Economy – Page 82 – Slugger O'Toole

How we squandered our peace dividend

Mick Fealty on March 14, 2006, 8:17 pm

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There is little doubt that in many respects Northern Ireland has never had it so good: unemployment rates are 4.5% (pdf), just below the UK’s average of 5.1%. The sense of settled well-being arising is most palpable in areas of traditional high unemployment like the Bogside in Derry. Disputes erupt every so often about the trend of higher Catholic unemployment, but we’re in a different territory from the 80% unemployed heads of households that held for some considerable time in the …

Education, education, education…

Mick Fealty on March 7, 2006, 3:34 pm

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Despite some online scepticism about the real reasons for Amazon’s strategic shift from Slough to Cork, it has caused some in the mainstream British press to pause for thought, given Amazon’s stated reason being a failure to attract a highly enough educated workforce. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. …

Northern Ireland’s major advantage over the Republic?

Mick Fealty on March 7, 2006, 2:22 pm

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It looks like the Republic’s economic underbelly lies in the serious shortfall in its telecommunications infrastructure. According to Seán Murphy (subs needed), director of Chambers Ireland, “the 2005 IMD World Competitiveness Book, which tracks the performance of 60 countries, ranked Ireland 56th for its communications technology capabilities and 46th for its broadband subscriptions. While chambers have issues with how this survey defines broadband, the fact that internationally respected institutions can actually rate us at such a low point in the …

Challenges ahead for Ireland’s economy

Pete Baker on March 3, 2006, 6:28 pm

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Thanks to Maria at Crooked Timber, who hopefully will find time to take a detailed look at the report, I can note the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Economic Survey of Ireland, released yesterday., which, among other points, makes recommendations on the fiscal framework, the housing market, removing obstacles to employment for women, closing the infrastructure gap, encouraging research and development, reforming all levels of education, increasing competition, and, most importantly, the key challenges for the economy in the …

“We’re all in this together” – Peter Hain

Pete Baker on February 27, 2006, 7:12 pm

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Another week, another two year funding package announced by the Secretary of State for Wales and Northern Ireland, Peter Hain [should we be reading something into that 2-year time-frame? – Ed]. This time a �59million package, the Environment & Renewable Energy Fund, that will attempt to create a market for renewable energy in Northern Ireland. The BBC report focuses mainly on the 4,000 private home-owners that the government hope will avail of grants [of between 30-50% of the cost) to …

Our tedious range of displacement activity

Mick Fealty on February 25, 2006, 3:20 am

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Back in 2000 I came over to Northern Ireland with a colleague from River Path. He’d done his homework well. The most striking fact he came up with regarding NI’s economic health, at a time when money was arguably flowing far too freely, was that the inward investment of private capital in NI was 25% of the UK average. That, in anyone’s language, was/is bad news. It’s one reason why Lyndsey Allen’s fingering of the real problem of Northern Ireland …

A lack of responsible investment

Pete Baker on February 23, 2006, 7:12 pm

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It’s all too easy to call on the British Government and Invest NI to intervene and to “provide investment to sustain the plant and support the employees until a new owner can be found”, as the MP for West Belfast, SF’s Gerry Adams, has done in the case of US company Trivirix, after the court-appointed administrator – Deloitte and Touche as the BBC reported previously – announced that 76 jobs would be lost following a review of the company’s books, …

Does western economics herald ‘perpetual peace’?

Mick Fealty on February 23, 2006, 5:13 pm

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Immanuel Kant proposed a number of diplomatic tests that if passed might herald a state of perpetual peace between two or more nations. Dan O’Brien, in the latest edition of Britain and Ireland, argues that a range of external pressures have transformed the economic relationship between the Republic and the UK sufficiently believe we may be entering a new long term era of substantive peace: …while it is true that power will remain crucial in international relations, the 20th century …

Lessons Britain can learn from Ireland?

Mick Fealty on February 23, 2006, 3:33 pm

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Nope, it’s not to do with learning from the ever shortening circles of our turgid peace process. The Tories’ shadow Chancellor George Osborne reckons there is much to be learned from the Republic’s economic miracle. Ireland is no longer, he says, “Britain’s poor and troubled country cousin”. Irish average incomes are now 20 per cent higher than in the UK. After being held back for decades, the productivity of Irish companies — the yardstick of economic performance — has grown …

Rates increase funding headlines for Hain?

Pete Baker on February 21, 2006, 6:44 pm

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You wouldn’t know it if you relied on the NIO statement by Secretary of State for Wales and Northern Ireland, Peter Hain, announcing the £35million Skills and Science Fund today, neither would you be aware of it from the BBC online report [perhaps they’ll update that? – Ed].. although the broadcast version of the report did mention it.. but that £35million is coming from the increase in regional rates of 19%, which Hain announced back in October 2005 – and, …

illegal immigrants returning in hope of economic success?

