A very simple question
Can someone help me out here?
There is a little aspect of gubmint that has me baffled.
The news here for the last few days has been full of protests at the cuts in the health system which of course were aimed at the disabled. Our health service is apparently over budget by a couple of hundred million so they naturally try to cut services to the most vulnerable.
The gubmint have rolled back on those cuts after some well organised protests, with dire threats that “someone else will have to suffer”.
Now, what I don’t understand is why they can’t take the necessary cash from some other budget?
We seem to have plenty of the folding stuff when it comes to other projects. They are talking about extending Dublin’s trolley system which will probably cost a couple of billion. No problems there? They are talking about high speed broadband for everyone in the country. Not that that will ever happen, but the planning alone will cost a few more million.
Having been a married man and homeowner since the 70s, I would consider myself a bit of a mini-government. I had to worry about incomes and expenditures. I had to do my own budgeting. What’s worse is that I had to do that through some very tough times.
One of the basic rules of household budgeting is to prioritise. You pay the most important bills first and if there is cash left over you pay the less important ones. It is only common sense?
Now can you imagine a scenario where I couldn’t afford to pay for the daughter’s school fees, yet we all still head off for a fortnight in the sun? That would be madness, yet this apparently is what out gubmint is doing. Their attitude is to the effect that the holiday money is “a different budget” and is therefore somehow different from the school budget. Or to put it in the current context, broadband and transport are more important than the sick and disabled.
So if they have run out of cash in a high priority area like health, why can’t they move some funds over from a budget that is less critical and which is in surplus?
Surely that is very basic logic?
Or am I missing something?
Now now Grandad things are LOOKING UP only today the dear leader opened a new production line in a Jelly Bean factory creating wait for it 25 jobs! As I write I think this is not real I must have stumbled into some parallel universe in Ireland. Who writes this stuff…
“Ireland’s economic recovery is being led by exporting Irish companies just like the Jelly Bean Factory,” he said, opening the state-of-the-art production line at the IDA campus.
Oh sweet fuck! You honestly couldn’t make this kind of shit up..
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
I bet you would “still head off for a fortnight in the sun.”
If I could afford it! 😀
A very very good question and one which perhaps only somebody in cloud cuckoo land i.e. Dail Eireann could answer.
Simple, if they transferred money from some other budget then what excuse would they have to raise taxes? Excuse they now refer to it as “enhancing” revenue.
To transfer money from one budget to another would probably require the setting up of an expert group to investigate the implications of doing it, this group would be given a budget, staff and 12 months to report to another group who would also require staffing, budget etc, by the time anything got decided the surplus would be blown, the budgets eaten up & the staff made permanent & pensionable.
They would then, having met with all the various lobbyists & vested interests come back & report that the costs would outweigh the benefits. in the interim thousands more would have died, Reilly would be making coffee, Shortall would be moaning to the press that she wasn’t informed & Kenny would be counting his Jellybeans. They would then hold a Press Conference, tell us all that under the terms of the deal with the Troika the transfer of money was prohibited & that it was all Fianna Fails fault.
Why do I have the feeling that Lafsword has whacked the nail squarely on the head?
“Now now Grandad things are LOOKING UP only today the dear leader opened a new production line in a Jelly Bean factory creating wait for it 25 jobs”.
That’s kinda funny. Oh man.
Things are looking up lads!
Is Enda a serious moron or what? I wouldn’t put him in charge of tasting the jelly beans, ffs.
If it were a woman in charge with his brain power, she’d be a laughing stock and be told get back in the kitchen.
Perhaps the answer lies here:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2012/0907/1224323695579.html
Anne – Good God but that’s a fierce sexist comment! You’re right though. Heh!
Mossy – I hope those fuckers in the Public Service are happy with their payrises and bonuses while the rest of us suffer? Of course the deal should be scrapped.