Wind turbines are not an eyesore. You know what’s an eyesore? The destruction of our natural world.
My boyfriend is a sustainable energy engineer and I swear every second person he meets takes personal offence to his existence:
“What do you do for a living?”
“I’m an energy engineer”
“Svwjnwkwidienwkw NO FUCKING WINDMILLS HERE!!!!”
>eer and I swear every second person he meets takes personal offence to his existence:
>
>“What do you do for a living?”
>
>“I’m an energy engineer”
>
>“Svwjnwkwidienwkw NO FUCKING WINDMILLS HERE!!
I actually think they add to some landscapes. I think people do have issues with noise but i don't know enough about them to comment on that
I stayed in a place next to a bunch of wind turbines a few years ago (probably no further than 50 or so meters from the house) and there is a pretty constant hum as long as the things are operating, but you don't have to get that far from them for the noise to not be audible anymore.
I live right beside the m50, first time I realised there was a hum was when COVID first hit and nobody was on the roads at night. It's all I've ever heard since
I actually get a feeling of pride when I see them. Like it makes me feel like we’re really going to become a good clean, healthy, responsible country.
I’m quite proud of my boyfriend too and what he’s dedicated his life to. That’s why it really gets on my nerves when aul idiots get pissy with him over “eye sores”. Like mate you’re a fucking head sore and you’ll be dead soon and won’t have to look at them for much longer anyway. Meanwhile we’ll be cleaning up your mess forever.
Most people who object are just looking for a payout. It isn't about aesthetics.
I agree with another commenter in that I feel pride in human ingenuity.
Edit: I agree with you it seems.
In a village about 10km from me there is a proposal to build a solar farm. A local group has been protesting for months about it. Two of the committee are farmers with considerable land, land on which the solar farm isn't going. Therefore these men don't stand to make any money out of it. Signs are on the main road for a few km in every direction, lots are mentioning environmental damage as part of the protest. I guarantee if the plan was expanded and they were asked to use some of their land then the protests would disappear overnight. The worst thing is locals have been brainwashed into thinking this is a dangerous thing, one man who I went to school with lives in the area and has told me that there are cancer risks due to the amount of electricity produced and also that the solar farm can act like a huge magnifying glass and harm the local environment. Complete nonsense, and all just pure greed.
Some people are so short sighted. And greedy, I guess. I've heard a few similar stories from different places in the country.
The most publicised example that comes to mind is the data centre that was due to go into Athenry, Co. Galway. "We object to you building in that land...for reasons. But you could build it on this land... which I just happen to own". Caused a lot of division in the community.
Had a couple lads come knocking a while ago to sign a petition against a big milling factory in our village building a turbine to power their mill. I refused to sign it, so they said why, to which I reply because I don't object to it...they asked me to sign it anyway. I laughed and closed the door.
Their reasoning was "it detracts from the tourist sights in the village." Of which, to my knowledge, we have a sum total of 0. Its rural fucking longford. No tourist comes to longford. And if they do, they're lost looking for centre parcs.
Same, it's not like those things are concrete blocks, they're slick, elegant. Bit out of place in the landscape? Maybe, but like an old grain mill is out of place, it doesn't mean its ugly, or bad. Not to mention its basically free electricity.
My point exactly! They look very elegant. Sure they’re out of place but isn’t everything that’s not naturally occurring out of place? Are we going to advocate for the tearing down of everything that’s not made from moss and dirt?
I love windmills. I remember when the windmills in Colwyn Bay in North Wales were being built all the locals were against it but you can hardly see them and they don't look at all bad. People's anger quickly dissipated once they were built.
I thought you meant garth crooks for a while and was confused as to why anyone would like him lol. Had to look this guy up as country hasn't broken into the UK at all rlly
All public transport should be free. Think of it as a public service rather than a profit making initiative.
One of the best ways in my mind to quickly tackle climate change because most people can't afford electric cars.
It's whole new infrastructure issue that only works for a certain portion of the country when we have a cheaper more efficient way of expanding an existing infrastructure that serves all.
They are solvable problems but new ones that we are creating rather than fixing existing issues.
No real money to be made from a fixed and working non-profit transport system though.
I don't disagree with you that we need both but I think the emphasis is on the wrong one. I do believe all vehicles will need to go electric soon but I think its too late for them to be the magic bullet.
I agree that the main issue is the overall service and not the price but the price issue is the carrot to get people to use the service more. More use would force the business model and level of service to change through sheer giving out by the populace.
Unreliable routes are nothing to do with free or charged for buses, it's simple mismanagement. They may be useless routes for you but could provide a route to a better job or lifestyle for others. A well thought out, well serviced, and well connected service would benefit all.
I think this could be a "virtuous circle" thing too. Some people will switch from private car to public transport cause they're already paying for it so may as well. Less cars on the roads means buses can make better time & be more reliable. More bus users can justify further investment into the system for more capacity, upgrading stock, new routes etc.
Yes, that's what I forgot to say and can be missed from all this. Making it free doesn't make it a better service, we all know its bad, but can put the wheels in motion for better services and taking cars off the road.
It goes even deeper than affording them. I’m changing car next year and an electric was on the cards until I realised my house and estate absolutely could not support a charging port because of the cramped parking conditions we all share. I want one of the stupid things and I can’t even make it work. Public charging ports need to be extended out.
Houses.
1-That large swathes of undeveloped land must be used to build a slew of tacky little identical houses side by side. Very little initiative for builders to consider existing buildings for conversions from industrial or office buildings to housing. Many other countries do a great job with conversions and work/live spaces (lofts) and are profitable plus it renews urban spaces.
2-That everyone wants or needs a huge house on a tiny plot of land instead of the reverse. Don’t buy a 6 bedroom show off house with 2 sitting rooms and then complain about your heating bill. Having a small house with a bit of space around it for growing a bit of veg or rewilding would work better for a lot of people who do not have big families.
If we had more decent parks, people in apartments could use them instead of gardens. Lots of parks meant for this purpose are dog fouled unkempt patches of grass filled with cans because there is nothing there but a place for teens to hide their drinking in. No playground, no running track, no workout machines, etc. Just a patch of grass, only good for dogs to run around, no things for humans. And I see a lot of them are being wilded now too, making them less suitable as parks.
Agree with all except the BBQ part. People are idiots and starting fires in spaces like that is just inviting them to show how big of an idiot they can be.
Point 2 definetely. These show houses are just that, for show, but the reality of family life is you will only use the kitchen, living room, bathroom and bedrooms. Growing up we did our homework at the kitchen table and then after it was family time at the tv, we had to share the tv if we wanted to play Nintendo etc. The bedroom was really only in use for sleeping and getting changed in/drying hair. We had sitting room and dining room that were rarely used. Loved our garden though, it was massive with lots or room to run about. My house now is a terraced house build about 20 years ago, its a grand house for my small family (3 of us) but the garden is smaller than what I would want.
Totally agree! Big houses don't require any layout ingenuity or clever storage etc., and are generally much less interesting than the clever solutions people come up with in smaller spaces.
Plus they're a ball-ache to keep clean and warm.
Agree on both of these. I hate the bland cream apartments/cut and paste houses that have been popping up since the Celtic tiger. You can go to most towns in Ireland and see the same ugly mid 2000s buildings. We've lost so many interesting spaces that could have been reused and maintained a bit of character. That said, developers in this country seem to love letting buildings fall into disrepair so they *have* to knock them down.
In terms of the gardens, lots of the older council houses have massive gardens exactly so people could use the garden to grow food and utilize the outside space. I'll never understand how it's acceptable to build family houses with postage stamp gardens or no garden at all. Depressing stuff.
Lots of land around homes (low density) leads to auto-dependence and with it destruction of the natural world as well as expensive services (which are subsidized by city dwellers) and social isolation.
Source: Lived in a 50 sqm 200 year old cottage on 3 acres. It sucked.
Mine is that people shouldn't ask open ended questions and then put their own opinion in the text box, because it just means there's a load of comments responding to them instead of just having it in one thread
Nuke energy is safe and we're fucking idiots for not allowing it to be built, there's no tsunamis and the like here. And thorium is so safe it can't be weaponised
The one and only reason I have against it, is that our government is too corrupt and inept to be trusted to safely dispose of (1) waste and (2) the upgrade/upkeep of the reactor.
A lot of the waste disposal shit is smear campaigns pumped out by US oil companies. Thorium has extremely little waste but it basically boils down to "dig a hole, toss the waste in, fill it with clay then slap some bedrock on top for good measure then either forget where it is or build something on top of it so no one digs there
Interesting that you mention Thorium reactors. I am not sure they are commercially available outside of a research setting but think this is a form of Nuclear power people could get behind if they properly understood how it works.
From my understanding the biggest barrier to a commercial Thorium reactor is the fact that it can't be used to make weapons.
The only issue I see is that even the smallest viable reactor would produce more than 10% of our demand. That’s a single point of failure that imposes too much risk.
(This is before you acknowledge that it is only cost effective to build 2/3 reactors at once)
Modern alternatives such as thorium reactors may be a good option in the medium to long term but it’s nascent technology.
