Why is Ireland's Department of Finance so slow with the results

In mid December ( yesterday ) the department of Finance published the latest results - Great you might think.

But if you were working for a multinational you would be thinking that the results were to the end of November

Well think again -- ok not End of October -- but the end of September.

Wow

Multinationals have their quarterly results analysed by Moody's et al about 2/3 weeks after the end of the quarter.

Imagine if Irelands positive trading figures and the positive growth of  GNP had been analysed by Moody's and S+P in October - would they have pushed us into the open arms of the IMF ?

Perhaps we would have got an extra quarters grace -- and good figures for the last quarter published in January may just have saved us.

Maybe the department should invest in some IT

If you want to see how great a country - some of us tried to destroy have a look at west cork in the movie

West Cork - looking so great
Click the link to view the movie - dont forget to maximise it if it is small

Ireland's economy is on the way up -

If you are living in Ireland you must be tired of all the doom and gloom over the last 2 - 3 years.

But the thing they never really talk about on the news or prime time or in the newspaper is that the Irish economy  has a surplus of exports over imports.

Quite simply - we are trading our way out of this recression and have been doing so for well over a year.

The glass half empty heads in RTE or the glass half full heads in the Irish Times will say -- oh dont forget that much of the export growth is from multinationals - or brass plate companies.

So the multinationals are exporting -- well done multinationals in retaining your employees and local supply chain.

When debating the IMF deal - the glass half empty heads - were talking vociferously about how depressing it was that we may have to give up on the low tax regime for companies.

But how little they talk about the success of these companies.

The glass half full heads will say oh - the export growth is lead by boiler plate compaines - companies that operate in Ireland to save tax.

But do we hear them cheering when these same companies earn 500M$ in profit and pay us 12% -- about 60M$ - more than has been removed from education in the last budget.

The glass half full heads - should realise that they are only a sip away from half empty. Time for us all to see our glasses nearly full.

We are not a Greece or Portugal or Latvia -- we have  positive balance of payments.

If you need cheering up - have a look at how beautiful our country is

Connemara - with scenery like this - the tourists will be back

Click the link to view the movie - if it opens in a small window you can maximise it.