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As part of our election coverage, we sent some of our journalists back to their hometowns to report on the issues concerning the people who live there.
Órla Ryan from Easkey, Co Sligo, visited the village to find out what’s gone wrong and right since the last election five years ago – and what people want to see happen after this election.
EASKEY IS A small seaside village located about 40km south of Sligo town.
It’s rural and many of the residents travel to surrounding areas for work. The Celtic Tiger was more of a cat in the region, which relies primarily on two things: agriculture and the Atlantic.
The closure of the local factory and caravan park, years before the recession, hit the village badly.
As of the 2011 Census, just over 65,000 people live in the county. Of these, about 1,500 call Easkey home. The CSO doesn’t keep unemployment statistics for towns, but Sligo itself has 4,300 people (6.6%; compared to 8.6% nationally) on the live register.
I grew up in Rathlee, just outside of the village. In recent months there has been more of a buzz about the place than there has been in years. Jobs are still hard to come by but the village is recovering and new businesses have opened.
On a cold but bright January morning I went home to talk to locals about how the village is doing ahead of the general election.
Easkey is representative of a lot of rural areas in Ireland. Its garda station was one of the 139 shut down in recent years. Some people there feel that politicians have forgotten about them, noting there simply aren’t enough votes at stake for someone to focus on helping them out.
Main StreetSource: Órla Ryan/TheJournal.ieMany of the residents wish there was a councillor or TD from the area to fight their corner in terms of funding - citing the impact Fine Gael TD Michael Ring has had on neighbouring Mayo.
After growing tired of waiting for politicians to get things done in Easkey, residents took matters into their own hands.
A group of people formed Leap, Living in Easkey and Proud - an initiative to organise local clean-ups and events, and lobby for money for schemes to improve the area.
Three of Leap's board members - Marie Weir, Carmel Gordon and parish priest Fr Kevin Loftus - sat down with TheJournal.ie to discuss what Leap has achieved in its first year of existence.
Fr Kevin, Carmel and MarieSource: Órla Ryan/TheJournal.ieMarie tells us “the enthusiasm of the community” is keeping the group going.
“This area has no elected representative, either on the county council or further up. I think that has left us kind of isolated,” Carmel notes.
While Fr Kevin adds: “There’s a huge area who wouldn’t know who their representatives are, who wouldn’t be familiar with [the TDs and Senators] … They’re all on the other side [of the county], they’re not up in this area. It makes a huge difference to any locality not to have a public representative. [TDs] have no input whatsoever, we don’t see them at anything."
Some 18 candidates are running in the Sligo/Leitrim constituency in the general election. There are four seats up for grabs.
Carmel describes Joe Queenan and Michael Clarke, councillors who are based in nearby areas, as “good men” but added: “We don’t have anyone to push that little bit more for us … There’s nobody there to shout for us.”
We just feel very neglected … [TDs] come on whistle-stop tours, leading up to an election we’ll see more of them. They’ll come into the place for two minutes, maybe have a cup of tea, photoshoot and out again - and we won’t see them again until the next election.
“We don’t see them or they don’t really want to deal too much for us because our votes aren’t that important because there isn’t enough of us to vote to make a change,” she notes, adding it’s the same in other rural areas throughout Ireland.
“It’s hard to know who’s responsible for governing the country.”
As an example of this she notes how, when driving into the village to meet us she passed by the road into the local GAA club. Years ago a project to widen it was started, but never completed.
“Nothing has changed ... you’d wonder just what that was all about.”
Fr Kevin says: “Rural life is not a priority for [politicians]. It hasn’t the population, it hasn’t the return."
“Who do you go to? Who do you shout at?,” Carmel adds.
“We’d like to think that it would be [different if we voted for the opposition], but I think we’ve to do something for ourselves. It has to become a self-help thing."
Marie goes back to the detrimental effect not having an elected representative from the area can have.
“I think it’s not so much the politics as the person, a local person.
The day of 'my family always voted Fine Gael, Sinn Féin, whatever you want, Fianna Fáil', has gone to an extent. If there’s a local man standing they’ll be voted for locally, but then again are there enough votes to get him in because there’s not enough of us.
This comment provokes Carmel to reminisce about a recent trip she took to Offaly.
