RIP-OFF IRELAND

some people are never happy. Ireland is expensive because the country is booming, wages are high, therefore cost of living is high. 40 years ago the country was in economic turmoil but things were very cheap. You can not have high wages and plentiful jobs and a low cost of living, its one or the other. I know which one I prefer......

I agree that some people are never happy, but you have to agree that a lot more people tend to see things more rosy than they are.

There was no boom and no high wages when I moved to Ireland, but the rip-off was blooming even then. Poor old Ireland was so expensive that I first moved to Belfast because it was way cheaper.
It got worse and worse the more money was available. Everybody seems to think: let's get an even bigger piece of he cake. Unfortunately the service didn't get any better, in some cases even worse. I.e tradesmen now can't even be bothered to turn up for smaller household repair or maintenance work. When they do after much begging and phoning they do more often than not a bad job and ask for a fortune.
The pure and utter greediness is what angers me.

Roads might improve, but does the health service in rural areas? All the new roads are around Dublin are leading to Dublin and the capital gets bigger and shinier, but can anyone afford a decent flat or house? Rents are ridicilous, and there is no proper regulation for the quality of accommodation or the tenants. The houses in new estates are so poorly built, that you spent a fortune to heat them (no insulation whatsoever) and you can hear your next door neighbour slurp his tea. But they cost as much as a small palace elsewhere.

However, as I said in a previous post in this thread, I love to live here and adjusted to the rip-off - but not without a fight with each and everyone who tries to rip me off. Believe me, sometimes it works ;-)))

And for the tap water: I'm lucky to get mine from a well and it's fine. But the water in some towns and cities is occassionally very suspicious. For years now I hear or read stories about e-coli or other disgusting stuff in drinking water here or there. The water might taste fine, but what's the point when you get sick after consuming it?

I've written two travel books on Ireland and after living here for so long I simply refuse to paint the country I truly love in forty shades of green smelling all of roses. I owe it to the readers who don't need any surprises and disappointments, and I owe it to this country which should wake up from this money making frenzy and instead should reconsider what it could do for her own people and their needs, as well for the tourism industry, which is one of the main indigenious industries and important moneywise. The other indigenious one is the building industry, and that will come to a considerable slow-down pretty soon. Well, the boom will eventually fade into nothing, it already started ...

#rant over# - for the time being :-)

niamh i think you're on another planet. Our minimum wage is not much higher than those in Europe. In Spain a waitress/barperson earns about €7.50 an hour (cash)...now how can their prices be so much lower than ours????

the country is no longer booming. it's all being covered up for a couple years now, making us think it's still booming. the government's pre-election promise to cut taxes again was a farse, and they knew it at the time, because we simply can't afford it!

as for your statement about plentiful jobs. it's a load of bull. i graduated from uni 2 years ago and cannot find a decent job in line with my degree. and i am not the only one. i have two friends, business graduates and they can't find work. AND i know of at least five science graduates (and apparently there's so many jobs in science) who can't find work!!!!!!!!! then people look at us like we've got six heads when we say we can't find "proper" jobs as they like to call them

If the Indians and Bangladeshis aren't happy in Ireland they can always return home. I can't imagine that life is a bed of roses in Bangladesh, they probably work 16 hours a day for a few euro over there.

You're always free to look for work abroad if you don't like it here paddypackpacker. Ireland is by no means perfect but not many countries are.

Many Irish people want high wages and Polish beer prices. We can't have our cake and eat it!

<blockquote>Quote
<hr>the so-called lack of disposable income in Ireland.<hr></blockquote> - ask around man. For many people in Ireland the Celtic Tiger was just a phrase, nothing more.

Your point on immigration, which is it? <blockquote>Quote
<hr>We're attracting immigrants from all over the world. We must be doing something right<hr></blockquote> or <blockquote>Quote
<hr>If the Indians and Bangladeshis aren't happy in Ireland they can always return home. I can't imagine that life is a bed of roses in Bangladesh, they probably work 16 hours a day for a few euro over there.<hr></blockquote>

So your saying that the Irish economy is somewhat more attractive than the developing world? Sure who wouldn't be satisfied with that?

Paddypackpacker, excellent insight into the situation! Celtic Tiger, my donkey!
I see people in my area trying to sell their houses because they can't afford them anymore. But no buyer in sight. And I see people trading in their last year cars for this year ostentatious people carriers and SUV's, mostly upwardly mobile mums who drive their kids to school and back, do a bit of shopping. Mostly expensive stuff that doesn't demand home-cooking anymore. And getting into trouble to keep up their credit card bills. These are the people who give the impression of affluent Ireland, but they will have an awful awakening in not so far a future.

I've read a survey recently that Ireland has the highest personal debts rate in the world per capita, it goes into billions (Euros) countrywide. Don't kow the exact numbers right now, but think of 4 million people in Ireland with billions of debts countrywide, billions up to the receding hairline of the Celtic Tiger.

And yes, there are vacancies for minor jobs, so far, but I know a lot of qualified people who look for ages for adequate jobs. If you work in a minimum wage job, there is no chance to get a career, a place of your own or a life. I know a woman who works days in a shop and nights in a pub, just to pay the rent and the bills and education for the kids and to support herself. But no life, no holidays, no computer to rant about her gorgeous travels.

Ach, the myth of the Celtic Tiger!

You mean the Celtic Whinger! People like you are never happy and fail to understand the law of supply and demand. You're looking for a Utopia that doesn't exist anywhere in the world. I agree that some things about Ireland suck such as the weather and the ugly people but these things are outside the control of the Irish people. I also accept that our public transport and health services are poor by European standards. However we pay lower income taxes than our European neighbours and would have to pay more tax to fund a better health and transport system.

People have been talking about bubbles bursting since 2000. These same pessimists will be proven correct eventually. After all a broken clock tells the correct time twice a day!

Ireland in the 1980s was a real shit-hole when one needed to have contacts to find a job. When I was a student in 1986 the only part time job I was offered was the late shift at Mc Donald's for something like £1 an hour. There wasn't even a mimimum wage back then! Unemployment was close to 20% as were interest rates. The North of Ireland was in chaos and almost every family was affected by emigration. In those "good old days" almost everyone was a loser (apart from Charlie Haughey). We've come a long way since then. Of course there have been losers in the "Celtic Tiger" but there are losers all over the world. Life isn't fair! If you're not happy with Ireland you don't have to stay! There are so many wonderful countries in the world but once you scratch the surface you'll see the warts and all elsewhere too.

<blockquote>Quote
<hr>I also accept that our public transport and health services are poor by European standards. However we pay lower income taxes than our European neighbours and would have to pay more tax to fund a better health and transport system<hr></blockquote>

You sure about that? You don't think mismanagement comes into the equation at all?

While we're on the subject of taxes many of the 'super rich' in Ireland pay no taxes at all (and I'm not talking about the exemption for artists) Life isn't fair, indeed it isn't, but do you think that is?

I live in Northern ireland and the town I live in the water is clean enough to drink but tastes rotten unless you add something like fruit juice or diluting orange to it. As well as prices, we also have to wait longer for things to be released. If a new product comes out then Northern ireland is last to get it. The only exception being films (both cinema and on DVD) or music albums.

Mismanagement of course comes into the equation as well as raising income taxes. Low taxes = Poor services, you can't have your cake and eat it!

I agree with you about the super rich. We also have a lot of overpaid "benchmarked" public servants who shuffle papers from side to side.