"Taxes, Income And Economic Mobility In Ireland" . S Kennedy et al. OECD

TWELFTH REVIEW UNDER THE EXTENDED ARRANGEMENT AND PROPOSAL FOR POST-PROGRAM MONITORING

2010 Actuarial Review of the Social Insurance Fund - KPMG June 2010

2011 Annual Report of the Pensions Board

This document describes the preliminary findings of IMF staff at the conclusion of their mission to Ireland under Article IV of the IMF's Articles of Agreement.

Details of expected tax revenue profile consistent with Budget 2012 forecast of €35,825 million. The Budget 2012 forecast for Exchequer debt servicing in 2012 is €7,407 million. Created by Department of Finance, February, 2012.

2013 Estimates of Receipts and Expenditure (Pre-Budget). Department of Finance.

The 6th IMF staff report of the Irish bailout.

Ireland: Eighth Review Under the Extended Arrangement; Staff Report; Staff Supplements; and Press Release on the Executive Board discussion

The Nursing Homes Support Scheme (NHSS), more commonly referred to as the Fair Deal scheme, is a system of financial support for those in need of long-term nursing home care. This report examines the issues arising in the establishment of a similar scheme to cover the needs of those who require home care

A Roadmap for Pensions Reform 2018 - 2023

Government of Ireland, December 2013

The purpose of this survey is to highlight expenditure on social protection in Ireland by individual programmes and social payments.

This surveys highlights expenditure on social protection in Ireland by individual programmes and social payments.

A Survey Of The Benefit System In Ireland

High rates of absenteeism in the HSE often attract significant media and political attention due to the associated costs to the taxpayer. In addition to a substantial sick-pay bill, absenteeism may lead to increases in agency and overtime costs as replacements are found for sick and absent workers. This sentiment was expounded in 2012 by Health Minister James Reilly who claimed that the high expenditure on agency staff in the HSE is largely attributable to high levels of absenteeism.

.Action Plan on Base Erosion and Profit Sharing

Clinical data on in-patient and out-patient services

For any country, easy and efficient access to others is an important contributor to its economy and quality of life. It is particularly so when the country is an island with no land or rail links to major trading partners or potential tourists. In Ireland, this was recognised by earlier governments, who established and supported the establishment of State airline and shipping companies to ensure that such access was available. But these became State protected monopolies, with high costs and at times indifferent services. Some of us recall being frequent users of the Dublin to Brussels service offered by Aer Lingus in the 1970s and 80s, where flight availability was limited, and costs for a restricted economy ticket often fell in the range of €600-800 or even more.

Tackling Harmful Alcohol Use Country note - Ireland

Written by researchers from the UCC School of Economics and commissioned by Publicpolicy.ie, this report analyses public and private sector earnings in Ireland 2008-13. Data is used only for over 650,000 individuals who were in employment for the full period 2008 to 2013, worked a minimum of 48 weeks a year, and earned at least €10,000 a year.

The gap between current Government spending and revenue as measured by the General Government Deficit in 2012 was over €13 billion (8.2 % of GDP). We are committed to reducing this deficit under the EU Excessive Deficit Procedure to below 3 % by 2015. The pay and pensions bill accounts for 35 % of Government spending. If public sector pay and pensions were to be fully protected, the burden of adjustment would have to fall on non-pay current spending, capital spending or increases in taxation or some combination of these. While these items will have to bear a share of the necessary adjustment, putting the total burden of adjustment on these items would be either more economically damaging or socially regressive than putting some of the burden on pay and pensions. The proposed reductions in incomes over €65,000 are clearly progressive. However it is difficult to assess the impact of the reductions in overtime, premium pay and other allowances as the incidence of these will vary considerably in individual cases.

This looks at the draft public service pay agreement and concludes that most alternative measures to the proposals are likely to be more socially regressive or economically damaging.

Analysis of Exchequer Pay and Pensions Bill 2007-2012

This report presents an analysis of fiscal incentives for retirement savings – models and redistributive effects – in Ireland and comparison with other countries who have well established second pillar pension systems. Published in October 2012.

Report of the Office of the Revenue Commissioners.

The 2006 and 2007 Finance Acts introduced, with effect from 1 January 2007, measures to limit the use of certain tax reliefs and exemptions (known as ‘specified reliefs’) by high income individuals. Such individuals, by means of the cumulative use of various tax incentive reliefs, had in previous years the

Report carried out by Deloitte on behalf of Fáilte Ireland, examining the impact of the VAT reduction from 13.5%to 9% on tourism-related goods and services

Annual Government Finance Statistics October 2015 CSO

Annual Report on Public Debt in Ireland June 2017 Department of Finance

Annual Taxation Report (January, 2018)

Guidelines on Appointments to State Boards Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, November 2014

Index to the Appropriation Accounts 2012

Assessment of 2015 Stability Programme for Ireland, EU Commission, May 2015

Social capital is that set of reflexes we absorb from our culture, religion, families and our ancestors. It shapes how we react to crisis and opportunity

A review of recent work on measuring the impact of austerity from the ESRI, with implications for how we view the pain it imposes.