I went down to Tullamore there to a match. We went into a lovely stadium, which was badly needed and is a great facility. And sitting in the stand looking across there’s a hospital like Sligo General and then there’s a brand new state-of-the-art hospital, and my brother says to me 'Be careful, you’re walking on Brian Cowen'. I said 'Where is he?' 'He’s all around you'. And you do see that.
“And even Michael Ring out in Mayo he’s done so much for that little area, but as I say we just don’t seem to have anyone in this area to advocate for us."
Marie says locals are “most definitely” sick of relying on politicians and are improving the area themselves “from bottom to top”.
'We lost a generation'
Marie notes that the village has “lost a generation of people” to emigration. “They’re all away, there’s nothing for them here. Everyone’s gone. All the jobs are really on community employment schemes.”
“It went so fast downhill, all the builders and those people … you had families moving to Australia, people coming out of college - there’s no job at home so they leave,” Carmel adds.
“Because it’s 30 miles to Sligo and 20 miles to Ballina there are jobs there. People are travelling in and out, but in terms of the village that was once a bustling place full of all sorts of different businesses … that’s gone.
"In the last 30 years there has been a huge decline and when the factory (which made wine accessories) out the road closed that kind of signalled the end."
That was in December 2005. It employed about 50 people, and even more at its peak.
The old factorySource: Órla Ryan/TheJournal.ieFr Loftus notes that the closure of the caravan park killed “the buzz in the village”. It closed in the early 2000s and the land is now a housing estate.
A new caravan park re-opened in 2014, which he says is “finding its feet” but not as busy as the previous one as the area “lost momentum” when it was without any such facility for several years.
Carmel notes that people “didn’t go crazy” building houses in the village “by virtue of the fact of where we are”. “We’re not in a tax incentive area, whereas Enniscrone (a nearby village also popular with tourists) was,” Marie elaborates.
Despite this, Fr Loftus remarks: “Going out through the countryside, I was doing that the other day, quite a number of houses are empty. Even between here and Dromore West (about 7km away).”
He notes that people are now looking towards tourism as a way forward.
One time you’d say ‘Oh, it’d be lovely to have a little factory’, and we know how long factories last - a very short time, and you know bring people home, but I think that idea is gone. We have to appreciate what we have, and what we have is environment and sea and surf and heritage, the Wild Atlantic Way and all that - tourism really.
Agriculture is still a huge staple in the area.
Marie notes that some farmers also do self-catering as they “have to have an extra job on the side”.
“Before this a lot of the small farmers were working in construction or something, or the wife had a part-time job or something. Again, you’re travelling out of the area so you’re not bringing anything into the area.
“Every farmer can’t set up a B&B because it’s not going to work. Unless we all start visiting each other,” Carmel laughs.
We know we’re not going to get a big factory back here now in Easkey, that’s not going to happen. But to build on what we do have, it can generate a better place to live.
All three agree that more of a buzz is back in the village thanks to a new café that opened up last July.
Pudding Row
Dervla James was one half of the duo behind the Pepper Pot - a popular café in Powerscourt Townhouse Centre in Dublin city.
She left Easkey at the age of 17.
Dervla took a big risk last year: moving from a successful business in Dublin to open a new one, Pudding Row, in a rural area.
She says she’s wanted to move home for about three years, since her daughter was born.
“While I still wanted to pursue my career in baking, my priorities changed a little bit.
“Customers in Pepper Pot would say to me, ‘You know you’ll never be as busy as you are up here’. At the time I’d say, 'I don’t want to be that busy. I don’t want to be crazy busy. I don’t want to have no time for myself or no time for my family.'”
Dervla says living in Easkey offers her the chance to be part of a “much more close-knit community”.
She and her husband Johny expected the café to be “a smaller operation” than it has been.
We got here and it turned into this crazy, exciting kind of hub and hive of activity for the community. It doesn’t stop at Pudding Row for us. We want to buy a little house with some land and eventually we will grow all the veg for Pudding Row.
“We’re basically living in this lovely little hub where people just help each other out.
“People just don’t have the time in Dublin to do all the things that they do there … You definitely have to sacrifice a lot, but you have to sacrifice something different. You have to adjust to the pace. What you have to sacrifice here is not half what you have to sacrifice in a larger setting like Dublin."
