Friday, August 15, 2008

Back from Ireland

It's nice to know so many people actually read the blog! There have been tons of emails complaining about the shortage of postings over the past few weeks. They don't call August the "silly season" for nothing you know!

Anyway, I was in Ireland for a few weeks and the outlook is pretty grim there (and that's not including the incessant rain). The father of a friend of mine had to deplete his savings to pay for an operation in a private hospital. He's 89 and he was looking at a 12-month waiting list for a public bed. Doesn't matter that he's worked in Ireland his whole life and paid hundreds of thousands of euro in taxes. Back to the end of the line for him.

Jobs-wise, the bottom has fallen out of the market. People are being asked to take pay cuts, raises have been frozen, interest rates are going up, and they're even talking about bringing back college fees. You know things are bad when they go after the easy targets.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

ya it is great for some to some to spent a few weeks in Ireland , not like the rest of us here that are illegal who have not being back there in years, dont rub that it to us please.

Anonymous said...

wise up
u dont want to b backj there these days

Anonymous said...

Would you ever get over yourself!

Anonymous said...

A powerful and silent lobby has been in operation in Ireland to get 3rd level fees back in colleges for a long time. And you are right in a time of poor tax income that lobby sees the opportunity to use the situation as a justification to bring them back. Where on earth is the logic in that? At a time when families are feeling the crunch from rising costs, nail them with a college fee!!

Has Ireland changed, with the Celtic tiger? Not a bit it was just a Halloween costume covering up something far more scary!!

There is a class system alive and well in Ireland. With an upper class who possibly resent free education for all, as through education it raises folk off the bottom and dilutes the level at the top. I availed of fee free college education in Ireland, i got so much more out of it than a degree, it opened so many doors to me and enlightened me to how society operates. I would not have been in a position to avail of it without the fee free initiative. Please contact, call whatever needs to be done to block the reintroduction of 3rd level fees. It would be a terrible path for Ireland to go down and any government who allows it does not deserve to be in government! College education is for everybody not the select few.

I know this is an immigration blog but this also affects Irish emigrants. A degree or a 3rd level qualification is becoming necessary for a lot of countries and a growing number of others. Removing the ability of a person of limited means to free 3rd level education will also translate down the line to ineligibility to emigrate to many countries.