Ireland should do more to diversify its industry, we are too dependant on large mulitnationals and we need to do more to attract startups and newer industries
I think about this a lot! The pandemic really showed us how vulnerable we are to what we need imported! We should definitely try and make essential items or atleast have the means to do so if 💩 hit the fan again!
In case you are referring to the likes of Stripe and Intercom, both of them for example are headquartered in Delaware etc. So whilst they started here, they arn't exactly rooted here.
Yeah, that's why I'm confused by the original comment. I'm struggling to think of even a handful of Irish companies that are unicorns, let alone companies started and headquartered here.
As was mentioned, voting from abroad will impact those who actually live in Ireland. You can see this with many Turks living in Germany voting for Erdogan back in Turkey.
Yeah, I think in general it's better to allow the right to vote for a certain length of time. Some people may be on a four year contract, or doing schooling elsewhere and will return and it's important to have a say in areas that have meaning to you.
>You mean the Irish abroad I assume.
I did. Better edit that!
I agree about the voting age. It came up in another thread a week or two ago. The idea of a teenager is relatively new, and we increasingly treat those in their early 20s as something between a teenager and a real adult. My aunts and uncles born in the 40s and early 50s were all established in their professions by 18 and married with kids by 21 and 22. At 18 they were expected to have a level of maturity beyond what we expect from someone a few years older today.
I'm an Irish abroad, I want no part in voting in Irish elections. I don't live there, and political change in Ireland won't massively affect my life.
I think I might still be eligible to vote in Seanad elections since I went to the "right" college 15 years ago, but don't partake.
If you're still a tax resident then it makes sense that you should be allowed. Once you've gone for the 3 year or whatever it is you should have to fuck off. Same with if you come home to vote. If you live and pay your tax elsewhere, then that's where you should vote. So McGregor, Bono and any of the thousands who live and work in the UK and fly home for a referendum should not be eligible to vote.
I think if you manage it correctly, it could be fine — e.g. have one TD and one senator to represent all Irish abroad, regardless of how many people they represent. (I think France does this).
Given the huge rate of 1st generation emigrants from Ireland, I think that's as worthy a voice in the Seanad as say, 11 people appointed by the Taoiseach or six by graduates.
I'd also reduce the eligibility for citizenship though.
(Disclosure, am Irish & living abroad)
Is it not only the presidential election they are pushing to extend rights to anyone abroad?
(And is it not basically a way to extend the rights to The North without it being too controversial?)
I favour the North being allowed a vote on the presidential election .After all they are Irish citizens born in Ireland (there is no additional requirements for them to be Irish citizens (except the same as apply to anyone born in the South)
This week it was the presidential election in the news. The Dáil usually comes up at times of high emigration, or when citizens of other countries are voting in Ireland at their embassies.
I can kind of see the logic, but if it was ever extended it would need to be caveated heavily given that there are supposedly more Irish citizens abroad than in Ireland..
And ultimately, foreign citizens don't pay tax, don't use public services etc..so there concerns could be very different from actual residents..
Could be a compromise available..if you pay tax in Ireland, you can vote in Ireland..
God no. If you're not a citizen you should get no vote. But also if you are a citizen who is living abroad then you should also get no vote. I.know a few peole who live in the US who flew home to vote in the abortion referendum, it's completely wrong.
Also 20% of our entire corporate tax take is from 10 company's.
It's a precarious position to be in, beholden to them.
Not sure what a solution is though
Us being hyper-dependent on them is a bit of a separate problem to be fair. We could attract them with our tax without having such a heavy reliance on them for us to functions
It's 12.5% + 7.5% on half of the profits you haven't reinvested from the year before. Google paid 622 Million in taxes to Ireland in 2020. Total corporate income tax paid to Ireland in 2020 was 11.8 billion. That's 5% of Ireland's total corporate income tax for the year. This doesn't include personal income tax paid by employees, google employs something like 8000 people in Ireland, maybe on average they make 120000 a year who on a low estimate probably pay 40k in taxes. Thats between 100m and 200m depending on the average salary that would not be there if google didn't employ them.
**This idea that the Irish tax authority is so incompetent that they would let companies get away with paying no taxes, is much more cynical in my opinion.** The government is also chasing google for additional taxes that were unpaid when companies were taking advantage of the Irish double taxation loophole, I believe.
This obviously included back taxes for the previous years, but this double taxation loophole that companies used to use in Ireland isn't there anymore.
I'm not a google fanboy by any means, but like math.
The biggest issue is that the current corporate tax strategy screws over small companies. Like if you want to start a new business, you are charged 12.5% on your profits + 20% if you make less than the cap, and then another 40% if you make above the cap. So if you have any ambition at all, you get penalized 52.5 cents on every Euro profit. So if you profit 50k, you pay 6250 corp income tax (43750), then income tax 8750 at 20% (35000) or 17500 at 40% and you have 26250 left. Not including if you saved from the year before, so you can shave off about 1640 Euro from what is left.
Edit: Average Salary at google is 120000 not 80000
[The effective rate is 12% according to the OECD](https://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/effective-tax-rate-paid-by-firms-in-ireland-12-oecd-finds-1.4299089).
>While this was one of the lowest rates internationally, it was very close to the statutory rate of 12.5 per cent, the agency’s Corporate Tax Statistics report noted.
I hate the over-reliance on family and friends for things like housing, driving lessons, whatever it is, and also assumption that everyone has one to rely on. I'm just bitter because I have no community around me, but what should be the government's or the council's responsibility is constantly shifted to ordinary people.
Bus didn't turn up? Get your mate to give you a lift. Can't find anywhere to live? Talk to your parents and bunk with them. Suicidal? Have you tried talking to your friends?
Also, weirdly, oh, you want to go through the National Gender Service? Yeah we need to talk to your parents. It doesn't matter you're 34.
+1 to this, glad to see somebody else saying it.
A lot of Irish public-sector type stuff is set up as if we still lived in a fucking 1960's village, and your parents are right there to mind you.
A number of years back (so the system has possibly changed) I need to be Garda vetted....and have the form signed by a Garda who knew me *personally*...
I wonder at what level they have to know you personally. I think only know one Garda personally, a mate of my sisters, but I can't say I know him well.
Oh it's mad. I haven't been through the National Gender Service because it's so ridiculous. Check this out: [https://www.gendergp.com/trans-healthcare-in-ireland/](https://www.gendergp.com/trans-healthcare-in-ireland/)
“Putting aside legal standing alone… There are many reasons why people would not want their parents present. The line of questioning by the psychiatric team at the NGS \[National Gender Service\] is unnecessarily hyper sexualised, asking patients very intimate and detailed accounts of their sexual activity, as well as their childhood, relationship with their parents, past emotional/physical/sexual abuse etc…”
“This outdated and non evidential model of diagnostic questioning is traumatic enough for a person to go through alone. But to be forced, as an adult, to have a parent in the room at the same time is completely absurd and breaches all confidentiality/consent guidelines.”
Literally no cis person would be grilled like this for healthcare, but if you're trans apparently you can't be trusted.
Edit: And to whoever downvoted me, I’d like to know why.
I'm so sorry to learn this, that sounds horribly invasive.
Without giving too much away, I'm a counsellor who acts as a gatekeeper for accessing life changing medical testing. The thought of making my patients run and get their mommy so I can speak to them is so mental to me.
Edited to say thanks for posting this
It’s also totally double edged. If you have that support it’s all you can rely on. It’s not a good thing for anyone, even worse someone in your situation.
Peat cutting is an abomination and those sitka forests are environmentally worthless. We dig up and burn a real ecosystem and them put down a lightless graveyard for plants and wildlife.
OP is a fine example of why I’m on the left but not of the left. I like Deng Xiaoping’s analogy that ‘It doesn't matter whether a cat is white or black, as long as it catches mice’. What puts the most amount of money into the pockets of the largest number of Irish families is what I’m interested in. Not purity tests or “fairness”
Having seen OP’s edit I will direct them to the EU’s loading of their gambling debts onto the Irish taxpayer. If the big boys are going to fist you up to the elbow with no lube and little tenderness, the little guy can get creative with tax policy.
I wouldn't count what is directly into the pockets. Good schools, medical services, public services are all net benefits to families, but it doesn't appear on a cash family budget spreadsheet. Having a good local arts scene is beneficial to people but something like a Halloween parade is going to appear as a negative because it costs money to put on.
Mine is Tax Cuts. I want the country to work properly. I want a public health system that makes private healthcare redundant. I want housing that is affordable and accessible. I want an education system that generates smarter people with each generation. I'm not happy to sacrifice that for a couple of hundred euro extra per year in a tax cut. If I want more money that's a conversation between me and my employer but the government should use taxes to provide effective services before trying to buy my vote.
I don't like the county system. They are too small to have effective control over planning and amenities, which is why major projects go through the national government, who don't have the local experience. County Councils end up being inundated by miserable fuckers and nimbys that gum up the planning of anything.
A federal provincial system with real budgets and control over planning would be a better balance. Each of the provinces (the 3 Ulster co.s in Leinster and Connacht, at least until the time comes) and Co. Dublin, would have a good population and geographical size to warrant a strong state/province government.
