McDowell: "Ireland in the 1980s was poor because it was state dominated"

[Mayo1969]

It’s amazing how the internet is full of pseudonymous stories like this. Yet no one ever appeals a failed promotion to the WRC or complains to AGS under the Criminal Justice (Corruption Offences) Act 2018.

Evidence of my real identity is in here somewhere if you care to do a historic search. The reason that there is little or no challenges taken against the status quo is that it is likely to be such a bruising and damaging experience to the plaintiff as to make it hardly worth while. Certainly anyone working within the public service knows all to well that challenging the system would permanently damage their progression prospects. Even now I'm conscious that my handle gives some indication as to who I was dealing with and I'd be still wary of the potential consequences. As it happens, I did also bring a WRC case and got some little concession, but ultimately no satisfaction (when confronted the LA roll out the big guns of the LGMA to represent them so one is up against the might of the entire LA sector rather than an individual localised policy) which led me to leave the local authority sector.

 

[The Horseman]

It’s amazing how the internet is full of pseudonymous stories like this. Yet no one ever appeals a failed promotion to the WRC or complains to AGS under the Criminal Justice (Corruption Offences) Act 2018.

Ireland is a small country and yes you can bring a case to either of the above. You may indeed "win the battle" but you will ultimately "lose the war".

 

[Dr Strangelove]

Plus, the pricing of calls was heavily distorted. There's a fixed cost to providing a home with a phone line, plus a marginal cost of connecting each call made. The cost of connecting the call doesn't really depend on how long the call lasts, or how far away the number called is. So if pricing had reflected costs accurately, renting a phone line would have been very expensive, but each call made would have been very cheap, and would have cost the same no matter where on the network you rang or how long the call lasted.

I’ve noticed this is still the case in Ireland a bit with electricity.

Overall tariff is hight but the standing charge to other EU markets standing charges are a higher proportion. Google tells me standing charges are 10c-20c in Germany and Netherlands but they are more like 25c urban in Ireland.

A colleague I work closely with is 500m down the end of a boreen and I have maybe 2,500 other households within a 500m of my very urban house. Costs of maintaining grid will vary hugely as will transmission loss.

Even with her higher rural standing charge I can’t help but wonder if I’m subsidising her a bit.

 

[T McGibney]

Even with her higher rural standing charge I can’t help but wonder if I’m subsidising her a bit.

Welcome to the world of community-rated public services.
Of course you're subsidising the marginal costs of her electricity supply. But she's in turn subsidising the costs of many of your very urban services, which she's not in a position to utilise to the same extent as you are.
Swings and roundabouts.

 

[Dr Strangelove]

But she's in turn subsidising the costs of many of your very urban services

She’s certainly subsidising my free water and wastewater supply and paying for her own well and septic tank.

 

[Purple]

Welcome to the world of community-rated public services.
Of course you're subsidising the marginal costs of her electricity supply. But she's in turn subsidising the costs of many of your very urban services, which she's not in a position to utilise to the same extent as you are.
Swings and roundabouts.

It's cheaper to provide services in high density population areas than in low density rural areas so in that sense every urban dweller is subsidising every rural dweller but what's the alternative? It's really quite a stupid metric unless the plan is for everyone to move to large towns and cities.

 

[T McGibney]

It's cheaper to provide services in high density population areas than in low density rural areas so in that sense every urban dweller is subsidising every rural dweller but what's the alternative? It's really quite a stupid metric unless the plan is for everyone to move to large towns and cities.

That's precisely my point. It's a pointless apples and oranges argument.

 

[TomEdison]

It's cheaper to provide services in high density population areas than in low density rural areas so in that sense every urban dweller is subsidising every rural dweller but what's the alternative? It's really quite a stupid metric unless the plan is for everyone to move to large towns and cities.

It's relevant in the context of this thread. The average cost of service provision will be higher across a low-density population (like Ireland) than a high-density population (like the Netherlands). That's not down to inefficiency on the part of Irish service providers; it's an outcome of the characteristics of the market that they serve.