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Posts by Paul Sweeney

Paul Sweeney @paulsweeneyman

Paul Sweeney is former Chief Economist of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. He was a President of the Statistical and Social Enquiry Society of Ireland, former member of the Economic Committee of the ETUC, a member of the National Competitiveness Council of Ireland, the National Statistics Board, the ESB, TUAC, (advisor to OECD) and several other bodies. He has written three books on the Irish economy and two on public enterprise, including The Celtic Tiger; Ireland’s Economic Miracle Explained and Selling Out: Privatisation in Ireland, chapters in other books and many articles on economics.

What do the OECD health statistics tell us about Ireland?

Paul Sweeney 20/07/2015

Paul Sweeney: The OECD has recently published its “Health at a Glance: Europe 2014”. This is very useful even though I am critical of this …

No inflation due to low wage rises

Paul Sweeney 22/06/2015

Paul Sweeney: There has been no rise in overall prices in seven years! In fact, prices today are a little lower than they were at the peak - which …

Good News on Jobs

Paul Sweeney 27/05/2015

Paul Sweeney: There is good news on the jobs front. But we should never have had such a collapse in the economy and jobs. The job of economists and …

Employers' Social Contributions in Ireland

Paul Sweeney 19/05/2015

Paul Sweeney: Here on Progressive Economy, we have been examining the evidence for tax reform in recent months. In my last Blog I looked at …

The Danger of the Share-Buyback Epidemic

Paul Sweeney 30/04/2015

Paul Sweeney: The news that US companies will buy back over one Trillion dollars – that is $1,000,000,000,000 - worth of their own shares in 2015 …

More on Income Taxes and Social Charges – Proposals for Reform

Paul Sweeney 22/04/2015

Paul Sweeney: According to economists Thomas Piketty and Emanual Saez “The job of economists should be to make a top rate tax level of 80% at least …

Planning permissions show how little we've learnt

Paul Sweeney 30/03/2015

Paul Sweeney: This Infographic on planning permissions, published by the CSO last week, tells a lot about the Irish economy and Irish people.

The Top Income Tax is at its Lowest Rate

Paul Sweeney 23/03/2015

Paul Sweeney: This year, Ireland’s top tax is at its lowest rate for many years. Yet inequality is now recognised as the biggest economic challenge …

Data on Wealth in Ireland

Paul Sweeney 13/03/2015

Paul Sweeney: There has been no study of the distribution of wealth in Ireland by any government body until recently. Now the CSO has undertaken such …

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