Everyone in Ireland is waiting to hear what the Government is going to announce in next weeks Budget. Not knowing is the hardest thing. The Irish Govt. has been looking for pay cuts in the public Sector and the unions don't want to give much away. I am not in the Govt. sector directly but my wages are paid for by the state. There has been a suggestion of a 4.5% pay cut to as much as 12.5%, alternatively the big Unions were offering that unpaid leave could be taken to reduce Government expenditure. Not that I want a pay cut but say a 2 weeks leave unpaid would be preferable. Even a month. I could go on a cheap holiday to Europe, bring a tent and live as cheaply as possible. See if you can still go on holidays on say 30 euro a day, have to be somewhere warm and on a campsite. Alternatively if I manage to buy that small cottage down the country, I could spend a whole month doing it up and save a small fortune on labour costs. Probably be better take unpaid leave, get some tax credits and do some manual work on a house. Probably less stressful too.
Another good outcome of the credit crunch in Ireland for me at least is the prices of most houses has collapsed, so I may have lost out on my pension savings been decimated but should at least make it back by having delayed buying a House in 2007. 2007 was the high point for property in Ireland. A cottage I am still looking at was 198,000 euro a year ago, now they are looking for 100,000 and only have an offer of 90,000. Anyone who bought at the height of the boom and borrowed the money are looking at a huge loss if they had to sell. Many did buy hoping to sell later at a profit or to fund their own pension. The Government are doing nothing to help except looking for public service pay cuts.
Hopefully for me 2010 will be House and some more Holidays, despite all the doom and gloom.
