Categories

Category: Welfare

Some stories are too good for facts

Michael Taft 08/12/2009

Michael Taft: It’s good the administrators of this blog brought Peter Connell’s post back up to the top. Last night, Prime Time Investigates …

League tables and losing the plot

08/12/2009

This post was originally written on April 21st in response to an article in the Sunday Business Post. We are re-posting it following last night's …

Tax Breaks

Nat O'Connor 04/12/2009

Nat O'Connor: TASC has estimated that tax breaks ('tax expenditure' to use the technical term) on personal income tax and corporation tax will cost …

New report shows over €8 out of every €10 of pensions tax relief goes to top earners

Gerard Hughes 25/11/2009

Gerry Hughes: In a series of reports on our pension system, TASC and the TCD Pension Policy Research Group have argued that the tax relief on pension …

The Procrustean bed of statistics

Michael Taft 12/11/2009

Michael Taft: In Greek mythology the rogue Procrustes had an iron bed in which guests were invited to rest on. He would then hold them down and, if …

Crises: Not 5 but 7

Slí Eile 14/10/2009

Slí Eile: The National Economic and Social Council (NESC) has recently published its Next Steps in Addressing Ireland’s Five-Part Crisis: …

French to measure happiness

14/09/2009

French President Nicolas Sarkozy today announced that France will implement new indicators of economic performance incorporating measures of …

'Principle of revenue neutrality' proves Government's lack of vision

Mary Murphy 11/09/2009

Mary Murphy: The average percentage of GDP spent on social protection in the EU-15 is 27.5% (Eurostat, 2007) . The Irish rate of 18.2% compares badly …

Placing citizenship centre-stage: Michael D's take on the debate and what's missing

22/08/2009

Michael D. Higgins' opinion piece in today's Irish Times is well worth a read, especially in view of recent debates here on social welfare, rent …