Upcoming Events

National | Economics and Finance

no events match your query!

Blog Feeds

Public Inquiry
Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005

offsite link RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail?supporter? Anthony

offsite link Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony

offsite link Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony

offsite link RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony

offsite link Waiting for SIPO Anthony

Public Inquiry >>

Human Rights in Ireland
Promoting Human Rights in Ireland

Human Rights in Ireland >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link News Round-Up Sun Jun 08, 2025 00:38 | Will Jones
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link The Mass Psychosis of Black Lives Matter Sat Jun 07, 2025 15:00 | Will Jones
What was the most demented moment of the BLM summer of 2020? For Dan Hannan it was when 1,200?public health?officials declared that, although meeting other people was a health risk, demonstrating for BLM was fine.
The post The Mass Psychosis of Black Lives Matter appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Exposed: The Left-Wing Plot to Torpedo Germany?s Strict New Border Policy Sat Jun 07, 2025 13:00 | Eugyppius
The German Government's strict new border policy has suffered its first setback after a judge with a Marxist background backed a plot by pro-asylum activists and declared the basis of the new policy to be invalid.
The post Exposed: The Left-Wing Plot to Torpedo Germany’s Strict New Border Policy appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link NHS Chiefs Forced to Rip Up Trans Guidance Sat Jun 07, 2025 11:00 | Will Jones
NHS chiefs have been forced to rip up their?pro-trans guidance?after it was rendered illegal by the Supreme Court ruling, as Health Secretary Wes Streeting says he wants new guidance in place by the summer.
The post NHS Chiefs Forced to Rip Up Trans Guidance appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Unmasking the Greenhalgh Mask Study Sat Jun 07, 2025 09:00 | Dr Roger Watson
When the Cochrane review found no evidence face masks were effective, mask zealots couldn't let it stand. They produced their own 'scientific' review. But it's little more than cherry-picking, says Prof Roger Watson.
The post Unmasking the Greenhalgh Mask Study appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Will intergovernmental institutions withstand the end of the "American Empire"?,... Sat Apr 05, 2025 07:15 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?127 Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:38 | en

offsite link Disintegration of Western democracy begins in France Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:00 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?126 Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:39 | en

offsite link The International Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism by Amichai Chikli and Na... Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:31 | en

Voltaire Network >>

Proceeds of AIB shares should be for public investment – TASC economist

category national | economics and finance | press release author Friday June 02, 2017 18:34author by 1 of indy - Think-tank for Action on Social Change Report this post to the editors

Press Release - TASC - 30th May 2017

reland must assert its sovereignty and invest the proceeds of the AIB shares in public infrastructure, according to leading economist, Paul Sweeney of TASC.

The main reason for investing this capital in Ireland, Mr Sweeney said, is that it generates bigger returns than the savings on the interest on the national debt. Furthermore, the extraordinarily low level of public investment is manifested in the housing crisis and hospital overcrowding.

The government has already received €6.2 billion from AIB from capital reorganisation, all of which has been used to repay the national debt. “It is now time that the next tranche of capital from AIB is used to invest in capital infrastructure,” said Mr Sweeney.

TASC first made the recommendation that the capital from the first share offer should be invested rather than used to repay the debt in a major investment report, “A Time for Ambition”, published in December 2015. (See https://www.tasc.ie/publications/a-time-for-ambition-en...h-in/ )

The report pointed out that in recent years public investment in Ireland fell to the lowest level since records began. The level of investment was so low one year that it did not even cover depreciation.

“This is very bad economics,” stated Mr Sweeney. “Most economists and international agencies like the IMF agree that public investment in infrastructure can repay substantially more in real returns to governments than the cost of interest. That is one reason for more public investment, with others being that we will have the use of assets and that it will increase employment, particularly in construction. Also such low public investment is damaging future economic development.”

Last month the government borrowed €500 million, the interest was minus 0.42% and this was almost three times oversubscribed. The average interest rate on all the debt was 2.3% last year – and it is lower today.

Mr Sweeney also was critical of the “bogeyman” who asserted that that the EU is stopping the government from using some of the AIB proceeds to invest in Ireland.

“It suits the suits who want to repay debt to say this. Ideological though the Commission is, it cannot really stop a sovereign government from investing its own capital in its own country. Furthermore, the EU has clarified the rules ( http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELE...R1185 ) on the Stability and Growth Pact in which indicates a more relaxed approach especially for an economy which is performing well like Ireland.

“In the longer term, the government should also retain a decisive shareholding in AIB, one of Ireland’s leading retail banks. Banks are too important to be left to bankers to run or ruin,” Mr Sweeney concluded.

Related Link: https://www.tasc.ie/news/2017/05/30/proceeds-of-aib-shares-should-be-for-public-invest/
© 2001-2025 Independent Media Centre Ireland. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by Independent Media Centre Ireland. Disclaimer | Privacy