Category Archives: budget 2009

Breaking News – Equality Authority CEO Quits

More here as it unfolds.

Posted in bank of Ireland, budget 2009, equality authority, irish politics, niall crowley | 1 Comment

RED C poll numbers for Oct 26th 2008

FF 26% down ten percent, FG up 5 to 33%, Labour up 5% to 15, SF on 10%, Greens on 6% PDs on 2% and others on 8%. Those numbers if true, and given the source I’m strongly inclined to … Continue reading

Posted in budget 2009, Fianna Fail, fine gael, labour, Red C | 4 Comments

What if McCreevy had continued to extend medical card threshold?

I mentioned yesterday that I’d take a look at a counter factual where instead of abolishing income as a factor for the allocation of medical cards to those over 70 that the minister of finance had simply continued to aggressively … Continue reading

Posted in brian lenihan, budget 2009, charlie mccreevy, medical cards | 1 Comment

What McCreevy hadn’t given the medical card to everyone?

Back in 2000 when Charlie McCreevy announced the plans for the extension of the medical card in Budget 2001 to all over 70s irrespective of income he was introducing it as the next step of a process by which the … Continue reading

Posted in brian lenihan, budget 2009, charlie mccreevy | 1 Comment

There’s a hole in the budget, dear Brian. A hole!

So it seems the threshold for the over 70s medical card is to be raised again. And FF (or the cabinet at the very least) must be hoping that this will lower the temperature enough that they can get through … Continue reading

Posted in brian lenihan, budget 2009, imo, medical cards | Leave a comment

Live Blogging of Budget 2009

I know there’s a good few others having a crack at this, but the more the merrier I say. You can do a sort of speed read of the previous budgets here as homework if you like. NB: This is … Continue reading

Posted in bank of Ireland, brian lenihan, budget 2009, live blogging | 2 Comments

Alternative budget proposals

With all the talking down of the budget prospects, I’ve been thinking about a few silver bullets of my own. a) create an immediate slave caste from those under 5′ 6″ tall. b) designate 1 in 40 taxpayers as ‘the … Continue reading

Posted in brian lenihan, budget 2009 | 5 Comments