Ireland’s economic outlook worsens

Ireland’s economic outlook worsened on Monday as the country’s central bank

cut its growth forecast for this year, with gross domestic product now set

to increase 0.2 per cent against previous forecasts of 0.8 per cent

John Murray Brown

Publishing its revised forecasts, the central bank said the recovery was unbalanced, because it was driven mainly by exports, as domestic demand continued to stall. It added “the continuing weakness of investment remains a considerable drag on growth.” Ireland’s economic woes will be further underlined with exchequer returns for the third quarter published later on Monday which are set to confirm a further deterioration in the fiscal deficit.

After announcing further bank bail-outs last week, the government said the deficit would hit 32 per cent of national income this year or 10 times the Maastricht¹ fiscal guidelines for eurozone members. But stripping out the bank rescue costs, which officials say do not affect Ireland’s borrowing requirement this year as they have already been paid for using 10 year promissory notes, the underlying fiscal deficit forecast has been revised to 11.9 per cent this year, as against 11.6 per cent forecast at the time of last year’s budget.

The FT, October 3, 2010

Task 32. Watch Video 36 to get its idea. What genre is the piece?

Task 33. Watch the clip again for information. Fill in the gaps.

A. Nigel Farage says that:

1. the euro is … ;

2. the euro was not launched for the …, it was launched for … ;

3. it was obvious that the countries such as … would never fit requirements to enter the eurozone;

4. the people that support the euro are the people that want … ;

5. the Spanish economy and its debt … ;

6. these countries like … are trapped inside …

B. Ken Clarke states that:

a) the British commentators have been forecasting the death of euro about … ;

b) this crisis is not caused by the euro … ;

c) Irish should have been all right if they … ;

d) Ireland really followed the path of … ;

e) the debt is bigger than … ;

f) if the Greeks and the Irish should not been in the euro…

Task 34. Analyse grammatical and lexical features of the fragments below. What conclusions do you come to?

1. It was always gonna be doomed.

2. It was pretty obvious then that…

3. …there were countries that would never ever going to fit into that euro mold.

4. And there are some on this panel…

5. Thank goodness, we didn’t join the euro.

6. But I’m afraid what has happened in Ireland…

7. And frankly, thank goodness for that…

8. If they should not been in the euro, they’d be both belly up now.

9. Indeed, it’s quite obvious, there’s a great political commitment to it.

10. It bust Northern Rock in the United Kingdom, we were in sterling, and it’s bust all three Irish banks and the government rather rashly guaranteed the deposits of these three banks and the debts of these banks.

Task 35. Which of the two (N. Farage or K. Clarke) sounds more emotional? Why? Put forward your arguments.

Task 36. Sum up the information in Video 36. Jot it down in five sentences. Read them out in class to be interpreted by your group mates.

Task 37. Watch Video 37 lead. What is the idea of the report you are going to watch. What do expressions negative equity and austerity measures mean?

Task 38. Transcribe Video 37 lead.

Task 39. Study the following word list.

to dwarf mortgage to brace oneself (for)

idle cranes social welfare to be trapped

betrayal nutritious scar / to be scarred

to jump on the bandwagon household

Task 40. Watch Video 37 in full.

What are the major sections that the report falls into? Compress each section into a sentence. Put them down into the following slots

1. …

2. …

3. …

d) …

?) …

Task 41. Watch the report, fill in the gaps and make lexical analysis of the sentences below. Identify colloquial phrasal verbs in the material for analysis.

1. It doesn’t …1-2… but this was once George Osborn’s …3… …4… of how to cut your …5-6… to prosperity.

2. The …1… of his spending review …2… by the …3… …4… to public services here since 2008.

3. The problem is that the …1-3… in Ireland was …2… , and now a …3-5… …6… like the …7… on Dublin’s …8…

4. …1-2… on theses …3… streets once hit half a million, now there’s …3… poverty …4-5… doors.

5. Now …1… to …2-3… …4-5… , the couple …6-8… for the next round of …9…

6. The …1-3… is even …4… in one of Dublin’s most …5… areas. The …6… brought …7…but the new homes and …8…are …9… by near derelict blocks.

