Alan Barrett
speaker
389 appearances
3 recordings
2 series
first heard May 2026
last heard 25 Jun
Alan Barrett’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 3 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 2.
Appearances
And so, you know, it's always important that we send public money as wisely as possible.
I mean, normally the response economists give to that is tax cuts are fine and everything like that, as long as the expenditure side of the ledger is treated in the same way.
I mean, really the important thing here overall is the balance, you know, between these sort of things.
So if it's the case that there will be tax cuts, I mean, you know, well then obviously something has to happen on the other side.
I mean, I would be certainly slightly concerned.
Say, for example, last year, tax cuts of the sort, like the VAT reduction for the hospitality sector, there wasn't a huge amount of evidence to suggest that that was going to be a sort of a, you know, an impactful policy for a whole range of people.
You know, it was a very narrow tax cut.
And again, lots of questions, a very expensive tax cut and lots of questions about how advisable that was.
You know, we remain to see what Simon Harris has in mind in terms of, for example, the proposal around the savings and investment tax proposals that he might have.
You know, this is the helping out the middle class.
Again, I know a lot of people are concerned that maybe that's not the most useful tax cut, if I can put it like that.
So, you know, overall balance of the public finances, that's what's important.
But where there are tax cuts, I hope they're sane and sensible.
It seems to be.
But anyway, we'll leave that one for another day.
All of which is true.
I mean, they are fascinating interviews, but I mean, the first thing that struck me, and again, it's a very minor point, but if you go back to most US ambassadors in Ireland, you would have been struck when they gave an interview like this.
It would have been talking about the beautiful, you know, landscape and the lovely people and everything would be warm and cuddly and some reference to the relatives who left years ago.
One of the first things he talks about is the need for Dublin to have a power wash.
So he's just, now I don't actually disagree with him on that, but it sort of sets the tone a little bit.
Showing 81–100 of 389 · page 5 of 20
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