Assume you are running your own small business or advising a micro entrepreneur.  You look at the figures for the past five years.  I know there are figures in this article, but please keep reading, I’m keeping it as simple as I can and you'll see where it leads.  They read as follows:

You can see that income peaked in 2008 at €42,534.  It dropped way down in 2009 and is starting to creep back in 2012, but is still 3.6% below its peak.

As a consultant or analyst you will compare the outgoings to the income and you will see the following figures:

What that means is that in 2008 the outgoings were 29.9% higher than the income.  In 2009, outgoings hit a peak of 70.9% higher than income and in 2012 it has dropped down to 36.5%.  In essence, this is the loss of the business in percentages.  These are huge losses.

The actual losses in Euros are in the loss cells in the first chart above.

If you were advising that business, what advice would you give them?  Let me explain, it’s not quite as simple as that.  The business is in a position where it can’t just close shop because the repercussions are too great and it has borrowed huge sums of money over the years to cover losses and cash flow.  In that five years alone it had to borrow €95,910 just to keep the doors open.  Over the years, it has borrowed €137,600 that has to be repaid.  So closing the business is not an option.

Now, look at those figures again and put six zeros after them.  That is the position that the Irish Comptroller and Auditor General has produced as the Exchequer Financial Returns for 2012 as published in September 2013.  See attached report - just go to the bottom of this article to download it.  There are two reports at "Download attachments"

Ireland’s National Debt

On 18^th July the National Treasury Management Agency issued their annual report for 2012.  You can download that report here also - just go to the bottom of this article to download it.  There are two reports at "Download attachments". They said that Ireland’s national debt rose by €18.5 billion in 2012 to a record €137.6 billion.  They reported that the cost of servicing Ireland’s national debt also rose by just under €1.1 billion to €6.5 billion last year.

Paying the day-to-day bills of the exchequer took a massive borrowing of €14.9 billion.  Let me put that into perspective. That is €3,725 borrowing for every man, woman and child in this country.  Or to put it another way, it is €472 for every second of every day of the year.  Or, about €142,000 for the length of time it takes you to read this article.

In terms of borrowing for this small country of ours, that’s frightening.  Here is another article on next weeks budget.

Add on to that a €3 billion repayment relating to the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation’s promissory note. This is no longer payable following an agreement this year with the EU.

The report showed that the drawdown from the EU/IMF bailout programme increased to €55.9 billion at the end of 2012.  This is up from €34.6 billion at the end of 2011 and it included a payment of almost €2 billion from the UK treasury.

John Corrigan, the Chief Executive of NTMA, said that its employment costs rose to €51 million last year from €40 million in 2011. This reflects increased staffing levels, with the NTMA closing last year with 500 employees compared to 433 in 2011.  That works out at a straight average of €102,000 per person.  I think I’ll look for a job there!