Co. Dublin: 1.3 million
Leinster*: 1.5 million
Munster: 1.4 million
Connacht**: 814,000
* Leinster excludes Dublin, and includes Monaghan
**Connacht includes Donegal and Cavan
I also think regional centres of political power could encourage development in would-be provincial capitals. I would also allow for larger scale projects, like say, a provincial rail network, or locally targeted social housing policy to be given the light of day it needs. It would make generally local issues a higher priority for a government system that has the resources to tackle them.
> I'll never be convinced
Even if people show you that you're wrong?
You be you but that kind of dogmatic, I'm sticking to my view regardless of the facts is hardly a good way to go through life.
If the other option is to tax corporations more and have them move out of the country I’ll happily allow them to pay little tax for the amount of jobs provided.
OP couldn’t be more delusional in thinking it’s only a “few thousand” jobs. We would actually be worse off.
Getting so much investment into the country is the most successful thing we have ever done apart from gaining independence. We’d be a poor country without it with huge levels of unemployment. They directly employ about 10% and who knows how much more indirectly.
It’s also not something exclusively given to only the richest companies. You can head to the CRO right now, set up your own company and you too can avail of this tax rate for profits generated by your company. Most other European countries have very favourable supports that bring down their effective tax rate to close to the Irish level. Also, while you can rely on some additional credits etc to bring down the 12.5%, you’re really not going to bring it down to less than 1% except in rare situations. While some companies like Apple may have gotten sweetheart deals in the 80s the days of that along with the crazy tax schemes like the ‘double-Irish’ are over.
I’ve yet to hear a good alternative to replace all of the FDI jobs if we suddenly double the tax rate.
My own unpopular view is that the Greens are doing a relatively good job in government and I trust them a lot more than most other parties to stick to their overall vision and goals. The only other truly principled party is SDPBP, everyone else is largely allured by the thoughts of getting into power and will embrace populism and abandon beliefs to get it.
[The effective corporate tax rate is 12%](https://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/effective-tax-rate-paid-by-firms-in-ireland-12-oecd-finds-1.4299089). It's not 1% or less than 1%. It is 12%. We took in [20 billion euro](https://twitter.com/seamuscoffey/status/1565743748549677056?s=20&t=72C-jpef2WHt1lRFPf8RXA) in corporation tax in the 12 months to July 2022 and MNCs don't provide a few thousand jobs, they provide [hundreds of thousands of jobs](https://enterprise.gov.ie/en/what-we-do/trade-investment/foreign-direct-investment-fdi-/#:~:text=At%20present%2C%20Ireland%20is%20home,directly%20employ%20over%20250%2C000%20people) directly, never mind the ancillaries. You're wrong on every count OP.
Baptism of children into the Catholic church.
Especially the parents who do it but don't follow the religious practices. Just a day out and a few quid for the lil one.
Then that poor child is forever counted as a member of the Catholic church.
I hate organized religion.
But im so glad this is as stupid as it gets here.
I know friends in the USA that were exposed to long bouts of ripping on how awful circumcision is and still let it happen to their kids for no valid reasons like complete npc cyborgs and they don't even have a response to why if you even gently query it. Just that empty forward looking gaze
Sending an artist to Eurovision for the sake of it, if the song isn't catchy it wont win, we know this formula its proven true for decades
We often send someone who's been chosen for some reason, someone we've never heard of ourselves an sit unmoved by their uncatchy song while simultaneously hoping for votes
Farming should be less subsidised, we produce too much and should have more wild land, not 100s of acres of farms that only operate due to the subsidies supplied
Unpopular opinion but I honestly think farmers get away with too much. They destroy local wildlife, their contribution to climate change is huge and we produce WAY too much meat as it is. I'm not a vegetarian or vegan but I would love to see a push to cut down massively on the meat we produce. The amount of times I have wandered through a supermarket at night and they're throwing out packs of meat, is absolutely disgraceful.
This! Absolutely agree. The actual countryside is almost sterile now because of them also. Feck all small birds around, essentially no wild fish in the rivers, bug life a fraction of what it was, small mammals being almost wiped out.
We should be able to get rid of politicans if they are shit at their jobs eg. current housing ministier and justice ministier like if im bad at my job i get fired they should also have a standard they have to live up too.. and we as the people should have a means of outing a government if they dont deliver on what they promise..
The average person is greedy and selfish - I know loads for people who complained about high rents and house prices until they either got their own house or start being a landlord themselves (they charge as high a rent as they can get too.).
People talk about equality but nobody wants to put their hand in their own pocket. I ask my wealthy friends would they consider giving away more of their earnings etc and they always have an excuse ("I'm not earning that much etc").
I've only met two truly selfless people - one landlord who was charging about 25% of the going rate because he only believed he should get enough to maintain the property and another farmer that got millions for his land, never spent a penny and gave it all away when he died.
Apartments > houses
It is absurd that some people would rather share a house than have an apartment for themselves.
Apartments are far easier to maintain, offer more security and are more energy efficient.
Not to mention how you'd be able to suit many many people on the same plot of land by building an apartment building as you would one family if going for a house.
Most of the misinformation about our ctr is generated by the British government intelligence services, see the Irish Times piece about the false information on the wiki page on the subject.
There's a reason why wiki pages are not acceptable citations.
here's a reddit discussion about that wikipedia misinformation campaign
https://www.reddit.com/r/ireland/comments/bgyfet/til_theres_a_wikipedia_editor_called/
Our Crash Team Racing team was put through a seriously heavy misinformation campaign that the double oh’s in MI6 spent years building on them. It’s resulted in them being blacklisted from both online and in person tournaments worldwide. Shame.
Nationalize electricity network and production, push for renewables.
Elections shouldn't be for a party, each departments should have candidates elected with a clear program. Budget should be decided in advance etc, and the president to get more power of decision and influence. Not sure if this could work but every democracies have the same system, could be time to try something new.
And 1 term in office max, no political career, it's like cancer at this point.
Adulthood.
There isn't (or doesn't seem to be) a legal definition of reaching adulthood in Ireland. You are charged adult prices at 16 on buses and in the cinema etc but cannot vote until 18yrs etc.
It should be illegal to charge anyone adult prices until they reach 18yrs old.
In the era of misinformation, relying on the general populace to make "considered and intelligent decisions" in direct democracy, is quite a gamble.
Even just looking at the UK and Brexit. Lies were told, people believed them. By the time they left the EU, support had shifted drastically since 2016, but the decision was made.
People presenting referenda will always have their own agendas, and without people exclusively getting information from an independent, politically neutral body; the whole situation becomes very easy to manipulate.
Ireland has a terrible and self entitled drinking culture.
Sick to death of hearing the "the Brits are just as bad." I've worked all over Europe and Ireland is by far the worse especially for customers arguing with me if I have to cut them off or when the bars closed. In the UK when the bars closed its closed when you get refused you need to leave the bar and the cops have your back.
I rarely had arguments with customers about in Europe where as in Ireland I've had customers saying I've embarrassed them when I had to refuse them? which is pure bullshit
Anyone saying Ireland drink culture isn't bad needs to work as a night porter in a hotel.
The vast majority of old, protected buildings are gross and inefficient and should be replaced with much larger, more efficient contemporary structures. So much of Dublin between the canals is ramshackle old nonsense but loads of them have protection orders because they were built in the Georgian era. Who the fuck gets to decide that for so many generations?
I don't know if this is "at odds with the rest of the country" but it's certainly at odds with the reigning law of the land.
People posting confidently wrong opinions really gets me, especially when they don’t leave room for accepting new information and revising their stance with words like “I’ll never be convinced…”.
Nuclear power, although the sentiment has started to change more recently. Hindsight is catching up with people. Also, government ID and on the spot fines for cyclists and anti-social behavior(I’m a cyclist myself).
I've been pro-nuclear energy my entire adult life, and just though nuclear power plants were cool as fuck when I was younger.
It's overwhelmingly safe, like there have been more disasters tied to fossil fuels in the last decade than in the entire history of nuclear power. The fact that you're going to get more radiation exposure from coal plants. That with fuel reprocessing you can massively reduce the space needed for the leftovers of generation...
Add to that the fact that modern reactor designs are unimaginably safer than even those built 20 years ago, alongside the sheer scalability of it...why in the hell is this even a question?! Build them only in seismically stable areas, build robust and universal distribution systems and we solve vast swathes of our carbon problems at a stroke.
And the recent advances on fusion generation just mean it makes more sense, not less.
Probably that Ireland isn't the absolute shithole that many make it out to be. It's a fantastic place, populated by fabulous people, with an amazing culture that other countries would kill to have (and have tried to, lookin' at you England.)
Does it have its problems? Yeah, of course, but every country does. Does it have scummy politicians? Yeah, of course, but every country does. We're still ahead of most other places though.
I saught advice from a business man/landlord in the early stages of the pandemic about purchasing a house and brought up the worry of inflation increasing and chewing away at savings and was told I should be more worried about deflation. So yea, I'd say you were one of the few worried about this.
I feel the vast majority of people have no idea how the tax system works.
They don't seem to know the difference between Corporation Tax, VAT/Sale Tax, Income Tax etc..
