What a joke. Barely a wet week in the Dáil and breaking ranks already!

Populist clown. On what principle is he voting against it?

Attacking the most vulnerable sections of Irish society, or so Bryan Dobson says.

It's hardly a ponzi scheme market, there is no market at the moment, bar well located family homes. I don't know if it will have much of an effect though... where is the free and easy credit which fuelled the boom going to come from?

I work for an MNC in IT which is better paid than most indigineous industry. And pay and conditions are quite good but nothing like Public Sector. 3 of my brothers work in PS and 1 sister so I am aware of all the type of allowances they get over an above basic salary and the other terms and conditions of employment. Guards can retire after 30 years service on full pension for example, find me one private sector company that offers 50% of salary + lump sum after 30 years

My holidays = 20 days pa
Sick pay = 20 days pa has to be certified by doctor from day 1 and interviewed on return to work
No pay increase for the last 3 years (but no pay cut either thankfully)
Company downsized staff by 45% due to closure of part of the business
No reduction in IT systems to support but big reduction in headcount.
No paid overtime but have to do lots of it.
No bonuses all cancelled
Pension contribution increased to pay for fund deficit
No paid maternity leave (only social welfare rate 260 per week)

I know from looking at PS pay rates that my type of job would pay 20% - 30% more in PS.

I agree that your friends probably can earn more because in the private sector you can advance faster than Public SEctor but this is due to your own unions supporting people being promoted through years of service rather than ability. Your friends can also be fired a lot faster than you can.

The one problem is that investors are not likely to buy the shite. They are likely to try and compete for the better homes. Back to square one.

A CGT exemption on specific properties or new-builds might be better?

It will have no effect. Any smart international cannys will be purchasing in the states, with their new visa scheme for non-national owners of property. Much easier to buy a shotgun there too.

[quote="YorkieBar"]

Guards can retire after 30 years service on full pension for example, find me one private sector company that offers 50% of salary + lump sum after 30 years

Guard and members of the army are among the tiny minority of public servants who enjoy such generous pensions. Most public sector workers enjoy a far less generous pension than the only you enjoy. After 40 years of contributions they a lump sum and get 50% of salary - the old age contributory pension = in fact 30% of salary. For that they pay between 9 and 13% of salary + employees PRSI and have to listen to a constant media campaign demanding their pension be cut (protected my eye). Looks like you have a very good deal to me.

Overseas REITS, if they have an appitite for this country.

More importantly, the chances are investors will have a larger deposit, so the banks will favour them over your average first-time buyer.
Thus the investor gets allocated whatever small amount of money is being lent out.

But overall I agree with you, I don't think this will have much of an effect on the market - bar delaying the inevitable decline.

Perhaps, but then there would be accusations of bailing out the builders if its limited to specific properties or new builds. I just don't see where the money is coming from to buy this property one way or the other. It's the first I have heard of CGT being a factor in the market over the last 5 years, but I am not an investor, so I am open to correction.

If irish people don't think property is good value, I don't see investors swarming in from overseas to mop it up. We are not London/NY/Tokyo where there is an insatiable real demand for property for people to live in.

I am not in the guards. I work in the private sector and like you have to complete 40 years + but have no idea what pension I will get because it depends on whats in the fund if anything is left.

Also it is not a tiny minority that retire on 30 years service in the PS because guards and army is about 23,000 and then there are the judges, the TDs, the teachers that get early retirement, the people now availing of early retirement schemes which is thousands

I've been wonder that myself.

Have they had enough, or are they out digging foundations for their bomb shelters?

The whole thing is merely a holding exercise. The coalition just wants to avoid rocking the boat in the belief that some 'deus ex machina' will turn up in the next 12 months. Not what I would call a strategy, but what do you expect? It's been clear for quite a while that our system of governance is simply incapable of delivering change in any meaningful way.

However the debt metrics look increasingly unsustainable to me given the global economic outlook, so maybe the paralysis of the Irish political establishment is actually beside the point. In other words, at this stage I 'm not sure that we can save ourselves, given the figures involved, no matter what we do.

Mick Wallace close to tears giving his speech. That fine must have hit him hard

Can anyone figure out if they've increased motor tax for pre-2008 vehicles?

Those "bands" are only for pre 2008 cars so it seems the older ones are in a totally different tax scheme! I think!!!