Fair Shares in 2015

Fair Shares Summary

Key Fair Shares Facts in 2015

Government Policies

• Maintaining economy on even keel the priority
• Little money to invest as being used to purchase energy permits.
• Home generated electrcicity can now be sold back to the grid but is taxed as income.

Economy

• Energy prices have grown at 6% per year since 2005
• Petrol prices have increased by 80% since then
• Electricity prices have also increased by 80%
• Inflation tops 10% as higher energy costs work their way through the European economy. Salaries and wages fail to keep up although demand for labour is high.

Business

• Renewables are now 30% of energy generation, much of it individual or locally generated
• Resurgence of local business with lower overheads than global corporations

Households

• Plastic packaging becomes progressively expensive. Non-returnable glass & aluminium containers are banned
• Dramatic decrease in number of cars on the road
• Decline in number of single person households

Culture

What are we eating?

• More local & seasonal due to increase in transport costs.
• Semi-organic cabbage (fertilizers and pesticides expensive)
• Irish farmed fish
• Pasta (dried) produced in Ireland
• Oranges from Spain (by boat)

What are we watching?

• Ground Force are now converting gardens for vegetable growing
• Community TV
• Neighbours from Heaven

Most popular Websites

• www.sharensave.org
• www.c&c.gov.ie
• www.bus&rail_timetables.ie

What are we selling

• Cold press for rapeseed.
• Wood burning stoves for sale, conversions from beer barrels add style.
• Turnips in exchange for 1/2 ton of topsoil
• For sale, 10 boxes of Organic Apples.

Headlines

• Census shows poverty halved in last five years - Those previously on the povery line are well suited to making the best of tight times and do better than the middle class unprepared for making do with very little.
• Out of town shopping centre bankrupt - People can no longer want to make a special journey just to do the shopping - they want to combine many tasks for each journey so prefer going to a town or city.
• Crack down on loan sharks intimiation of pensioners for their permits - Everyone has permits to sell and older people do not always understand their value or how to sell them.
• Kilkenny farmers market raided - Farmers Markets are now found in all towns but this makes it hard to check everyone is paying their taxes!
• Tenant farming is new form of slavery - The rich are always with us. The rich have land and use tenant farmers to work the land. In some cases they offer very little to the tenant farmers.
• Salmon caught in Liffy again - Lack of waste has reduced the pollution going into the river that flows through Dublin, enough that salmon are now using the river again.
• 100mpg family car launched - There are still people who can afford new cars but there has not been significant development in car technology because of lower demand.
• Return to sail - Sailing ships are a cheap form of transport and ships are being retrofitted with sail to to used when conditions allow.
• Road deaths fall again - Less cars, less danger.