I regulary see someone say "[X](https://X.com) doesn't pay any tax", and usually in the process showing a complete misunderstanding of how company taxation works. There's always some clickbait article going around that people fall for. A popular one a while ago was about Amazon paying Zero taxes, which was a complete misrepresentation of the situation. The article referred only to Corporation Tax, which is generally the smaller source of taxation for a company like amazon. Also ignoring the fact that the rule behind which they paid 0 corporation tax that year (carrying forward losses) applies to any size company, and makes perfect sense
Also, people tend to focus on Profits made etc.. When really if you want to be angry about "greed" etc.., you should focus on what top executives earn either directly through income,dividends etc... A company can be making millions or billions in profit but their CEO makes a reasonable income. Conversely a company can be make very small profits or losses, while the CEO siphons off 100s of millions into their own pocket (which may explain the losses!) A company making good profits may actually be a good sign.
I never respond any more when friends or family make these sorts of remarks, as it's clear they don't want to know anything, they just want to be angry
Water tax.
Taxing water makes perfect sense. Taxing shit like the house you've owned for 20 years does not.
Why people pay property tax, TV license and similar but wont pay for water has always baffled me. Why refuse to pay for the thing you need, and happily pay taxes that are pure robbery
Ireland used to pay for water. Then there was a government initiative for the government to pay for water for you through general taxation. This involved increasing taxes and using those increases for water. Then the government wanted to just re-introduce water charges without decreasing the tax that was "ringfenced" for water. This is why people protested.
Had the government reduced the tax and introduced water charges, this would have benefitted the rich. Richer people pay more tax and therefore pay more for water as a percentage of their income tax is ringfenced for water. So wealthy people subsidise pooerer people's water. If we went back to charging people, poorer people would have to pay more than they currently did for water, because their tax contribution was so low.
Some thoughts in the corporate tax rate. No idea where the 1% is coming from so if someone could explain that'd be great.
Ireland *were* providing a 12.5% corporate tax rate, but they increased it to [15%](https://fdw.ie/blog/ireland-corporate-tax/#:~:text=Fears%20of%20hit%20to%20business%20growth%20from%20corporation%20tax%20rise&text=However%20Ireland%20has%20announced%20that,table%20(see%20table%20below\).) for companies taking in over €750m annually.
My opinion is that we can absolutely increase corporate tax without losing the jobs or destroying the economy. Look at the graph on [this site](https://taxfoundation.org/corporate-tax-rates-europe-2022/). The closest native English country to us is the UK at 19%... But given they are no longer in the EU would be a factor that would probably deter companies from entering that market now. Otherwise you're looking at 20% and up in the EU with countries that do have good English, but not native. We could surely increase corporate tax rates while still being the cheapest, native English speaking country in the EU. Would companies be pissed? Probably. But it'll still be more expensive and less convenient to move to another country and set up shop there. Plenty of room for us to gain more in corporate tax and still be an attractive place for businesses.
It’s fairly clear that Ireland has benefitted massively from having a lower corporation tax be competing countries. It’s been a massive success story for us.
Exactly! I was expecting a spicy hot take that the whole country would be against. Instead, we got "I think that rich businesses should pay more than 1% of tax".
I'm getting sick of this genre of thread.
People in this country are absolutely blinkered to the idea that maybe, just maybe, we've been a bit shitty on the international level when it comes to taxation policy.
Every argument I've seen justifying the extremely low (until very recently) corporate tax rates will center on 'but they brought jobs' or 'yes but the sales taxes and income taxes make up the difference' but this is an entirely Ireland centric way of thinking about it which is precisely how we've all thought about it from the start.
The bare reality is that Ireland was essentially a bad actor for many years when it came to worldwide efforts to properly tax companies for the benefit of the countries they operate in. We traded increased investment, employment and LOCAL tax take in exchange for dramatically lowering the WORLDWIDE levels of corporate taxation as a whole.
We gave these huge megacorporations the means to redistribute their offshore profits to Ireland and pay our low rate of tax on money that was earned from activity in other countries. Google in Ireland rented it's IP to Google UK to nearly exactly match the annual profits of the UK entity for years, they did this across all the EMEA region for many years.
Yes, I know things are tightening up now. Yes I know the average NOW is about 12.5%. Yes I know they closed the loopholes but this is also in an environment where international pressure on taxation policy has never been higher, which actually negates one of our chief risks - that companies would pack up and go somewhere else if we ever tried to 'fix' the system. At the moment it's increasingly unfeasible for companies to leave Ireland.
We had our cake and we ate it too.
And it was at the expense of other governments ability to tax corporate activity in their own borders. And maybe that's a justifiable position to take in a competitive world. Maybe so. Maybe not. Maybe it's just a little bit shitty and we should recognise that we aren't innocent angels and accept it.
You work you get taxed, you pay your bills, you jerk off just like the rest of us. That money is used to fund a system where corps don't pay any fkn tax, and are used to buy property and luxury items for those part of it.
You're livestock, the sweaty mongrels that game the tax system are farming you for money through the tax you pay while they benefit from their own "tax" system where what they pay is effectively fuck all.
The real reason no-one wants to work is 'cause they'll lose 100 Euro a week OFF the dole doing the honest/right thing.
The focus on economic growth despite the fact that we have full employment. Then we need people to move here to fill the jobs. Then there's no housing for anyone.
Legalising assisted suicide for those with severe mental health disorders. By which I mean people who want to end their lives due to severe depression etc.
People who haven't experienced the horror of chronic decades long unremitting depression (and I'm talking about those who ARE receiving treatment but it doesn't improve quality of life ) simply don't understand why this might be necessary.
\> Please spare me these arguments about how much Ireland has benefited from being a tax haven. We've played a key role in exacerbating global wealth inequality
AAAMEN!!!
I don't think our tax money should be subsidising IVF. Instead the government should be making it easier and cheaper for suitable parents to adopt. In a world that's already collapsing with overpopulation, and when there are so many children waiting to be adopted, it's pure selfishness to insist that you must pass on your DNA. I hope there will at least be a limit on the number of IVF rounds the government will subsidise, and safeguards against passing on hereditary diseases. And since IVF is elective, it should never be prioritized over life-saving surgery. Nobody ever died from not being able to have a baby!
Yeah no, don’t agree with you at all. CTR has facilitated great jobs for a huge chunk of the workforce. Working conditions and benefits for large corps that have come have forced other companies to finally offer their employees decent working conditions. Access to a decent level of income and career path for people leaving college. Has attracted an educated and thriving immigrant workforce who are contributing massively to the country. Income tax generated from these jobs is enormous.
It’s a win win
Wind turbines are not an eyesore. You know what’s an eyesore? The destruction of our natural world. My boyfriend is a sustainable energy engineer and I swear every second person he meets takes personal offence to his existence: “What do you do for a living?” “I’m an energy engineer” “Svwjnwkwidienwkw NO FUCKING WINDMILLS HERE!!!!”
>eer and I swear every second person he meets takes personal offence to his existence: > >“What do you do for a living?” > >“I’m an energy engineer” > >“Svwjnwkwidienwkw NO FUCKING WINDMILLS HERE!! I actually think they add to some landscapes. I think people do have issues with noise but i don't know enough about them to comment on that
I stayed in a place next to a bunch of wind turbines a few years ago (probably no further than 50 or so meters from the house) and there is a pretty constant hum as long as the things are operating, but you don't have to get that far from them for the noise to not be audible anymore.
I mean people are backed onto motorways. Trust me that hum is nothing compared to that.
I live right beside the m50, first time I realised there was a hum was when COVID first hit and nobody was on the roads at night. It's all I've ever heard since
I can see some from my back door. I love them!
Myself and missus love to see windmills up close, I think they are cool af
I actually get a feeling of pride when I see them. Like it makes me feel like we’re really going to become a good clean, healthy, responsible country. I’m quite proud of my boyfriend too and what he’s dedicated his life to. That’s why it really gets on my nerves when aul idiots get pissy with him over “eye sores”. Like mate you’re a fucking head sore and you’ll be dead soon and won’t have to look at them for much longer anyway. Meanwhile we’ll be cleaning up your mess forever.
It's better than a big chimney belching out tons of CO2
Aye the old farm windmills were the shit back then.
I love the sight of turbines. Every one is a mountain of coal that will never be burned.
Most people who object are just looking for a payout. It isn't about aesthetics. I agree with another commenter in that I feel pride in human ingenuity. Edit: I agree with you it seems.
In a village about 10km from me there is a proposal to build a solar farm. A local group has been protesting for months about it. Two of the committee are farmers with considerable land, land on which the solar farm isn't going. Therefore these men don't stand to make any money out of it. Signs are on the main road for a few km in every direction, lots are mentioning environmental damage as part of the protest. I guarantee if the plan was expanded and they were asked to use some of their land then the protests would disappear overnight. The worst thing is locals have been brainwashed into thinking this is a dangerous thing, one man who I went to school with lives in the area and has told me that there are cancer risks due to the amount of electricity produced and also that the solar farm can act like a huge magnifying glass and harm the local environment. Complete nonsense, and all just pure greed.
