wages, in many cases we're probably at that bottom already.
There's plenty out there that needs to be reduced and immediately in order to help business compete.
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