Pretty sure it’s an EU requirement so they’re using lateral thinking to reduce government costs while staying in compliance. On the one hand “Freedom” of information, on the other hand they’re trying to balance a still precarious budget.
The attack on Ireland’s austerity measures is remarkably shallow, considering that they’re going to be the first EU country to exit the bailout programme. When incompetence and mismanagement causes the standard of living in a country to double and triple inside a decade and a half, is it appropriate to call them austerity measures, or a simple re-adjustment? You don’t make something better by carrying on as if nothing happened.
I’m involved in businesses North and South of the border and can see the stark contrast. In Ireland there was wage and social security inflation that was, clearly, unsustainable. It’s pointless showing people the figures, once you’ve ridden a booming economy you’re not going to be satisfied hearing that a sudden ugly crash is to be expected and that even after austerity you’re better off than if you’d had 1.5-2% GDP growth year on year.
I can’t stress this enough - if there had been no “corrupt investment bubble”, which is an accurate term, people in Ireland would be worse off now than they currently are even under “austerity”, except everyone would take it for granted as normal.