The café has been a major hit, attracting crowds of locals and tourists alike. It's about to re-open after being closed for the winter as it’s too difficult to source produce locally during this time.
As well as the café, Dervla has been running baking classes - all of which now have waiting lists, attracting people from as far afield as Donegal and Galway.
“The catchment area is much bigger than you’d expect.
“I think when the caravan park closed, people stopped coming - [Easkey] wasn’t really as family-orientated. There was a massive decline. That got people down a little bit. Maybe it stopped them from seeing the potential and feeling the buzz, the buzz that we have now with people coming.
"The (new) caravan park is open, the Wild Atlantic Way has done amazing things.
"All I wanted to do was create a space for the community to come together.
It’s like the news doesn’t always reach this far. We’re west Sligo. There’s loads of buzz happening around Sligo town and Strandhill and Mullaghmore, that kind of area. We kind of miss it a little bit out here.
"If you look at a community where there’s no hub outside a pub … you won’t have people there because not everyone wants to drink, not everyone likes that kind of social scene."
Pudding Row now employs nine people, two part-time.
Rosie’s Pottery Studio is another business benefiting from the Wild Atlantic Way. Rosemary McGowan set up the shop in 2007. After the blow of the economic crash, business is doing well again.
“There was a big dip with the whole recession, but the last few years are picking up again."
Rosemary says: "Incentives for new businesses in the village would help everybody.”
In a broader sense, the area could be advertised better, with better facilities and advertising. Sometimes it feels like West Sligo is a bit of a no man’s land. When I travel to other parts of the western seaboard it seems like we have catching up to do in some respects. But we have to be careful that we retain the wildness and charm of the area, we have to get the balance right.
'When the recession hit, people were at a loose end'
Gabriel McHugh, chair of the local GAA club, says the recession has had both positive and negative effects on sport in the area.
“One of the advantages was there were people around here who didn’t have any jobs … who helped out with hurling and football and all that.
When the recession hit, people were at a loose end, they had no work. They were at their wit’s end, a lot of people got involved with the GAA as a result.
Gabriel says emigration hasn't had a huge effect on the club's senior teams as a lot of players finish once they leave school.
“Here, from once they reach 18 they’re gone to college. They’re staying in Dublin or maybe they’re going abroad but they’re not really coming back."
Christine Kilcullen, the club's PRO, says the effects of emigration are evident in other ways.
At the moment we’re struggling for numbers at under 14 level because some people did emigrate way back and their children are not now here.
The club is currently trying to buy the old factory to use as a training facility during bad weather, but fundraising alone won't secure it.
“It costs so much to run the club ... It’s kind of hard to keep the fundraising momentum going.
We need government support as well, everything is being sucked into the town. What we find is that any new initiative seems to be going to another area.
“An area maybe where there is a good spokesperson. It’ll flow that way more than it flows this way,” Christine adds.
The recession might be coming to an end in some people’s eyes, but people are still struggling.
“In an ideal situation, we need more financial government support. That’s the biggest single thing.
“We have been given one grant, a Lotto grant, but it’s a small amount relative to what they’re getting in Mayo you see because [Michael] Ring is, sort of, giving the big money to his clubs, to the local clubs there.
The government have to come on board and pump more money into it because they’re really getting it back. The young people are educated, they’re not causing hassle. The benefit is massive from the government’s point of view.
Continual withdrawal of services
Michael Clarke is an independent councillor in the nearby village of Dromore West.
He says Easkey and the surrounding areas were "very badly hit by turndown".
Michael notes the negative effects the closure of the factory and Garda station (in 2013 after years of a reduced service) have had on the village.
"Easkey I think stands out in the whole country as a parish and an area that has been abandoned by the state through the continual withdrawal of services.
The boom time that other parts of the country experienced never came to Easkey, it remains the same as it did at the turn of the century.
"Easkey has been decimated by emigration for generations, the infrastructure and roads haven't been changed for years."
Michael says the government's policy is to "suck people out of rural areas into towns" and services are closing down as a result.
The government needs to understand the importance of vibrant rural towns as well as vibrant urban towns.
