"get the vaseline ready"

[dom]

I am neither a Sun reader or an idiot. Our glorious government are already attacking the services you so laudably mention. They are ones attacking the vunerable and weaker sections of our society while at the same time protecting the fat cat salaries of themselves, higher civil servants, lawyers, bankers, developers and anyone else who has creamed the country via tribunals, bad planning, brown envelopes .loans to greedy developers etc.
The I.M.F will at least start at the top and slash politicians and public servants fat wages/ pensions.
The whole system is corrupt and the public purse is being raped by the public sector and all the scam artists who live off it and abuse it at every opportunity.

There is no way possible to try to correct the level of debt we are in nor the rate of borrowing without hitting all classes and sectors.
I already stated that.
I also stated that whatever you feel about the governments policies and who they affect, you could multiply it by 10 if we fall under the IMF to restructure us.

And then you reply as if you haven't read what i said.
Or maybe you just don't understand it.

But, let me make this clear.
Irrespective of when recovery starts here, we are in for at least two more tough budgets.
the government have structured it so as to hit us over a 3-year period in the hope that by year 3 the recovery will be good enough for it to be the softest of the budgets.

If the IMF move in, they will counteract all of our overspending and borrowing in one calendar year.
Lets see you approve of that 5 years after it happens IF it happens and the country is still on it's knees.

Also, don't confuse the banking crises and the recession.
they are two distinctly separate issues we currently have to deal with.

dom

[Mousey]

The IMF will never take over our finances. Never ever.

[LLAMEDOS]

The IMF will never take over our finances. Never ever.

-- It`s ironic, but I said that about my ex wife just before we married.
She had the same ploy as the IMF then, because I was well within a year

[oneeyedreilly]

Dom,

I both read and understood your points. In the main I would not disagree with your summary of the present and predictions for the future.
However, at the end of the day a small economy like ours cannot sustain the cost of the public purse. The people in power and those who would seek to replace them are not capable of carrying out the radical changes that have to occur within the public sector, they neither have the heart nor the desire to tackle the unions who are the real masters, hence the IMF, they will make the changes necessary. Painful but necessary and hopefully will shake our politicians enough so that they will represent the people who pay their wages and not themselves. Then again, turkeys don't vote for Christmas

[rover]

These poor devils are taking a 15 - 20% salary drop.

300 public servants now earn €165,000 - National News, Frontpage - Independent.ie