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Shatter: Garda chief told me about WallaceEmbattled Justice Minister Alan Shatter said the Garda commissioner gave him details about TD Mick Wallace escaping penalty points and that he publicly revealed it to defend the integrity of the force.
Panicked last minutes aboard the Tit Bonhomme revealed at inquest Rarely has a voice ever carried so much panic.
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Horror and heroism as tornado wreaks havocThe search for survivors and the dead in the Oklahoma City suburb raked by a massive tornado was almost complete last night.
Chile miner happy to be played by Banderas in filmAntonio Banderas will star in a movie as one of the 33 Chilean miners trapped deep underground for more than two months in 2010, and the charismatic survivor he's playing couldn't be happier.
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Smooth exit from bailout forecastIreland is heading for a smooth exit from the bailout programme as GDP grows — delivering a huge political and reputational reward for the country, according to the latest Ernst & Young Economic Eye.
Glanbia’s Talbot first woman to take helm at a major Irish food companySiobhan Talbot is set to succeed John Moloney as group managing director of Glanbia, at the end of this year — becoming the first woman to head up a major Irish food company.
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Deegan in dock over advantage ruleArmagh's Jamie Clarke has cleared Paul Grimley of all responsibility for Sunday's defeat by Cavan, but questioned referee Maurice Deegan's decision not to allow him advantage in scoring his second-half disallowed goal.
One more year and that’s it, insists O’DriscollBrian O'Driscoll has ruled out extending his career beyond next June.
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Tyranny of the majorityIn the play An Enemy of the People, one man stands for right, says Pádraic Killeen.
Opening a can of wormsThe UN thinks it's a good idea, but what do the Irish think of eating creepy crawlies, wonders Jonathan deBurca Butler.
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Relief on our bank debt burden is a must
By Jim Power
The interpretation of Irish economic statistics is always complicated by the fact that the multinational sector plays such a significant role in the economy.
The timing and magnitude of the repatriation of multinational profits back to the overseas parent tends to have a major bearing on economic growth numbers from quarter to quarter and from year to year.In addition, as new data becomes available from the Revenue Commissioners in relation to issues such as corporation tax receipts, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) is forced to revise previous growth numbers from quarter to quarter.
Also, due to the small size of the Irish economy, single transactions by individual companies can have a major bearing on economic activity levels during a quarter.
This is particularly relevant to the airline sector. If an airline invests in new aircraft it can dramatically impact on business investment spending and imports in the relevant quarter.
It is all very complicated and quite confusing.
Yesterday, the CSO released growth numbers for the first three months of 2012 and also provided significant revisions to growth estimates for last year.
In understanding what is actually going on in the economy, it is first necessary to explain again the difference between gross domestic product (GDP) and gross national product (GNP).
GDP seeks to measure the total value of all goods and services produced in a country in a given time period regardless of who owns the factors of production used to produce the output. In Ireland a significant proportion of the factors of production are owned by overseas interests, namely the multinational sector. They tend to repatriate significant profits back to their parent in the home country.
When these profit repatriations are subtracted from GDP, we are left with GNP. This latter measure of growth gives us a much more accurate picture of the economy in relation to activities such as consumer spending, business investment, construction activity, and indigenous company exports.
The CSO revised GDP growth in 2011 up from an original estimate of +0.7% to +1.4%. However, GNP growth was left unchanged at -2.5%. What this really means is that there was a stronger performance by the multinational sector, but this was offset by weakness in domestic demand. The only positive from the upward revision to GDP is that our troika fiscal obligations are expressed as a percentage of GDP, so the fiscal balances will look somewhat better than originally reported.
The more important story is that during the first quarter, GDP declined by 1.1% and GNP declined by 1.3%. The breakdown for the quarter shows a good export performance and very weak consumer spending. Business investment spending grew by 11.6%, but this is largely down to the fact that there was a large aircraft order during the quarter.
The bottom line is that the domestic growth momentum remains very weak and exports of services are very strong. This will make it even more difficult for Government to achieve its budgetary targets for 2012 and, more importantly, highlights the incredible challenge Michael Noonan will face in December in delivering Budget 2013.
It would be utterly irresponsible to react to the lower than projected growth outcome in 2012 by increasing the budgetary adjustment next December. The best hope for Ireland still lies in external relief on our excessive bank debt burden. The sooner this happens, the better for all of us.
An interesting aside from yesterday’s CSO briefing is that we had to leave as quickly as possible to make way for the latest troika press conference. This is symbolic of the loss of national sovereignty and self- determination the country has endured since 2010.