'The Celtic Tiger died on the way to Sligo'
Sinéad Maguire is a Fine Gael councillor based in Strandhill, a seaside area closer to Sligo town.
She says the main issues people raise with her are childcare costs and job creation.
In terms of rural garda stations closing down, she notes that there are "other ways to tackle crime" such as community alert services.
Sinéad thinks the boom times never really made it to Sligo so it "may not have seen the dramatic stop that other areas did" in the depths of the recession.
She says jobs are filtering down but notes:
In many ways the Celtic Tiger didn’t reach Sligo. There’s the saying that he died or fainted on the way down the road to Sligo and he didn’t quite get to us.
Originally published: 8.30pm, 15 February
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This is why I struggle with the conspiracy theory that the Govt’s are enforcing a lockdown/quarantine scenario.
No Govt wants the economy to contract. They want the economy to grow.
There is literally no benefit to any democratically elected Govt to see an economy shrink.
To clarify, that the Govt’s are enforcing a lockdown/quarantine scenario without a really good reason like an actual real pandemic with serious and real consequences.
@Tricia G: one nut bag I know thinks the whole covid thing was created so trump won’t get elected.
Yes, this nonsense is from a grown adult living in Ireland, it’s actually painful to listen to the nonsense he spouts
Tried explaining that every county in the world has no interest in crippling their own economys just so trump won’t get elected, but there’s no reasoning with such a person.
@Barry: They think that the Coronavirus was also started to that they can vaccinate everyone with a Bill Gates chip to control their minds and that this will be facilitated with 5G towers. Imagine living in that murky demented mindset. Shudder.
@Tricia G:
It’s not something I believe in but the theory is “valid”. The poorer someone is, the less they can absorb in terms of a crisis. The rich on the other hand prosper. They ride it out, then buy up assets etc for less than they are worth in a depreciated market, once the crisis abates, they sell with a significant profit. Others would argue that this is common sense!!
@Barry: I’m constantly amazed by the real people that buy into that insanity! Like proper, full on, buy in.
It’s so completely and utterly illogical. It has no bearing in the real world, how real people act and behave. And that’s ignoring the literal 1000′s of professional people that have spent their lives working and studying to suddenly just decide to lie and defraud.
These people couldn’t even have a Golf dinner without being immediately caught out! Yet for conspiracy theories to work, the number of people that have to keep silent and do their exact job is huge.
Anyone that’s ever depended on another person or group in a project knows how ridiculous this is!
@Wreck Tangle: They take advantage of events, they rarely instigate them (though an exception has to be made for Brexit which benefits Putin. And the few in the upper echelons who will make a killing).
I don’t doubt there are those currently taking advantage of this pandemic, there always are (The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Wolf) but that doesn’t mean they faked it.
@Tricia G: In fairness, governments care about being re-elected not the economy
@Tricia G: Agree. I think this is the problem with misinformation. It’s very easy to present facts in a way that convinces people to misinterpret information – Even when there is no logic, scientists, who common to what many believe, dedicate their lives to work for our good, not economy manipulation say that that corona is not man made.
@LangerDan: Where do the lizard people and the Bilderbergs figure in all this, and have I got enough tinfoil for making hats? That’s what I need to know! ;)
@LangerDan: What’s funny is this theory is all based on a research paper published in 2015 with involvement from Bill Gates as the paper included the term “coronavirus”.
They thought that was a smoking fun referencing a virus which shouldn’t have existed at that point without understanding “coronavirus” is a medical term which has been around for decades.
@Barry: name and shame
@Barry: Name and shame or it didn’t happen, I think you’re just making things up. Fact check
@Wreck Tangle: You say “thats the problem with misinformation and how people easily fall for it, but the same people you are preaching to about misinformation, have been caught hook line and sinker when The Atlantic came out with the Trump story the otherday.
Its now10 people who were there that day that have disputed the story, but they choose to believe the 1 anonymous source because it suits their narrative . The hypocrisy on here is gone next level now.
@Tricia G: Not true, last recession the Government did everything they could to contract the economy further, raised taxes, reduced spending all under the assumption that austerity is the best mechanism for getting over the credit crash.
