Union Leader Out Of Touch

Dublin 32 CSM tell David Begg General Secretary ICTU: "When you have nothing good to say then please be silent."

At the recent Irish Taxation Institute debate chaired by journalist Olivia O’Leary in Kildare St, Dublin, economics professor Karl Whelan said “I don’t think anyone believes” Ireland is going to reach a target of a 3 per cent deficit by 2014.

Also addressing the meeting were Mr David Begg General Secretary ICTU, Prof Whelan, William Slattery of State Street Ireland, and Feargal O’Rourke of PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Mr O’Rourke and Prof Whelan said they agreed with the European Commissioner Olli Rehn that Ireland’s days as a low tax economy were gone. Mr Slattery said he thought there was an agenda in Europe to push Ireland towards higher taxes but the Government must retain the 12.5 per cent corporation tax rate.

Mr David Begg accepted that Ireland was “under taxed” when compared with other countries. Many years ago he had wanted Ireland to adopt a Nordic model of high taxes and high quality public services; now Ireland was going to get high taxes for all the wrong reasons.

The above comment from Mr. Begg shows just how out of touch he is with the working class and with what is needed to keep jobs in Ireland or to attract much needed inward investment.

Recently, the EU Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Olli Rehn sparked controversy when he answered a question about Ireland's low corporation tax rate by saying it was "a fact of life" that Ireland would no longer be a low-tax economy over the next 10 years.

On the 18th October, 2010 when asked about the importance of the 12.5pc corporation tax rate in Hollister's decision to locate the new jobs in Ballina, management at the US multinational healthcare company said the 12.5pc rate on offer here was the key factor in deciding to expand its plant in Co Mayo.

Mr. Crowe said: "It's very, very important. The tax rate allows us to re-invest in our facilities. If it weren't there, it would really open us up to looking globally at new sites to manufacture our products. Locations in Eastern Europe, India and the US also pitched for the new plant, but lost out to Ireland's tax incentive”.

Our question to Mr. Begg is how he proposes to attract inward investment from such multi-national companies without the retention of Ireland's low corporation tax rate 12.5pc?

The silence of our union leaders has to date being deafening but having said that maybe it is just as well if the way out of our current economic woes is people like David Begg supporting making a case for Ireland being under taxed.

Silence is golden in this case.

National Self Determination

National Self-determination
 
Creation of national governmental institutions by a group of people who view themselves as a distinct nation (for example, because they have a common language). National self-determination is opposed to colonialism and imperialism
The appeal of the principle of national self-determination is simple, for it is surely better that nations should determine their own destinies than that someone else should do it for them. The concept of national self-determination appears to express the idea of democracy, according to which the people are presumed to be best qualified to govern themselves.
National Self-determination and The principle of consent as defined in the Good Friday Agreement and accepted by Sinn Féin both give legitimacy to the to the division of Ireland in the Sinn Féin (SF) double speak.
National Self-determination under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) identifies the Unionist and Nationalist population within the occupied 6 counties as separate from the 26 counties of Éire.
It did this when both the 6 counties and the 26 counties held separate votes on the same day under the terms of the GFA. By entering into this voting arrangement SF
and its Pan Nationalist cohorts recognised the legitimacy of Britain’s jurisdiction within the 6 counties. SF also finally abandoned with the same act any last pretence it had to still being the legitimate successors and heirs of the Provisional Government of Ireland.
The Provisional Government of Ireland rejected the division of Ireland offered by the treaty when it was voted on by the Provisional Government. The rejection of that treaty led to civil war, between pro treaty forces led by Michael Collins, and anti treaty forces led by SF members of the Provisional Government of Ireland with
Éamon de Valera, who latter went on to form Fianna Fáil and also abandon the Program for Government of the elected Provisional Government of Ireland.
National Self-determination is no longer about all of the people of this Island all 32 counties voting as a
group of people who view themselves as a distinct nation, determining our future as a distinct nation without undue influence from any other country. How can it be when under the terms of the GFA for a vote on National Self-determination to unite Ireland to take place in the occupied 6 counties the vote has to be triggered by the Government of the United Kingdom?
In politics
national self-determination it is seen as the freedom of the people of a given territory or national grouping to determine their own political status and how they will be governed without undue influence from any other country.
We now get to the next bit of the dangerous SF double speak that of the actual meaning of “
The principle of consent” as contained in the GFA. The Principle of consent is a term used in the context of debate on a United Ireland, which states that Northern Ireland's constitutional status (as part of the United Kingdom) cannot change without majority support in Northern Ireland. The principle of consent is the principle which allows for the notion of the two separate voting arrangements for the 6 and 26 counties.
Consent refers to the provision of approval or assent, particularly and especially after thoughtful consideration.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consent
Under the GFA the principle of consent is not the consent of the majority
of a national grouping to determine our own political status and how we will be governed. Under the GFA every single person eligible to vote in the 26 counties could conceivably vote yes to a United Ireland and thereby give their consent in the vote in the 26 counties.
Every nationalist within the 6 counties could also vote yes to a United Ireland but if the majority of the combined nationalist and unionist people in the 6 counties vote no to a United Ireland under the GFA meaning of the
principle of consent the vote would be deemed to be defeated because the majority in the minority 6 counties voted no.
The overall majority of the combined vote although it would in the case I have outlined heavily out weigh the no vote, the majority yes vote would be deemed to be defeated by the minority no vote.
The consent of the minority over the majority contained in the GFA is a principle of consent contrary to any know form of acceptable democracy or democratically acceptable voting system. The principle of consent as contained in the GFA is in reality the acceptance by SF and its
Pan Nationalist cohorts of a potential if not guaranteed veto by a minority over the majority.
National Self-determination in SF double speak equals the people of the occupied 6 counties will vote on a United Ireland when and if the government of the United kingdom decide
The principle of consent in SF double speak equals
a potential if not guaranteed veto by a Unionist led minority 6 counties over the majority of all of Irelands Republican / Nationalists.

Welcome To Wicklow 32CSM