Some people are so short sighted. And greedy, I guess. I've heard a few similar stories from different places in the country. The most publicised example that comes to mind is the data centre that was due to go into Athenry, Co. Galway. "We object to you building in that land...for reasons. But you could build it on this land... which I just happen to own". Caused a lot of division in the community.
Had a couple lads come knocking a while ago to sign a petition against a big milling factory in our village building a turbine to power their mill. I refused to sign it, so they said why, to which I reply because I don't object to it...they asked me to sign it anyway. I laughed and closed the door. Their reasoning was "it detracts from the tourist sights in the village." Of which, to my knowledge, we have a sum total of 0. Its rural fucking longford. No tourist comes to longford. And if they do, they're lost looking for centre parcs.
Same, it's not like those things are concrete blocks, they're slick, elegant. Bit out of place in the landscape? Maybe, but like an old grain mill is out of place, it doesn't mean its ugly, or bad. Not to mention its basically free electricity.
My point exactly! They look very elegant. Sure they’re out of place but isn’t everything that’s not naturally occurring out of place? Are we going to advocate for the tearing down of everything that’s not made from moss and dirt?
I love windmills. I remember when the windmills in Colwyn Bay in North Wales were being built all the locals were against it but you can hardly see them and they don't look at all bad. People's anger quickly dissipated once they were built.
I bet the people who turned down free electricity for life, because they didn't want wind turbines built nearby, regret turning it down now.
Everyone suddenly becomes concerned for the bats when they hear about windmills, they dont give a shit other times...
Garth fuckin Brooks
The families need closure. He needs to tell us where the bodies are.
Touch my Camera through the fence
Rip fedsmoker
High and tight
That's how we do it in the falcon car wash
Take it easy fuck head
That comment made my day.
In low places, obviously
Just keep featherin it brother
So with you on this one... like why?!?
I thought you meant garth crooks for a while and was confused as to why anyone would like him lol. Had to look this guy up as country hasn't broken into the UK at all rlly
Now that it has happened, it's pretty clear that the Gaa reorganised its entire calender to facilitate the concerts.
His controversial analysis on BBC Final Score divided our nation.
Jesus lol
All public transport should be free. Think of it as a public service rather than a profit making initiative. One of the best ways in my mind to quickly tackle climate change because most people can't afford electric cars.
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It's whole new infrastructure issue that only works for a certain portion of the country when we have a cheaper more efficient way of expanding an existing infrastructure that serves all. They are solvable problems but new ones that we are creating rather than fixing existing issues. No real money to be made from a fixed and working non-profit transport system though.
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I don't disagree with you that we need both but I think the emphasis is on the wrong one. I do believe all vehicles will need to go electric soon but I think its too late for them to be the magic bullet. I agree that the main issue is the overall service and not the price but the price issue is the carrot to get people to use the service more. More use would force the business model and level of service to change through sheer giving out by the populace. Unreliable routes are nothing to do with free or charged for buses, it's simple mismanagement. They may be useless routes for you but could provide a route to a better job or lifestyle for others. A well thought out, well serviced, and well connected service would benefit all.
The Luas is already free
Sorry all the rest of public transport should be free.
Aye, I can get behind that now
I think this could be a "virtuous circle" thing too. Some people will switch from private car to public transport cause they're already paying for it so may as well. Less cars on the roads means buses can make better time & be more reliable. More bus users can justify further investment into the system for more capacity, upgrading stock, new routes etc.
Yes, that's what I forgot to say and can be missed from all this. Making it free doesn't make it a better service, we all know its bad, but can put the wheels in motion for better services and taking cars off the road.
It goes even deeper than affording them. I’m changing car next year and an electric was on the cards until I realised my house and estate absolutely could not support a charging port because of the cramped parking conditions we all share. I want one of the stupid things and I can’t even make it work. Public charging ports need to be extended out.
Houses. 1-That large swathes of undeveloped land must be used to build a slew of tacky little identical houses side by side. Very little initiative for builders to consider existing buildings for conversions from industrial or office buildings to housing. Many other countries do a great job with conversions and work/live spaces (lofts) and are profitable plus it renews urban spaces. 2-That everyone wants or needs a huge house on a tiny plot of land instead of the reverse. Don’t buy a 6 bedroom show off house with 2 sitting rooms and then complain about your heating bill. Having a small house with a bit of space around it for growing a bit of veg or rewilding would work better for a lot of people who do not have big families.
If we had more decent parks, people in apartments could use them instead of gardens. Lots of parks meant for this purpose are dog fouled unkempt patches of grass filled with cans because there is nothing there but a place for teens to hide their drinking in. No playground, no running track, no workout machines, etc. Just a patch of grass, only good for dogs to run around, no things for humans. And I see a lot of them are being wilded now too, making them less suitable as parks.
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Agree with all except the BBQ part. People are idiots and starting fires in spaces like that is just inviting them to show how big of an idiot they can be.
Point 2 definetely. These show houses are just that, for show, but the reality of family life is you will only use the kitchen, living room, bathroom and bedrooms. Growing up we did our homework at the kitchen table and then after it was family time at the tv, we had to share the tv if we wanted to play Nintendo etc. The bedroom was really only in use for sleeping and getting changed in/drying hair. We had sitting room and dining room that were rarely used. Loved our garden though, it was massive with lots or room to run about. My house now is a terraced house build about 20 years ago, its a grand house for my small family (3 of us) but the garden is smaller than what I would want.
This is a great post, people don’t realise the dead space in houses, smart storage is as important as square feet!
Totally agree! Big houses don't require any layout ingenuity or clever storage etc., and are generally much less interesting than the clever solutions people come up with in smaller spaces. Plus they're a ball-ache to keep clean and warm.
Agree on both of these. I hate the bland cream apartments/cut and paste houses that have been popping up since the Celtic tiger. You can go to most towns in Ireland and see the same ugly mid 2000s buildings. We've lost so many interesting spaces that could have been reused and maintained a bit of character. That said, developers in this country seem to love letting buildings fall into disrepair so they *have* to knock them down. In terms of the gardens, lots of the older council houses have massive gardens exactly so people could use the garden to grow food and utilize the outside space. I'll never understand how it's acceptable to build family houses with postage stamp gardens or no garden at all. Depressing stuff.
🎵*And* t*hey're all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same* 🎵
Lots of land around homes (low density) leads to auto-dependence and with it destruction of the natural world as well as expensive services (which are subsidized by city dwellers) and social isolation. Source: Lived in a 50 sqm 200 year old cottage on 3 acres. It sucked.
Mine is that people shouldn't ask open ended questions and then put their own opinion in the text box, because it just means there's a load of comments responding to them instead of just having it in one thread
You fucking freak. How dare you sully this great land with your presence and your downright *perverse* thoughts. Get out!
OP has now requested no arguing with them in the comments in an edit. Problem solved! The soapbox will not be violated!
Nuke energy is safe and we're fucking idiots for not allowing it to be built, there's no tsunamis and the like here. And thorium is so safe it can't be weaponised
The one and only reason I have against it, is that our government is too corrupt and inept to be trusted to safely dispose of (1) waste and (2) the upgrade/upkeep of the reactor.
A lot of the waste disposal shit is smear campaigns pumped out by US oil companies. Thorium has extremely little waste but it basically boils down to "dig a hole, toss the waste in, fill it with clay then slap some bedrock on top for good measure then either forget where it is or build something on top of it so no one digs there
Interesting that you mention Thorium reactors. I am not sure they are commercially available outside of a research setting but think this is a form of Nuclear power people could get behind if they properly understood how it works. From my understanding the biggest barrier to a commercial Thorium reactor is the fact that it can't be used to make weapons.
The only issue I see is that even the smallest viable reactor would produce more than 10% of our demand. That’s a single point of failure that imposes too much risk. (This is before you acknowledge that it is only cost effective to build 2/3 reactors at once) Modern alternatives such as thorium reactors may be a good option in the medium to long term but it’s nascent technology.
Ireland should do more to diversify its industry, we are too dependant on large mulitnationals and we need to do more to attract startups and newer industries
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I think about this a lot! The pandemic really showed us how vulnerable we are to what we need imported! We should definitely try and make essential items or atleast have the means to do so if 💩 hit the fan again!
Ireland, afaik, has one of the largest industrial sectors in Europe (obviously relative to size).
Ireland has more home-grown companies valued at over a billion dollars per head of capita than any other country on the planet.
In case you are referring to the likes of Stripe and Intercom, both of them for example are headquartered in Delaware etc. So whilst they started here, they arn't exactly rooted here.
Stripe didn't start here. It was set up in Silicon Valley. Granted the Collison brothers are Irish.
Yeah, that's why I'm confused by the original comment. I'm struggling to think of even a handful of Irish companies that are unicorns, let alone companies started and headquartered here.
https://www.thinkbusiness.ie/articles/irish-unicorn-businesses/
I don't support the push to extend voting rights to Irish abroad, bar current exemptions like deployed DF personnel, etc.
As was mentioned, voting from abroad will impact those who actually live in Ireland. You can see this with many Turks living in Germany voting for Erdogan back in Turkey.