@James Walsh: Ok James 99.9999% of people know lizard people are not a real thing, but do you actually think the Bilderberg group don’t exist?? I don’t see how you can compare a conspiracy theory with an actual organisation, its very misleading… Use better comparisons in the future, like Lizard people/flat earth or something like that.
@James Walsh: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/28/kushner-google-and-microsoft-to-attend-secret-bilderberg-meeting.html
Oh no… Kushner was there, you better make enough tinfoil hats for your mates on here aswell hahaha
@Tricia G: I haven’t heard anyone say the virus was created to get trump out of office.
I have heard people plausibly question the current narrative though.
I distinctly remember nphet saying that the number of corona virus cases don’t matter, the numbers in icu and dying are what matter. Now that argument has been turned on it’s head when hardly anyone is in icu and virtually none are dying (In Ireland anyway and indeed across Europe and China where the virus hit first).
Plus every news channel ,who as far as I can see are all anti trump, are pushing this new narrative.
This situation wasn’t created deliberately but it’s very plausible that it’s being used and prolonged to get trump out of office. It’s also plausible that big pharmaceuticals see it as a means of making a lot of money from vaccines and don’t want people thinking the virus is nothing to worry about. That would certainly explain all the fear mongering in the press which is probably killing more elderly people than the virus itself.
What I’ve said here is hardly a stretch and I’d say it’s a lot closer to what this person you spoke of was saying to.
@Tricia G: Fair play to you Tricia you are looking at it from a few different sides trying to see what’s happening. I myself have less confidence in the professional classes in this country and others. To get a job you have to not rock the boat and follow the script. Also don’t discount the fact that most people are sheeple and love in fear on a daily basis. Fear is a productive emotion in dail life but not in a globalised world. A case in point is why do doctors promote the food pyramid when the dogs on the street know that a low carb diet is the best for weight management? People, good people are literally dying of diabetes when all it would take is to reduce their carbs.
When the media and politicians are pushing an agenda the rest of the professional classes row along to get along.
Also I strongly think that the west has been subverted: https://youtu.be/CV3FEWGNwek
✌️
@John D: Bang on man
@Tricia G: There is and for the same reason the flood the country with immigrants. The wealthy in Ireland use both to drive down wages in order to maximize profits of the corporations they own. Do it on a global scale and you have in one fell swoop lowered the standard of living of most people – except – the rich.
Politicians, Ryan Tubirty and Civil Servants still get paid and your job is safe. If you work in retail and your minimum wage is cutting into profits of the likes of Tesco, Pennys and PC World not so much.
@whatistheseason: food piramide changed few years ago, carbs are not so promoted anymore.
@Tricia G: it is no benefit to them to have the country €260 Billion in debt, but it still is
@Nikolina Fiume: Yeah I heard that said a few times but it’s still the same misleading thing. Fair enough they are warning against sugar. But they are still demonising dietary fat and salt, both of which are necessary in a healthy diet. They talk about vegetables but don’t make the distinc between starchy (basically sugary) veg and non starch veg (basic fibre). They also keep on about whole grains which is basically more starch. https://www.hse.ie/eng/about/who/healthwellbeing/our-priority-programmes/heal/healthy-eating-guidelines/
I get all my health info from THE source: Dr Berg on YouTube
@Tricia G: it’s 2020 and you still believe that government cares about you or economy
Open up society ASAP ffs or this will just get worse and worse.. THE VIRUS ISN’T GOING ANYWHERE WE HAVE TO LIVE WITH IT!!
@SB: We have to control it’s spread as much as we can until we can find another effective way to restrict it’s impact.
This doesn’t have to be an all or nothing gamble!
@Tricia G: by what keeping with restrictions which is what caused this recession in the first place, lock down doesn’t work it hasn’t worked in numerous countries, the only solution is to open up as normal and protect those who are most at risk, the vast majority of cases now are younger people and the vast majority of these will recover no problem.
@Tricia G: get your anti tinfoil hat cream ready. They will come for you. I made the exact point to friends a few weeks ago, why would any government put themselves under so much pressure with restrictions if they weren’t needed
@SB: Lockdown DID work. We flattened the curve. And it also worked in numerous other countries.
It WORKED, that’s why deaths aren’t higher, it’s why hospitals weren’t overwhelmed!