This commentary describes the policy of auto-enrolment in pension schemes.

Automatic enrolment boosts pension membership and pension saving significantly in the UK.

The average length of stay (ALOS) in hospitals is often used as an indicator of efficiency. Reducing the time spent in hospital reduces the cost per patient and allows more patients to be treated in a given period

The present system of government accounting puts significant barriers in the way of achieving the optimum use of external service delivery.

Since we first colonized this island about 10,000 years ago, we have engaged in two huge clearances of nature. The first was the elimination of the native woodlands; we cleared our natural endowment to such an extent that only a few solitary and meager residues remain. This loss only becomes apparent when one visits countries like the US and parts of Europe, where, by a combination of wisdom, courage and good fortune, they have conserved for their posterity great swathes of what nature created for them in their National Parks and Wilderness areas.

Brevity - Ireland and the U.K. in numbers

CSO: Brexit Indicators: Ireland and the UK in Numbers

Brexit: Ireland and the UK in Numbers. CSO

British Prime Minister's Speech On Brexit 17 January 2017

Department of Finance Budget & Economic Statistics 2013

Presentation to the IPA by Mr Derek Moran, Assistant Secretary, Tax Policy Unit, Department of Finance.

Adjusting for our relatively young population, Ireland has the most expensive health system in Europe. The OECD ranks the productivity of the Irish health system 28th out of 28 and estimates that GDP could be increased by 4.8% if a series of reforms were undertaken. So there is compelling case on economic and health effectiveness grounds for addressing reform. The Government’s “Future Health” document is hugely significant in that, if acted upon, it will affect our well- being and economic and social performance like no other initiative. If we get it wrong, it will cause huge damage. If we get it right, it could be transformative in a positive sense.

Commentary on the Deficit in the Social Insurance Fund.

We weigh losses far more heavily than equivalent gains, and we infer the general from the particular, rather than induce the particular from the general. These and many other features of our behaviour are elegantly documented in Thinking, Fast and Slow, authored by Nobel Prize winning Daniel Kahneman. In addition to loss aversion, he identifies the halo effect, anchoring, luck, the planning fallacy, optimism bias, the endowment effect and many other features characterising how we behave. They have considerable value as explanations as to how we got into such economic disarray, and provide some pointers as to how to frame the process of making progress. In this commentary, I summarise a few of the key insights, and their relevance to our situation in Ireland.

Key Point Based on the standard OECD measure Ireland has the most progressive income tax system (including social insurance contributions) in the EU.

Key Point We should move right away from lump sum to periodic payments in the case of medical negligence cases in Ireland. And this should happen before Budget 2013 is presented to the Oireachtas (Parliament) in December 2012. An excellent report explaining why this should happen, and how it should be done, was presented to the then Minister for Justice almost 2 years ago. Inaction will have many costs, not least that the Minister for Finance will have to find up to about €50 million right away that he (and we) can all ill afford

Ireland is a pioneer in the implementation of a carbon tax. This has allowed us to avoid (more) increases in income tax which would have further reduced disposable income, increased labour costs and destroyed jobs. It is also facilitating us in meeting our very demanding legally binding obligations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and provides support for the creation of new jobs in improving energy efficiency and growing the low carbon economy. We will continue to benefit economically and environmentally if we keep it in place, and increase the rate per tonne of CO2 from €20 to €25, as envisaged in the programme for government.

Suggestions to merge Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and University College Dublin (UCD) have been rejected. But they should emulate the US precedent and provide the facility for students, both undergraduate and graduate, to take courses for credit in each other’s programmes. This should be done across the board, with a minimum of bureaucracy and no fees transfer; the only requirements would be that students meet the necessary pre-requisites to take the course(s) in question, and that there is classroom or other relevant capacity in the receiving institution. It would help make the programmes of both universities more internationally competitive, and will encourage specialisation and scale in research; the whole will be more than the sum of the parts. The TCD-UCD Innovation Alliance and a few Higher Education Authority (HEA) bottom-up collaborative initiatives show promise, but to achieve serious economies of scale and scope, access should be universal. What is good enough for Harvard and MIT should be good enough for UCD and TCD.

By now most people will have heard about the switch to Saorview, whereby the analogue signal currently used to broadcast TV will be switched off at 10am on October 24th and replaced with a digital signal. What is less well known are the potential revenue benefits the switchover could have for the government. By freeing up scarce spectrum resources, the switch to Saorview paves the way for an auction of new mobile network licences that could raise €205 million immediately, and double that over the next fifteen years. Read this note to find out more.

