Global financial crisis

Bank bailouts

Individualisation of the profit, socialisation of the risk

The financial crisis turns into a public debt crisis

The great denial begins; deflection of blame

Resulting in….

Austerity programmes, privatization, attacks on wages and the most vulnerable

The consensus figure for the cost of the Irish bank crisis is around €57 billion

“The failure of policy makers to impose losses on some bank creditors at the height of Ireland’s financial crisis was a mistake”

IMF January 2015

It has been locked into storage for 40 years…….………the last €5 billion of which is due repayment in:

……..2053

The average monthly rental rate in Dublin is €1,210

….while the average wage for a retail worker is €2,250

This is 53% of income

130,000 households are on the social housing waiting

Less than 8,500 houses built in Ireland last year

“Economics are the method; the object is to change the heart and soul”

“……We look for ethical business models….”

Privatised children’s services

“Caring for these children is highly profitable…”

…with each child worth at least £2,500 and up to £5,500 a week for the multiply disabled, abused and damaged.

“The naughtier children pay more…”

“The best small country in which to do business”

Ownership and control of oil or gas is transferred in full to the company

No royalties are paid to the State

The company can choose to export the oil or gas

They do not have to land the resources in Ireland or use Irish services or personnel

If the companies decide to sell in Ireland, the full current international price will be recovered from the consumer

The only guaranteed benefit to Ireland is a 25% corporation tax on the profits declared.

Before declaring profits, the company can write off 100% of costs against this tax, including the cost of previous, unsuccessful wells drilled anywhere in Irish waters

…….and costs incurred in other countries.

In 2002, Fianna Fáil sold Ireland’s only oil refinery at Whitegate, Cork along with Whiddy oil terminal in Bantry Bay to multi-national ConocoPhillips for €77 million.

Five years later the company sold on the refinery for €380 million.

“The current fiscal system yields among the lowest government take’s in the world” (Indecon, 2007, p.15).

Approximate share of sale from Corrib gas:

7%

The ESB provided safe and secure electricity generation and a supply to every corner and parish in the Republic.

One newspaper described it as “the first fruits of bolshevism in this country.”

Bord Soláthair an Leictreachais

Electricity prices were the lowest in the 15 member-states of the European Union

Deregulation leads to creation of a market to promote competition

The ESB’s prices were set at 14% higher to encourage competition……..it lost 800,000 customers in 18 months and now supplies only 40% of the nations electricity.

Electricity prices, the lowest in the EU-15 in 2002, were the highest in the expanded EU-25 by 2010.

Michael Shiel’s book The Quiet Revolution: The Electrication of Rural Ireland, 1946–1976 fi (1984),

the Commission believes that the privatisation of public utilities, including water supply firms, can deliver benefits to the society when carefully made.

EU Commission 15th May 2012

1982 to get on the list it required personal wealth of $91million & included 13 billionaires.

By 1998, $500 million was required and the list included 189 billionaires.

The Walton family, (Wal-Mart) rank numbers 4 through 7 on this years Forbes 400 list, with a combined worth is $89.9 billion.

It would take someone making $20,000 a year ….

a million years to net the amount of money one Walton sibling is worth.

84 people now own more wealth than 50% of the world’s population.

UNDP stated an annual 4 percent tax on the world's richest would provide adequate food, safe water, basic education, health care for all developing nations.

The top 1% in Ireland own approximately €130.2 billion

Irish concentration of wealth is now the highest in the EU.

The top 10% in Ireland owns almost 60% of the wealth

The bottom 50% own less than 5% of the wealth

2008 – 16,000 millionaires2015 – 91,000 millionaires

Pascal Kerneis - European Services Forum, a lobby group for global corporations such as Deutsche Bank, IBM and Vodafone.

“industry will oppose any deal in which investment protection is traded off against public policy objectives, including human and labour rights”

TTIP specifically promotes access to “public monopolies” to “promote competition in the interests of the consumer”

ISDS makes re-nationalisation almost impossible

Achmea v. the Slovak Republic

At the end of 2012, Dutch insurer Achmea was awarded €22 million in compensation from Slovakia.

In 2006, the Slovakian government reversed the health privatisation policies of the previous administration and required health insurers to operate on a not-for-profit basis.

Lone Pine v. Canada: On the basis of NAFTA, US company Lone Pine Resources is demanding US$250 million in compensation from Canada.

The ‘crime’? The Canadian province of Quebec had put a moratorium on fracking.

“TTIP offers massive opportunities for the Irish Economy”

15 November 2012 Ryerson University, Toronto