Yes, the vast majority of cases now are younger people because they’re the ones out and about and it’s nigh on impossible that they’ll not come into contact with people that WILL suffer more from it.
Honestly, this ability to look at what was done, what actually worked and then decide,nope, that had no impact is really disingenuous!
@SB: what lockdown is there, exactly? As far as I can see, most things are opened up, with the ones that haven’t yet being for the very reason that opening them up could risk more spread, more cases and an eventual need to lock down everything again.
@SB: What the hell are you saying “lockdown doesn’t work”. Can you give us the figures for inspections and deaths if we hadn’t locked down, please?
It’s a fact that lockdown mitigates the spread. It doesn’t absolutely kill it but then the public doesn’t absolutely always stick to the guidelines, do they?
@Tricia G: eejits will bring you down to their level, don’t get into an argument with them.
@SB: lockdown worked we had over a thousand cases in one day and 77 deaths. It is affecting mostly young people now because it has not got back into nursing
Homes etc. I will be listening to david glynn before taking your advice.
@Brian Madden: yes definitely. Lockdown has worked and the battle is now to confine whatever presence of this there is in the community to those who can fight it off. The danger is that even those who beat it may be left with long term damage.
@Tricia G: Me kids are dying of hunger because there’s no food in the house but I told them that’s ok because they have to do their bit to control the spread of Covid-19.
Seriously we have to let businesses open including pubs. Covid-19 is here to stay along with all the other cold and flu viruses that went before it.
@JusticeForJoe: my point exactly it doesn’t kill the virus it’s only a stop gap, therefore it doesn’t work so what do you bright sparks suggest an infinite lock down and watch as the economy crumbles completely and society disintegrates, what is wrong with some people, lock down fanatics, I’ll say it again you cannot have an infinite lock down or society as we know it will crumble completely.
@Brian Madden: I bet your one of these people who believe everything your told by the government
@JusticeForJoe: Spain had one of the most draconian lockdowns in Europe yet has the highest incidence in the EU at the moment.
@Syl & SB: Listen to yourselves… nobody here is even calling for a lockdown. But sensible people want a sensible approach to balance the risk and reward. You saps just want to hug your drinking buddies
@Syl Farrell: because they opened up too quickly, including pubs and clubs. Majority of the cases there are being traced back to large group gatherings.
@Tricia G: it kinda does. Half measures dont work. People need certainity. The virus doesn’t give a s**t about your moderate outlook and neither do business people. Another lockdown will absolutely destroy the economy. How secure is your income?…. Im 22 and trying to figure out what’s the best future I can take with all this. I’m disposable tho aren’t I ?. Sacrifice the futures of the young to save the old. Fair trade isn’t it save a thousand lives at the cost of over half a million lively hoods. Never mind all the people who will die from other illnesses. Which if I remember correctly one report said could actually exceed the amount of people dying from coronavirus. Drug addiction, suicide, homeless. How many marriages will break apart ?. How many rural communities destroyed?
This is just a temporary glitch. Once the small publicans agree to sell out their licences for 10% of their true value to the Wetherspoon type companies and the small family run hotels agree to house the multitude of economic migrants whose identity accidently slipped into the medetiraian Sea before been corralled into 8 per room DP centers, the whole economic panic will evaporate
@Eugene Conroy: wow. You poor man.
@Eugene Conroy: Drivel
@Surly Duff: Eugene is actually talking some sense! Well said!
I suspect the only reason that Ireland outperforms other countries is to do with multinationals routing money through Ireland which lands in GDP. This money is not value generated within Ireland’s economy, would be great to see the real number is this was removed.
@Wreck Tangle: it’s true that the multi national sector masks to an extent the effect on the rest of the economy. Still, there are many many people employed in pharma and tech on good salaries here. Also the multinationals pay loads of Corporation Tax which helps us pay our way. Ireland is getting off lightly so far compared to the UK and even the eurozone.
What we really need now is to get the aviation industry back so we can get some tourists and get the hospitality industry moving again. Simply ridiculous that Germans and Brits with lower rates of Covid are being put off from coming here. Why can’t we test at the airport?
