Posts by Robert Sweeney

Robert Sweeney @sweeneyr82

Robert Sweeney is a policy analyst at TASC and focuses on issues surrounding Irish political economy and distribution. He has a PhD in economics from University of Leeds, which concentrated on financial markets and investors, banking, international macroeconomics, and housing. He is also interested in debates on alternative schools and methodology in economics, and ownership.

Public spending and services in the years to come

Robert Sweeney 30/10/2018

With the dust settling on the recent budget, it is a good time to take stock of Irish economic policy, current and future. In June, the Department of Finance calculated the government had a ‘net fiscal space’ of €1.4 billion euros to use – through either spending increases or tax reductions – in what was the upcoming budget. The …

Living wage

Robert Sweeney 17/07/2018

LAST WEEK THE Living Wage Technical Group published an update of the living wage in Ireland. The living wage calculates the wage needed to live a …

Towards a fair and efficient tax regime

Robert Sweeney 20/04/2018

Successive EU treaties on the one hand, and the ability of the ECB to pull the rug from under naughty nations on the other, implies that the level …

GDP and its alternatives

Robert Sweeney 04/04/2018

Perhaps no other single number or indicator receives as much attention as the total output of an economy. The standard measure for this is gross …

Raising employment

Robert Sweeney 16/03/2018

The issue of pay and employment props up occasionally in public discourse but rarely receives the attention it merits. With international women’s …

Property, fundamentals, and affordability (part 2)

Robert Sweeney 15/12/2017

Part 1 of this blog examined whether and to what extent the trajectory of Irish property prices was driven by changes in underlying fundamentals. We …

Property, fundamentals, and affordability (part 1)

Robert Sweeney 11/12/2017

The season of goodwill to all is quickly approaching. Last year, that goodwill manifested itself in an outpouring of solidarity for the homeless in …