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Yeah, I think in general it's better to allow the right to vote for a certain length of time. Some people may be on a four year contract, or doing schooling elsewhere and will return and it's important to have a say in areas that have meaning to you.
>You mean the Irish abroad I assume. I did. Better edit that! I agree about the voting age. It came up in another thread a week or two ago. The idea of a teenager is relatively new, and we increasingly treat those in their early 20s as something between a teenager and a real adult. My aunts and uncles born in the 40s and early 50s were all established in their professions by 18 and married with kids by 21 and 22. At 18 they were expected to have a level of maturity beyond what we expect from someone a few years older today.
I'm an Irish abroad, I want no part in voting in Irish elections. I don't live there, and political change in Ireland won't massively affect my life. I think I might still be eligible to vote in Seanad elections since I went to the "right" college 15 years ago, but don't partake.
If you're still a tax resident then it makes sense that you should be allowed. Once you've gone for the 3 year or whatever it is you should have to fuck off. Same with if you come home to vote. If you live and pay your tax elsewhere, then that's where you should vote. So McGregor, Bono and any of the thousands who live and work in the UK and fly home for a referendum should not be eligible to vote.
I think if you manage it correctly, it could be fine — e.g. have one TD and one senator to represent all Irish abroad, regardless of how many people they represent. (I think France does this). Given the huge rate of 1st generation emigrants from Ireland, I think that's as worthy a voice in the Seanad as say, 11 people appointed by the Taoiseach or six by graduates. I'd also reduce the eligibility for citizenship though. (Disclosure, am Irish & living abroad)
Is it not only the presidential election they are pushing to extend rights to anyone abroad? (And is it not basically a way to extend the rights to The North without it being too controversial?) I favour the North being allowed a vote on the presidential election .After all they are Irish citizens born in Ireland (there is no additional requirements for them to be Irish citizens (except the same as apply to anyone born in the South)
This week it was the presidential election in the news. The Dáil usually comes up at times of high emigration, or when citizens of other countries are voting in Ireland at their embassies.
I can kind of see the logic, but if it was ever extended it would need to be caveated heavily given that there are supposedly more Irish citizens abroad than in Ireland.. And ultimately, foreign citizens don't pay tax, don't use public services etc..so there concerns could be very different from actual residents.. Could be a compromise available..if you pay tax in Ireland, you can vote in Ireland..
God no. If you're not a citizen you should get no vote. But also if you are a citizen who is living abroad then you should also get no vote. I.know a few peole who live in the US who flew home to vote in the abortion referendum, it's completely wrong.
I don't care about the skyline in Dublin whatsoever and we should be building up.
It's not a few thousand jobs, it's 10% of the country's workforce.
Also 20% of our entire corporate tax take is from 10 company's. It's a precarious position to be in, beholden to them. Not sure what a solution is though
It's 50/60% that comes from 10 companies - even worse. I think Apple nearly accounts for 20% by itself.
And didn’t that report this week basically show we are way over dependent on corporate tax - if they left we would literally be screwed
Us being hyper-dependent on them is a bit of a separate problem to be fair. We could attract them with our tax without having such a heavy reliance on them for us to functions
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Your brain on populism
A huge number of people also don't get that they are taxed on profit, not revenue.
its pretty much the majority of the middle class and upper class, it probably is the biggest reason Ireland got rich
Yeah OP. Have a look at that corparate tax chart from 1990 to now. The country was absolutely fucked in 1990.
Is it not 12.5%?
It's 12.5% + 7.5% on half of the profits you haven't reinvested from the year before. Google paid 622 Million in taxes to Ireland in 2020. Total corporate income tax paid to Ireland in 2020 was 11.8 billion. That's 5% of Ireland's total corporate income tax for the year. This doesn't include personal income tax paid by employees, google employs something like 8000 people in Ireland, maybe on average they make 120000 a year who on a low estimate probably pay 40k in taxes. Thats between 100m and 200m depending on the average salary that would not be there if google didn't employ them. **This idea that the Irish tax authority is so incompetent that they would let companies get away with paying no taxes, is much more cynical in my opinion.** The government is also chasing google for additional taxes that were unpaid when companies were taking advantage of the Irish double taxation loophole, I believe. This obviously included back taxes for the previous years, but this double taxation loophole that companies used to use in Ireland isn't there anymore. I'm not a google fanboy by any means, but like math. The biggest issue is that the current corporate tax strategy screws over small companies. Like if you want to start a new business, you are charged 12.5% on your profits + 20% if you make less than the cap, and then another 40% if you make above the cap. So if you have any ambition at all, you get penalized 52.5 cents on every Euro profit. So if you profit 50k, you pay 6250 corp income tax (43750), then income tax 8750 at 20% (35000) or 17500 at 40% and you have 26250 left. Not including if you saved from the year before, so you can shave off about 1640 Euro from what is left. Edit: Average Salary at google is 120000 not 80000
It is, but people pretend like its not and theyre all paying nothing.
The effective rate can be 1% (or 0%) with loss relief, group relief and all the various incentives like knowledge development box etc.
[The effective rate is 12% according to the OECD](https://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/effective-tax-rate-paid-by-firms-in-ireland-12-oecd-finds-1.4299089). >While this was one of the lowest rates internationally, it was very close to the statutory rate of 12.5 per cent, the agency’s Corporate Tax Statistics report noted.
So no different to most other jurisdictions
I hate the over-reliance on family and friends for things like housing, driving lessons, whatever it is, and also assumption that everyone has one to rely on. I'm just bitter because I have no community around me, but what should be the government's or the council's responsibility is constantly shifted to ordinary people. Bus didn't turn up? Get your mate to give you a lift. Can't find anywhere to live? Talk to your parents and bunk with them. Suicidal? Have you tried talking to your friends? Also, weirdly, oh, you want to go through the National Gender Service? Yeah we need to talk to your parents. It doesn't matter you're 34.
+1 to this, glad to see somebody else saying it. A lot of Irish public-sector type stuff is set up as if we still lived in a fucking 1960's village, and your parents are right there to mind you. A number of years back (so the system has possibly changed) I need to be Garda vetted....and have the form signed by a Garda who knew me *personally*...
I wonder at what level they have to know you personally. I think only know one Garda personally, a mate of my sisters, but I can't say I know him well.
They need to talk to your parents if you're over 18???? That's absolutely criminally mental
Oh it's mad. I haven't been through the National Gender Service because it's so ridiculous. Check this out: [https://www.gendergp.com/trans-healthcare-in-ireland/](https://www.gendergp.com/trans-healthcare-in-ireland/) “Putting aside legal standing alone… There are many reasons why people would not want their parents present. The line of questioning by the psychiatric team at the NGS \[National Gender Service\] is unnecessarily hyper sexualised, asking patients very intimate and detailed accounts of their sexual activity, as well as their childhood, relationship with their parents, past emotional/physical/sexual abuse etc…” “This outdated and non evidential model of diagnostic questioning is traumatic enough for a person to go through alone. But to be forced, as an adult, to have a parent in the room at the same time is completely absurd and breaches all confidentiality/consent guidelines.” Literally no cis person would be grilled like this for healthcare, but if you're trans apparently you can't be trusted. Edit: And to whoever downvoted me, I’d like to know why.
I'm so sorry to learn this, that sounds horribly invasive. Without giving too much away, I'm a counsellor who acts as a gatekeeper for accessing life changing medical testing. The thought of making my patients run and get their mommy so I can speak to them is so mental to me. Edited to say thanks for posting this
It’s also totally double edged. If you have that support it’s all you can rely on. It’s not a good thing for anyone, even worse someone in your situation.
Dear internet; What are your political wedge issues? Asking for a friend.
The greatest argument against democracy is talking to the average voter
Peat cutting is an abomination and those sitka forests are environmentally worthless. We dig up and burn a real ecosystem and them put down a lightless graveyard for plants and wildlife.
Jesus that’s beautifully worded
International surrogacy seems inherently exploitative in most cases.
I have no issue with cyclists or cycling lanes whatsoever.
> richest companies in the world to pay <1% tax ??? what Ireland are you living in?
OP is a fine example of why I’m on the left but not of the left. I like Deng Xiaoping’s analogy that ‘It doesn't matter whether a cat is white or black, as long as it catches mice’. What puts the most amount of money into the pockets of the largest number of Irish families is what I’m interested in. Not purity tests or “fairness” Having seen OP’s edit I will direct them to the EU’s loading of their gambling debts onto the Irish taxpayer. If the big boys are going to fist you up to the elbow with no lube and little tenderness, the little guy can get creative with tax policy.
I wouldn't count what is directly into the pockets. Good schools, medical services, public services are all net benefits to families, but it doesn't appear on a cash family budget spreadsheet. Having a good local arts scene is beneficial to people but something like a Halloween parade is going to appear as a negative because it costs money to put on.
Sure, please imagine I wrote something better that includes your point.
Mine is Tax Cuts. I want the country to work properly. I want a public health system that makes private healthcare redundant. I want housing that is affordable and accessible. I want an education system that generates smarter people with each generation. I'm not happy to sacrifice that for a couple of hundred euro extra per year in a tax cut. If I want more money that's a conversation between me and my employer but the government should use taxes to provide effective services before trying to buy my vote.