Recent developments, economic forecasts, and their impact on the Irish fiscal position

Speech by Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin

Budget Day speech by Minister for Finance Michael Noonan

Contains a summary of taxation measures, more in-depth taxation annexes, economic and fiscal outlook and an endorsement by the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council.

Presentation on changes made to the Standard Fund Threshold in Budget 2014, including its reduction to €2m from €2.3m

This report analyses the impact of the 9% rate of VAT on tourism and employment. It is argued that directly reducing the taxation of employment would be more effective and less distortionary than the indirect method of lowering taxes on the consumption of goods and services that are labour-intensive

Proposed revenues and expenditures for the year 2015, presented to the Dáil on 14 October 2014 by the Minister for Finance.

Budget 2016 Department of Finance.

Budget Statistics December 2017. Department of Finance

Budget Submission by Institute for Fiscal Studies

Part 1 contains budgetary statistics. The 2011 and 2012 voted expenditure figures are taken from the 2012 Estimates for Public Services, published in February 2012. Part 2 contains economic statistics mainly on the Irish economy with some comparisons with other international economies.

A speech by the Secretary General of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Mr.Robert Watt, as part of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce SMART series on Thursday May 16th, 2013.

The distributional impacts of changes in taxes and cash benefits are relatively well-understood. This paper explores the less understood methods for modelling the impact of changes to spending on ‘in-kind’ benefits – such as health, education or infrastructure – and the issues those methods raise.

Building on Recovery: Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2016-2021

Presentation to Seminar on Evaluation of Tax Expenditures, 2 March 2015 Brendan O'Connor, Ecomomics Division, Department of Finance.

Census 2016 SAPS Mapping Viewer

Public Policy Commentaries Compilation.

A three-year reform plan for the Civil Service, launched in October 2014

Climate Change Advisory Council - Annual Review 2017

Climate Change Advisory Council - Periodic Review Report 2017

Climate Change Advisory Council, First Report, November 2016

Young carry the can for elderly in recessionary squeeze. Seniors got more from the boom and have given less back as belts tightened in the bust.

Over €1.3 billion in commercial rates were collected by Councils last year. There was over €297m in outstanding rate arrears at the end of 2016.

Income from commercial rates has increased by €137m (10%) between 2008 and 2015. This is in a period of little or no inflation. Rates income in 2015 was €1.5 billion, up from €1.4 billion in 2008. Reliance on commercial rates increased from 26% of revenue in 2008 to 37% in 2015. At least part of this increase is due to the reduction in Government grants arising from a transfer of functions, such as water services and third level support grants, from local authorities to other agencies.

2009 Commission on Taxation Report.

Committee on the Future of Healthcare - Sláintecare Report (May, 2017)

Information on Medical Card coverage, other health service schemes and food safety.

This is a link to the OECD website which allows comparison with other OECD countries on a range of economic and social indicators.

OECD -Compare Your Country - Tax Burden On Labour Income

This document is the Comprehensive Expenditure Report 2015 – 2017, as presented to Dáil Éireann on 14 October 2014 by the Minster for Public Expenditure & Reform. It sets out the Government’s expenditure allocations and measures for 2015, and the expenditure ceilings for 2016 and 2017.

The government’s strategy for accelerating growth in the construction sector

COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT Country Report Ireland 2015 Including an In-Depth Review on the prevention and correction of macroeconomic imbalances

Country Specific Recommendation Ireland May 2017 EU Commission

The results from the 2016 Survey of Income and Living Conditions (SILC) show an increase in living standards and a significant reduction in those experiencing “enforced deprivation ”.

Cumulative Profiles of Expected Exchequer Expenditure and Revenue 2013

Convention on the Constitution: Fourth Report

This blog post from Robert Watt, the Secretary General of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, looks at the government’s efforts to make more accessible data regarding the public finances.

Data Issues in Evaluation of Tax Expenditures: a Revenue Perspective by Keith Walsh

IMF researchers Andrea Pescatori, Damiano Sandri, and John Simon find no evidence of any particular debt threshold above which medium-term growth prospects are dramatically compromised.

Press Release - Decision on Water Charges by the Commission for Energy Regulation

Defined benefit schemes - Review of 2014 statistics

Deprivation levels have increased across all income deciles since the economic crisis in 2008. Deprivation is highest among lone-parents and lowest among those who are retired.

Many argue that change in our electoral system is necessary to improve the effectiveness of Government. This article (published in 1986) argues that more fundamental change is necessary and proposes the introduction of a separation of powers model.

The report of the inter-departmental group on Property Tax design, chaired by Dr. Don Thornhill

Background Policy Paper on the Designing the Future Health Basket