Author Archives: Bodger

This morning/afternoon

Zero Covid enthusiasts People Before Profit make a u-turn ahead of a debate this evening on whether the covid Emergency powers are to be extended until November, with the possibility of a three-month extension until February next year.

Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said last month the November date was informed by ‘public health advice’ and “may well be required into late autumn or early winter”.

Fight!

RollingNews

From top at left to right:  Louise Flynn Byrne, Paddy Debrun and Sophie Marini-Lazarov; from left: Aidan Comerford, Chair of Beann Eadair GAA Club; Mindy O’Brien, co-ordinator of VOICE Ireland; David Healy, Mayor of Fingal; Paddy Debrun (in costume as plastic bottle); Louise Flynn Byrne; and Michael Wright of Michael Wright Hospitality

This morning.

Howth, county Dublin.

A gathering of Howth heads on the west pier to launch The Return for Change campaign taking place this Sunday and Monday.

Return for Change will work with local groups to encourage people to return their empty plastic bottles and cans to collection points on the promenade and, in exchange, Michael Wright Hospitality, owned by fish mogul Michael Wright will donate funds to various local charitable clubs.

Photocall Ireland

This afternoon.

The Dáil at the Convention Centre.

Taoiseach Micheal Martin said that the Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien will “bring in legislation quickly” to close a loophole allowing an 8% rent hike for tenants.

However, he said that the Government is limited by the Constitution on introducing a blanket ban on rent increases.

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said that “an entire generation is locked out of home ownership” because of high rents.

Not only do they face the prospect of the Government “cutting their income support”, she added, but they also face a “double whammy” of an 8% rent hike.

Loophole allowing 8% rent hike to be closed – Taoiseach (RTE)

RollingNews

Deirdre Conroy (left) and Croatia-born actor Goran Visnjic as Luka Kovač in TV drama ER

This morning/afternoon.

In February 2013 Conroy, having already let one room in her Clonskeagh home, met a “handsome” prospective tenant for another she’d put on the rental market. In a blog she kept at the time titled Diary of a Dublin Landlady, she gave this man the nickname “Kovac” in reference to ER character Dr Luka Kovač…

….By the end of March, Conroy had found a replacement tenant: “I am especially relieved with my current lodgers, after the Latvian experience, better to stick with what you know if you have to share your house,” she wrote…

…Conroy took issue with “Kovac” receiving Child Benefit, despite it being his right under European Union law…

“It will take the property tax of six houses in this cul-de-sac to meet the annual child benefit to one 5-year old in Latvia, where they will be getting their own benefit anyway, and that’s just one child living abroad.”

Ōh,

‘Better to stick with what you know’: Fianna Fáil byelection candidate on letting room to Latvian worker (The Ditch)

RollingNews/NBC

Ursula Von der Leyen, then German Defence Minister, with Bill Gates in 2017

This morning.

What could go wrong?

Gates and other private donors are backing Harvard University’s Solar Geoengineering Research Program, which will soon launch a new study researching the efficacy of blocking sunlight from reaching Earth’s surface.

Ah.

Any excuse.

Bill Gates Is Thinking About Dimming the Sun (Popular Mechanics)

Getty


From top: Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe and Minister Public Expenditure and Reform Michael McGrath during a press briefing on the Economic Recovery Plan in Government Buildings this morning; The new band charges could be presented to homeowners next January and February

This morning.

Government Buildings.

Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe gave some detail to his plan to increase Local Property Tax….

…Under the changes, all properties will be revalued on 1 November this year.

According to the CSO, house prices nationally have risen by 90% on average since their low point in 2013.

According to an analysis by the Department of Finance, 11% of property owners may see a decrease in their tax, while 53% may see no change.

It said 33% may see their tax go up one band, up to €100, while 3% may see a jump of two bands or over €100.

The exemptions for people who bought in “ghost estates” will lapse, while exemptions for people in pyrite damaged homes in Limerick and certain eastern counties will be phased out.

…Income thresholds for deferrals have been raised to €18,000 for a single person and €30,000 for a couple.

Local Property Tax valuations to be reviewed every four years (RTÉ

Julien Behal Photography/RollingNews

Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health

This morning.

Via RTÉ:

In its latest letter to the Government, Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said that vaccination was proceeding at or ahead of schedule, with high uptake.

NPHET also said that the incidence of Covid-19 is at or below what model scenarios projected in late April, for the progressive reopening in May and this month.

Daily Covid-19 case numbers are relatively stable at 400 to 500 a day.

The number of patients in hospital or in ICU is declining slowly and there has also been a significant decrease in mortality.

NPHET described the picture as broadly optimistic, but said Ireland remains vulnerable as a large proportion of the population has yet to be vaccinated.

Increased confidence that easing restrictions is ‘low risk’ (RTÉ)

Meanwhile…

Oh.

Yesterday evening.

Leonard’s Corner, South Circular Road. Road.

Harry Warren writes:

Outside of Tesco beside a take-a-way restaurant…Either the take-a-way consumers apart from being scruffy litter louts, are displaying their collective intelligence by mistaking the granite columns for dining tables or litter bins, or it is another example of Dublin City Councils ongoing failure to provide a functional litter collection service. Perhaps Broadsheet readers can advise?

P.S. the DCC litter bin outside of the take-a-way was full to overflowing…