@Ciaran O’Mara:
Just to clarify, I’m not anti-multinational, I think without them Ireland would be in the stone age and it’s where I built my own career. I just think GDP cannot measure Ireland’s economy or more importantly problems can be easily masked.
I think the problem with tourism in Ireland is that the airlines have not come looking for a bailout so the government don’t feel in a rush. I’m living in Switzerland where the government are working hard to get tourism back up and running but my feeling is, this is to avoid Swiss coming seeking more money. Also worth noting, I cant be bothered flying this year to Ireland. If I go to Zurich airport, I have to go through international departures (no Schengen). It’s already a pain in the behind, as I hear from others, flying outside Schengen at the moment is a total pain on return. This might also give an explanation.
@Wreck Tangle: You could just use the GNP figures which exclude multinationals
@Wreck Tangle: It’s 16% without multinationals included, heard it on the RTE news earlier. The UK economy contracted by 20%, so they said the 16% without multinationals is a more accurate reflection of the current situation in Ireland.
FG tanking the economy, while they are off wining and dining Vulture’s
@alphasully: Does that mean you think the virus is a hoax?
@alphasully: Dining Vultures so they can encourage them to buy all our homes. Classy from FFG and then we vote them in again!
Phew! Good job he got the recession announcement in before the budget next month. Now every person’s life he makes even worse, he can justify with….”Due to the recession.”
The TD millionaires are not struggling to make ends meet its the ordinary people and they don’t care once they have control
@Margaret Kane: what a load of nonsense, can you not think of something more constructive?
@Margaret Kane: ah sure they’re doing a bang on job might as well reward them selves with another top up on their wages and supply another few super dooper Jr misisters. Country makes me sick to my stomach.
And they get paid so much to tell us that there is a recession!!!!! Dah ,I think we’ve guessed that .
@Justin Hanley: Yeah, it’s still better to have the actual figures then to just be guessing…….
@Tricia G: I think when Ireland published their first quarter results, I.e. Q1 they showed we were not in contraction however they then recalculated the figures. More austerity from FG & FF directed at the middle class and working poor
Not looking forward to the budget, taxes incoming
@Sean: There is no need for increases in taxes, the option to borrow at close to 0% will be taken
I cant think of any country that would not be in recession after the last 6 months.
@Giddy: they could have closed the borders and avoided the worst of it but EU said no.
@Giddy: Vietnam may be the only one I can think of, apparently expected to grow by 2-2,25% (lower than expected but that’s still impressive). Closed borders immediately, didn’t dilly dally about, and implemented the 14 day quarantine on arrival while exporting much of the worlds supply of masks and testing kits. After a few months life was back to normal bar the tourism sector. Added to that the fact that many western companies are avoiding China due to the increasingly aggressive policies and moving there instead and it leads to one of a kind situation.
@Giddy: But I get the point, I doubt we will be the worst hit by this decline. I am sure there will be worse and better off nations in the EU, and we will be somewhere in the middle.
We have a huge portion of our economy that work in the services sector. Govt COVID policy is making these job extinct, sinking the economy and going to drive people into poverty. Let me ask this. This time last year say for the month of August, how many pints, coffees and meals out did you buy/spend money on. Now work it out for Last month and compare the two. That spending created jobs in services. Without that spending those jobs die.
We are sleep walking into a economic disaster… No one to blame but our govt policy.
All the upcoming broken promises explanations will end with the line,, Largest Ever Quarterly GDP drop….
Why is it a load of nonsense. I would imagine that most people would agree that an individual who has an income of between 90 and 160k with daft expenses on top have no idea what the real world is like. Why else would ministers on four times the average wage set the minimum wage below what is deemed to be a liveable wage.
@Rex Tilson: Sorry, that was meant as a reply to John Gavin
Wait tíl budget tax tax tax the working people
Self-inflicted, but you can be sure the people who brought it about, will not suffer any hardship personally.
PUP is also due to close to new applicants on Sept 17th, So no more people being put out of work with lockdown restrictions after that I assume?
We could do without a recession, government should just write it off. Its bad enough as it is without adding a recession.
Hospitality sector more broadly are down not just the airline industry.
cue announcement on the pub’s reopening!
They looked deeply into the crystal ball for this header . Smh . My dog is more intuitive.
Thanks pascal
Erra so what
have your say