The November Live Register SA total shows a drop of 3.5% from the August peak.
The November Exchequer Returns are broadly on target.
Category: Economic Performance
The latest report from the National Competitiveness Council is available here.
The IMF has just released a new Staff Position Note 
Lifting Euro Area Growth: Priorities for Structural Reforms and Governance
[One of the co-authors is Ajai Chopra]
Its recommendations for Ireland are:
1. In relation to the labour market:
- Introduce gradual decrease of benefits over time of unemployment spell and stricter job search requirements
- Provide more resources to the unemployment agencies (FÁS) to provide efficient job search assistance to the growing number of unemployed
- Review the level of minimum wage to make it consistent with the general fall in wages
2. In relation to improving competitiveness:
- Reform planning and licensing systems in net work industries, so as to increase competition in sheltered services sectors
- Focus public resources on high-priority projects in the knowledge-based economy
Today’s Eurointelligence bulletin predicts that any EFSF intervention for Ireland will involve an increase in the corporate tax rate. Whether Ireland’s low corporate tax rate is good for wider Europe is certainly open to debate (a good recent paper is “Corporate Tax Harmonisation in the EU” by Bettendorf et al [Economic Policy, July 2010]) .
However, it is worth pointing out that Ireland collects a reasonable amount of revenue from this source (see table below). It is certainly possible that short-term revenues would rise with an increase in the tax rate but it would be a shock to the multinational-dominated export sector. Since this sector is playing a key role in providing momentum to the economy, it is doubtful that this would be put at risk during a crisis situation.
Corp Tax
In addition to dealing with the current crisis, the Irish political system must also grapple with the task of ensuring that the quality of public policy formation (and delivery of public services) improves over the longer term. To this end, Fine Gael has published a very long list of reforms in its “Reinventing Government” document, which is available here.