Simply put....Ireland has the 3rd most busted economy in the world and we currently owe circa 208 billion euros ...That equals about 44k owed by each person in Ireland.... I constantly ask!....How could we have come out of a recession....when we owe this much?Whatever happens with Brexit...Generations of Irish people will not have an easy time ...in the future.
Unlike you and me Coola, governments never pay back their debt they just pay interest and inflation reduces the real value of the debt .If you had a Million in 1980 you would of been one of Irelands richest people today you couldnt buy a two room appartment in Ballsbridge .
I agree Ireland will struggle expect more taxes and levies .Ireland Inc .are beggers .After Independence Britain paid to run the place I posted this before My Grandads mate worked in Dep of Finance his job was to deliver a check that the Brits paid to the Irish government to cover existing pensions liabilities from when we were part of the UK .to the Bank of Ireland on College green and lodge it into the Government account .The government used their bank deposit to borrow more money from the banks to run the country all the banks needed to know was the government could pay the interest ,they never wanted the money back ,if they got the money back then they had the problem of trying to find someone else to borrow it .Dublin corpo also borrowed big to build houses using the rent money to pay the interest and waiting until they could sell the houses in Cabra ,Finglas ,Ballyer etc for more than it cost to build them in the 40s or 50s that happened in 1988..
After the brits liabilities were running out Lemass begged to join the EEC in the 60s and was told to fuck off but when the Brits joined we were allowed in then we went mooching again for EEC free money and grants .Then that ran out as poorer countries joined and they held out the begging bowl .So we joined the Euro Currency because we could borrow money on the cheap and we all know how the banks exploited that .
Irish governments always spotted the easy coin and exploited it ,now our gig is fiddling the corporate tax rate on behalf of the worlds wealthiest companies and the EU are going to put an end to that .Irelands tax take from multinationals will fall but our interest payments on borrowed money still needs to be paid .We were conned into signing up to the fiscal treaty which restricts our line of credit so if there is any fall off in corporate tax take it has to be made up somewhere else .So increased income tax ,property tax ,Fuel ond beer Duty Motor tax and cuts to welfare payments .In the 1970s income tax was 33% on basic earnings and went as high as 70% .We might go back there .I wouldnt want to be a young person in future Ireland