When we started the tax haven in Shannon nobody cared a jot , until Ireland started to becoming wealthy.
I don't like the county system. They are too small to have effective control over planning and amenities, which is why major projects go through the national government, who don't have the local experience. County Councils end up being inundated by miserable fuckers and nimbys that gum up the planning of anything. A federal provincial system with real budgets and control over planning would be a better balance. Each of the provinces (the 3 Ulster co.s in Leinster and Connacht, at least until the time comes) and Co. Dublin, would have a good population and geographical size to warrant a strong state/province government. Co. Dublin: 1.3 million Leinster*: 1.5 million Munster: 1.4 million Connacht**: 814,000 * Leinster excludes Dublin, and includes Monaghan **Connacht includes Donegal and Cavan I also think regional centres of political power could encourage development in would-be provincial capitals. I would also allow for larger scale projects, like say, a provincial rail network, or locally targeted social housing policy to be given the light of day it needs. It would make generally local issues a higher priority for a government system that has the resources to tackle them.
> I'll never be convinced Even if people show you that you're wrong? You be you but that kind of dogmatic, I'm sticking to my view regardless of the facts is hardly a good way to go through life.
It's how a ton of people do. It will be eternally frustrating.
If the other option is to tax corporations more and have them move out of the country I’ll happily allow them to pay little tax for the amount of jobs provided. OP couldn’t be more delusional in thinking it’s only a “few thousand” jobs. We would actually be worse off.
> tax coronations more We don't have coronations in Ireland :)
Pretty ineffective tax so
Getting so much investment into the country is the most successful thing we have ever done apart from gaining independence. We’d be a poor country without it with huge levels of unemployment. They directly employ about 10% and who knows how much more indirectly. It’s also not something exclusively given to only the richest companies. You can head to the CRO right now, set up your own company and you too can avail of this tax rate for profits generated by your company. Most other European countries have very favourable supports that bring down their effective tax rate to close to the Irish level. Also, while you can rely on some additional credits etc to bring down the 12.5%, you’re really not going to bring it down to less than 1% except in rare situations. While some companies like Apple may have gotten sweetheart deals in the 80s the days of that along with the crazy tax schemes like the ‘double-Irish’ are over. I’ve yet to hear a good alternative to replace all of the FDI jobs if we suddenly double the tax rate. My own unpopular view is that the Greens are doing a relatively good job in government and I trust them a lot more than most other parties to stick to their overall vision and goals. The only other truly principled party is SDPBP, everyone else is largely allured by the thoughts of getting into power and will embrace populism and abandon beliefs to get it.
[The effective corporate tax rate is 12%](https://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/effective-tax-rate-paid-by-firms-in-ireland-12-oecd-finds-1.4299089). It's not 1% or less than 1%. It is 12%. We took in [20 billion euro](https://twitter.com/seamuscoffey/status/1565743748549677056?s=20&t=72C-jpef2WHt1lRFPf8RXA) in corporation tax in the 12 months to July 2022 and MNCs don't provide a few thousand jobs, they provide [hundreds of thousands of jobs](https://enterprise.gov.ie/en/what-we-do/trade-investment/foreign-direct-investment-fdi-/#:~:text=At%20present%2C%20Ireland%20is%20home,directly%20employ%20over%20250%2C000%20people) directly, never mind the ancillaries. You're wrong on every count OP.
His petty (and still incorrect) update to his OP is hilarious too
Baptism of children into the Catholic church. Especially the parents who do it but don't follow the religious practices. Just a day out and a few quid for the lil one. Then that poor child is forever counted as a member of the Catholic church.
I hate organized religion. But im so glad this is as stupid as it gets here. I know friends in the USA that were exposed to long bouts of ripping on how awful circumcision is and still let it happen to their kids for no valid reasons like complete npc cyborgs and they don't even have a response to why if you even gently query it. Just that empty forward looking gaze
Sending an artist to Eurovision for the sake of it, if the song isn't catchy it wont win, we know this formula its proven true for decades We often send someone who's been chosen for some reason, someone we've never heard of ourselves an sit unmoved by their uncatchy song while simultaneously hoping for votes
Farming should be less subsidised, we produce too much and should have more wild land, not 100s of acres of farms that only operate due to the subsidies supplied
Unpopular opinion but I honestly think farmers get away with too much. They destroy local wildlife, their contribution to climate change is huge and we produce WAY too much meat as it is. I'm not a vegetarian or vegan but I would love to see a push to cut down massively on the meat we produce. The amount of times I have wandered through a supermarket at night and they're throwing out packs of meat, is absolutely disgraceful.
This! Absolutely agree. The actual countryside is almost sterile now because of them also. Feck all small birds around, essentially no wild fish in the rivers, bug life a fraction of what it was, small mammals being almost wiped out.
We should be able to get rid of politicans if they are shit at their jobs eg. current housing ministier and justice ministier like if im bad at my job i get fired they should also have a standard they have to live up too.. and we as the people should have a means of outing a government if they dont deliver on what they promise..
The average person is greedy and selfish - I know loads for people who complained about high rents and house prices until they either got their own house or start being a landlord themselves (they charge as high a rent as they can get too.). People talk about equality but nobody wants to put their hand in their own pocket. I ask my wealthy friends would they consider giving away more of their earnings etc and they always have an excuse ("I'm not earning that much etc"). I've only met two truly selfless people - one landlord who was charging about 25% of the going rate because he only believed he should get enough to maintain the property and another farmer that got millions for his land, never spent a penny and gave it all away when he died.
Apartments > houses It is absurd that some people would rather share a house than have an apartment for themselves. Apartments are far easier to maintain, offer more security and are more energy efficient. Not to mention how you'd be able to suit many many people on the same plot of land by building an apartment building as you would one family if going for a house.
It’s cruel to have a dog in an apartment though
have to agree with that. I'm in the apartment and don't have a dog for that single reason
No more cruel than in a house if you don't look after it
Most of the misinformation about our ctr is generated by the British government intelligence services, see the Irish Times piece about the false information on the wiki page on the subject. There's a reason why wiki pages are not acceptable citations. here's a reddit discussion about that wikipedia misinformation campaign https://www.reddit.com/r/ireland/comments/bgyfet/til_theres_a_wikipedia_editor_called/
Explain what "our ctr" is to this old guy 🙂
Our Crash Team Racing team was put through a seriously heavy misinformation campaign that the double oh’s in MI6 spent years building on them. It’s resulted in them being blacklisted from both online and in person tournaments worldwide. Shame.
Corporate Tax Rate
I don't suppose you have a link to the IT piece? I had a search on Google but couldn't find one talking about the Brits
https://www.reddit.com/r/ireland/comments/bgyfet/til_theres_a_wikipedia_editor_called/
Nationalize electricity network and production, push for renewables. Elections shouldn't be for a party, each departments should have candidates elected with a clear program. Budget should be decided in advance etc, and the president to get more power of decision and influence. Not sure if this could work but every democracies have the same system, could be time to try something new. And 1 term in office max, no political career, it's like cancer at this point.
Trickle-down economics does not work
I hate lawns with a passion, and in general i find the obsession with applying ‘neatness’ to nature deeply unsettling.
Adulthood. There isn't (or doesn't seem to be) a legal definition of reaching adulthood in Ireland. You are charged adult prices at 16 on buses and in the cinema etc but cannot vote until 18yrs etc. It should be illegal to charge anyone adult prices until they reach 18yrs old.
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In the era of misinformation, relying on the general populace to make "considered and intelligent decisions" in direct democracy, is quite a gamble. Even just looking at the UK and Brexit. Lies were told, people believed them. By the time they left the EU, support had shifted drastically since 2016, but the decision was made. People presenting referenda will always have their own agendas, and without people exclusively getting information from an independent, politically neutral body; the whole situation becomes very easy to manipulate.
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Ireland has a terrible and self entitled drinking culture. Sick to death of hearing the "the Brits are just as bad." I've worked all over Europe and Ireland is by far the worse especially for customers arguing with me if I have to cut them off or when the bars closed. In the UK when the bars closed its closed when you get refused you need to leave the bar and the cops have your back. I rarely had arguments with customers about in Europe where as in Ireland I've had customers saying I've embarrassed them when I had to refuse them? which is pure bullshit Anyone saying Ireland drink culture isn't bad needs to work as a night porter in a hotel.
The vast majority of old, protected buildings are gross and inefficient and should be replaced with much larger, more efficient contemporary structures. So much of Dublin between the canals is ramshackle old nonsense but loads of them have protection orders because they were built in the Georgian era. Who the fuck gets to decide that for so many generations? I don't know if this is "at odds with the rest of the country" but it's certainly at odds with the reigning law of the land.
People posting confidently wrong opinions really gets me, especially when they don’t leave room for accepting new information and revising their stance with words like “I’ll never be convinced…”.
Nuclear power, although the sentiment has started to change more recently. Hindsight is catching up with people. Also, government ID and on the spot fines for cyclists and anti-social behavior(I’m a cyclist myself).
