one thing to remember in all this, and I see it in a lot of criticism of ABSN in areas other than transport "shure how would McCarthy et al know anything about XYZ, that's clearly nonsense, those cuts were already made..."
They mostly didn't do their own research. Essentially, they received two sets of data, one from the Department in question, and one from the part of DoFinance that monitors that Department. Between the two reports, they then came up with a proposal for each. If they are proposing cuts, it's because Transport or Finance proposed them, not that Colm McCarthy has become an authority on trains. This means ABSN needs watching as something a bureaucrat knows he could never get killed in the normal course of events he can get killed by ABSN and the national panic will see that it happens.
McCarthy and his fellow economists have an excellent blog going at irisheconomy.ie and anyone who is paying taxes in Ireland should keep a close eye on it - especially involving NAMA.
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