Pete Baker on February 20, 2006, 4:59 pm

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An interesting article in the Washington Post, on the numbers of illegal Irish immigrants in the US who are returning, or have already returned to Ireland as the US tightens its immigration procedures post-September 11. Estimates mostly, including a figure attributed to the Irish Government of 14,000 returning to Ireland since 2001, while the US government census figures quoted in the article indicate the official Irish population in the US dropping by 28,500 between 2000 and 2004.From the Washington Post …

North and South makes sense, even if unity doesn’t

Mick Fealty on February 14, 2006, 11:19 pm

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The Belfast Telegraph welcomes the SDLP’s major policy document, Making Sense of North and South. It argues that common sense and practicalities should guide Unionist responses to its detailed proposals. What is striking is the comprehensive nature of the proposals for co-operation, from policing to waste disposal. Among the new institutions would be an all-Ireland intelligence agency to tackle terrorism and crime, an all-Ireland Law Commission, an all-Ireland Criminal Assets Bureau and an all-Ireland sex offenders register. Does a North-South …

SDLP fills North South economic gap with sound policy?

Mick Fealty on February 14, 2006, 2:48 pm

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Economic unification of the island is the fond ambition of individuals as diverse as Peter Hain, David McWilliams, Cecilia Keaveney and Gerry Adams. Yet there has been little evidence of a practical any proposals to help bring it about. The SDLP document released yesterday found favour with the Irish Times (subs needed)at least: though it points to the risk for the UK in allowing separate corporate tax rates in order to level the local gap between north and south. Update: …

Keeping in the insider loop…

Mick Fealty on February 13, 2006, 4:53 pm

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Newton Emerson picked up a story line that many others missed last week: “An Audit Office report has slammed Invest NI and its small-business predecessor Ledu for failing to address significant conflicts of interest. All involved deny any wrongdoing, but the following facts are beyond dispute. The same person – businesswoman Teresa Townsley – was able to chair the board of Ledu, join the board of a trust it funded, run a private firm that was awarded the trust’s accounts …

On the benefit of an open economy

Mick Fealty on February 9, 2006, 8:58 pm

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Wulfbeorn has a few snippets on why the Republic’s relatively open borders are bringing enormous benefit to the country. If you want to get an account of the reverse of this problem, here’s Craig Barrett, Chair of Intel in the FT a few weeks back on the parlous state of US engineering in the aftermath of the post 9/11 clampdown on immigration. The real crisis is that the US is closing its doors to immigrants with degrees in science, maths …

Financial mismanagement in LEDU fund

Mick Fealty on February 9, 2006, 3:46 pm

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An awful lot of column inches is given to how much the Assembly costs the taxpayer. But there’s another cost to its not actually sitting. This report from the NI Audit Office reveals some shocking mismanagement in the old LEDU organisation the UK’s official Enterprise Agency aimed at promoting small business. In particular there are serious concerns arising from the Emerging Business Trust, run at a cost of £1.9 million, and £1.1 defaulted loans: a large part of the original …

12 billion cigarettes out of the economy

Mick Fealty on February 9, 2006, 3:13 pm

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Interesting intervention by Ian Paisley in Westminster yesterday: …for every man, woman and child in Ulster, £80 from the economy is stolen by paramilitaries. Some £140 million a year goes into the pockets of the paramilitaries, and £245 million is lost each year as a result of fuel-laundering rackets. The latter problem is so great that one of the leading fuel companies, Shell, has pulled out of Northern Ireland. Moreover, 6 per cent. of all cigarettes sold in Northern Ireland …

O2 drops roaming charges….

Mick Fealty on February 8, 2006, 7:18 pm

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Damien has some news. O2 it seems has dropped roaming charges! That’s good news for anyone living in the border areas (my T-Mobile phone slipped into Meteor just above Eglantine!) and those of who do frequent business or have family and friends on both sides. And as Damien suggests it’s especially good for Donegal! If I know the Mobile industry, then the others won’t be long behind! Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the …

Tourism: Ireland is not exotic enough…

Mick Fealty on February 2, 2006, 3:14 pm

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It seems Ireland is losing its other worldliness and the tourists don’t like it. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty

Northern Ireland’s comfort days over?

Mick Fealty on January 31, 2006, 3:44 pm

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Peter Hain points to the huge public expenditure in Northern Ireland and suggests his government mantra in relation to Northern Ireland is ‘Bureacracy, bureacracy, bureacracy!”: “Reform is vital. “By the 2007/08 financial year, we will be spending in excess of £16bn (€23.4bn) in regional public services in Northern Ireland. “That is 50% greater in real terms than when our Government came to power in May 1997, with health spending up by around 80 per cent and education by more than …