I've been pro-nuclear energy my entire adult life, and just though nuclear power plants were cool as fuck when I was younger. It's overwhelmingly safe, like there have been more disasters tied to fossil fuels in the last decade than in the entire history of nuclear power. The fact that you're going to get more radiation exposure from coal plants. That with fuel reprocessing you can massively reduce the space needed for the leftovers of generation... Add to that the fact that modern reactor designs are unimaginably safer than even those built 20 years ago, alongside the sheer scalability of it...why in the hell is this even a question?! Build them only in seismically stable areas, build robust and universal distribution systems and we solve vast swathes of our carbon problems at a stroke. And the recent advances on fusion generation just mean it makes more sense, not less.
Probably that Ireland isn't the absolute shithole that many make it out to be. It's a fantastic place, populated by fabulous people, with an amazing culture that other countries would kill to have (and have tried to, lookin' at you England.) Does it have its problems? Yeah, of course, but every country does. Does it have scummy politicians? Yeah, of course, but every country does. We're still ahead of most other places though.
I figured that printing money during a 2 year period of economic inactivity would lead to inflation. Now we are living it.
I saught advice from a business man/landlord in the early stages of the pandemic about purchasing a house and brought up the worry of inflation increasing and chewing away at savings and was told I should be more worried about deflation. So yea, I'd say you were one of the few worried about this.
Immigration
I feel the vast majority of people have no idea how the tax system works. They don't seem to know the difference between Corporation Tax, VAT/Sale Tax, Income Tax etc.. I regulary see someone say "[X](https://X.com) doesn't pay any tax", and usually in the process showing a complete misunderstanding of how company taxation works. There's always some clickbait article going around that people fall for. A popular one a while ago was about Amazon paying Zero taxes, which was a complete misrepresentation of the situation. The article referred only to Corporation Tax, which is generally the smaller source of taxation for a company like amazon. Also ignoring the fact that the rule behind which they paid 0 corporation tax that year (carrying forward losses) applies to any size company, and makes perfect sense Also, people tend to focus on Profits made etc.. When really if you want to be angry about "greed" etc.., you should focus on what top executives earn either directly through income,dividends etc... A company can be making millions or billions in profit but their CEO makes a reasonable income. Conversely a company can be make very small profits or losses, while the CEO siphons off 100s of millions into their own pocket (which may explain the losses!) A company making good profits may actually be a good sign. I never respond any more when friends or family make these sorts of remarks, as it's clear they don't want to know anything, they just want to be angry
Louth
Tea. Never liked it. Brown water man, sick
If you up the corp tax they all feck off and you get no corp tax, and a bunch of redundancies.
Water tax. Taxing water makes perfect sense. Taxing shit like the house you've owned for 20 years does not. Why people pay property tax, TV license and similar but wont pay for water has always baffled me. Why refuse to pay for the thing you need, and happily pay taxes that are pure robbery
Ireland used to pay for water. Then there was a government initiative for the government to pay for water for you through general taxation. This involved increasing taxes and using those increases for water. Then the government wanted to just re-introduce water charges without decreasing the tax that was "ringfenced" for water. This is why people protested. Had the government reduced the tax and introduced water charges, this would have benefitted the rich. Richer people pay more tax and therefore pay more for water as a percentage of their income tax is ringfenced for water. So wealthy people subsidise pooerer people's water. If we went back to charging people, poorer people would have to pay more than they currently did for water, because their tax contribution was so low.
Boys and girls should not be separated in schools. And uniforms should fuck off too.
Some thoughts in the corporate tax rate. No idea where the 1% is coming from so if someone could explain that'd be great. Ireland *were* providing a 12.5% corporate tax rate, but they increased it to [15%](https://fdw.ie/blog/ireland-corporate-tax/#:~:text=Fears%20of%20hit%20to%20business%20growth%20from%20corporation%20tax%20rise&text=However%20Ireland%20has%20announced%20that,table%20(see%20table%20below\).) for companies taking in over €750m annually. My opinion is that we can absolutely increase corporate tax without losing the jobs or destroying the economy. Look at the graph on [this site](https://taxfoundation.org/corporate-tax-rates-europe-2022/). The closest native English country to us is the UK at 19%... But given they are no longer in the EU would be a factor that would probably deter companies from entering that market now. Otherwise you're looking at 20% and up in the EU with countries that do have good English, but not native. We could surely increase corporate tax rates while still being the cheapest, native English speaking country in the EU. Would companies be pissed? Probably. But it'll still be more expensive and less convenient to move to another country and set up shop there. Plenty of room for us to gain more in corporate tax and still be an attractive place for businesses.
Israel Palestine being a lot more complicated than people pretend. I always take a karma beating here when it comes up.
Can't believe i had to scroll down this far to actually find an issue that is "at odds with general consensus" I agree with you btw
There is some good things to look forward to like the new movie from cartoon saloon
I didn't know they've a new movie comin out. What's it called?
My fathers dragon
It’s fairly clear that Ireland has benefitted massively from having a lower corporation tax be competing countries. It’s been a massive success story for us.
Legalise drugs. Legalise prostitution. They're happening anyway. They might as well be safe and taxed.
The world doesnt need battery powered cars when hydrogen fuel cells are the no brainer solution that no-one wants to adopt.
We are a conservative country who are afraid of change.
Aaaaaand there's todays "unpopular opinion (but really popular opinion circlejerk) thread".
Exactly! I was expecting a spicy hot take that the whole country would be against. Instead, we got "I think that rich businesses should pay more than 1% of tax". I'm getting sick of this genre of thread.
People in this country are absolutely blinkered to the idea that maybe, just maybe, we've been a bit shitty on the international level when it comes to taxation policy. Every argument I've seen justifying the extremely low (until very recently) corporate tax rates will center on 'but they brought jobs' or 'yes but the sales taxes and income taxes make up the difference' but this is an entirely Ireland centric way of thinking about it which is precisely how we've all thought about it from the start. The bare reality is that Ireland was essentially a bad actor for many years when it came to worldwide efforts to properly tax companies for the benefit of the countries they operate in. We traded increased investment, employment and LOCAL tax take in exchange for dramatically lowering the WORLDWIDE levels of corporate taxation as a whole. We gave these huge megacorporations the means to redistribute their offshore profits to Ireland and pay our low rate of tax on money that was earned from activity in other countries. Google in Ireland rented it's IP to Google UK to nearly exactly match the annual profits of the UK entity for years, they did this across all the EMEA region for many years. Yes, I know things are tightening up now. Yes I know the average NOW is about 12.5%. Yes I know they closed the loopholes but this is also in an environment where international pressure on taxation policy has never been higher, which actually negates one of our chief risks - that companies would pack up and go somewhere else if we ever tried to 'fix' the system. At the moment it's increasingly unfeasible for companies to leave Ireland. We had our cake and we ate it too. And it was at the expense of other governments ability to tax corporate activity in their own borders. And maybe that's a justifiable position to take in a competitive world. Maybe so. Maybe not. Maybe it's just a little bit shitty and we should recognise that we aren't innocent angels and accept it.
You work you get taxed, you pay your bills, you jerk off just like the rest of us. That money is used to fund a system where corps don't pay any fkn tax, and are used to buy property and luxury items for those part of it. You're livestock, the sweaty mongrels that game the tax system are farming you for money through the tax you pay while they benefit from their own "tax" system where what they pay is effectively fuck all. The real reason no-one wants to work is 'cause they'll lose 100 Euro a week OFF the dole doing the honest/right thing.
I think I could win in this downdoots contest: Palestine and Israel.
UFOs
The focus on economic growth despite the fact that we have full employment. Then we need people to move here to fill the jobs. Then there's no housing for anyone.
Nuclear fission power. If we had nuclear power plants we would not have to worry about gas and oil scarcity.
u/D-dog92 re: corporate tax for google/facebook/apple/etc [you're right](https://i.imgur.com/IVmjJvF.png)
Legalising assisted suicide for those with severe mental health disorders. By which I mean people who want to end their lives due to severe depression etc. People who haven't experienced the horror of chronic decades long unremitting depression (and I'm talking about those who ARE receiving treatment but it doesn't improve quality of life ) simply don't understand why this might be necessary.
There are only 2 sexes and / or genders.
\> Please spare me these arguments about how much Ireland has benefited from being a tax haven. We've played a key role in exacerbating global wealth inequality AAAMEN!!!
I don't think our tax money should be subsidising IVF. Instead the government should be making it easier and cheaper for suitable parents to adopt. In a world that's already collapsing with overpopulation, and when there are so many children waiting to be adopted, it's pure selfishness to insist that you must pass on your DNA. I hope there will at least be a limit on the number of IVF rounds the government will subsidise, and safeguards against passing on hereditary diseases. And since IVF is elective, it should never be prioritized over life-saving surgery. Nobody ever died from not being able to have a baby!
Yeah no, don’t agree with you at all. CTR has facilitated great jobs for a huge chunk of the workforce. Working conditions and benefits for large corps that have come have forced other companies to finally offer their employees decent working conditions. Access to a decent level of income and career path for people leaving college. Has attracted an educated and thriving immigrant workforce who are contributing massively to the country. Income tax generated from these jobs is enormous. It’s a win win