7. They …1-4… but with money …5-6…, there are people still living here.

8. The …1… is …2… too – building sites …3… in the city, and homes lying …4… and …5… in the countryside.

9. The property …1… …2… the good times here.

10. Then banks …1-2… , and many builders simply …3-4… money to finish …5… like this one.

11. And now Ireland’s countryside is …1… with …2… estates – …3… to a boom built on a …4… of foundations.

12. …1… bankers, like London’s …2… much …3-5…

13. …1-2… the British, the Irish haven’t had the option of …3… more cash …4-6…

14. But some believe Ireland …1-2… any hope of an …3… by cutting too deeply at the bottom …4-7…

15. This time it’s Labour …1-4… and warning us of a similar …5…

Task 42. What stylistic device prevails in the sentences above? Why? Translate the sentences into Russian.

Task 43. Listen to the interviews in Video 37. People are talking with the Irish accent. Can you describe some of its phonetic features?

Task 44. What lexical units prevail in the interviews below? Fill in the gaps to answer the question.

A) Helena Hasler:

“At the height of …1… we were in over …2… . You know, we were …3… We were idiots, we never thought it would end. And we have …4…. We are struggling and we have to …5-7…”

B) Ferus Finlay:

“There are …1… where when the cupboard is …2… in the morning, there is nothing inside, when the fridge is opened in the morning, there is no milk. So, yes, we get …3… coming to the …4… to start their education, and the first thing we have to do is to make sure they get a …5… …6… breakfast.”

C) Colm Cacarthy:

“If people look around and say they’ve …1… , and the economists say they are …2-3… , that rather assumes that there was an option to not bother doing anything …4-5… and then everything will be fine. There is no such option.”

Task 45. Listen to interviews below and:

a) fill in the gaps in the second interview;

b) make corrections in the scripts of both interviews (the phrases in question are italicized).

A) Ben Hasler:

“They’re constantly putting money into the banks which got us into this situation, eventually. They are throwing money around. There are poor people who can’t afford to pay their mortgage, can’t pay electricity or gas bills and that’s it. They are not getting any aid, that is making harder for them to get money. And it seems it would never end.”

B) Belinda Pryce:

“Constant delays. We were supposed to get out of here …1… three years ago. We’re still here. I have a daughter who lives over here. She is told she won’t be out of here for five years. She …2-3… small children, she’s living in a …4-5… where there’s scattered people in, and emptiness, and a lot of …6… at night. Youngsters going around, …7… things like the apartments, setting them on fire – doing …8… vandalism. And with three young children it’s hard.”

Task 46. Analyse files No 16-23 in the subfolder GRAMMAR. Write down grammatical features in question to discuss them in class.

Task 47. Watch Video 38 and say how ATM is called colloquially.

Task 48. Revise all new words of the Unit (Tasks 2, 7, 17, 15, 23, 39), words and word combinations below and get ready for a lexical quiz.

1) spending cuts; 2) tax rises; 3) to contract; 4) to expand; 5) sovereign debt crisis; 6) to bubble away; 7) a property bubble; 8) deficit-reduction programme; 9) child benefit; 10) deprived areas; 11) at a modest pace; 12) borrowings; 13) the current financial year; 14) retailers; 15) the single currency; 16) inflation target (target figures); 17) people in work; 18) a drop in numbers; 19) a property boom; 20) the number (of job seekers) is down; 21) a sharp rise in exports; 22) pipeline; 23) to calm (fears); 24) a wage-price spiral; 25) an economic outlook: 26) to claim benefit; 27) rival; 28) to drop out (of the labour market); 29) sales; 30) VAT; 31) to deliver (goods); 32) trade deficit is record high; 33) to be under way; 34) to apply pressure; 35) weakness of investment; 36) trade surplus; 37) the exchange rate mechanism; 38) a bail out; 39) common sence; 40) at this point money ran out; 41) the Spanish debt is seven times that of Ireland; 42) domestic demand has stalled; 43) to get on one’s feet; 44) to put food on the table; 45) to brace oneself for…; 46) to take the blame for something; 47) strength of the dollar; 48) The figures are set to confirm a further deterioration in the fiscal deficit; 49) the economy has picked up; 50) peripheral eurozone countries; 51) Hang on!

Task 49. Group the words and word combinations above into standard and expressive lexical means of the broadcast media discourse. Classify each group further into subgroups (neutral words, bookish words, special terms, etc.).