Author Archives: Bodger

This afternoon.

Rob Reeves writes:

“As you may be aware, Gal Godot and some of her other millionaire friends came together a short time ago to sing a rendition of ‘Imagine’ by John Lennon to do their bit to help out with the Coronavirus pandemic.

“Myself and a group of other Irish lads and lassies came together (in solitude) to make a reply to Gal.”

Previously: Rob Reeves on Broadsheet

Last night.

On RTÉ’s Claire Byrne Live.

Ms Byrne put it to Dr Colm Henry, Chief Clinical Officer at the HSE, that the official figures may not reveal the “whole story” about the prevalence of Covid-19 in Ireland.

Ms  Byrne suggested that because of the delays and changes in testing criteria, and because Ireland isn’t testing people who are asymptomatic, there must be a lot of unknown cases in Ireland.

Dr Henry admitted that Ireland could “never, ever” pick up every single case of Covid-19. He said the purpose of testing is to trigger public health actions which are designed to stem or halt the transmission of the virus.

During their discussion, they had this exchange.

Claire Byrne: “I suppose my question is how do we know we’re bending the curve, when we don’t know how much of this virus there is out there?”

Dr Colm Henry: “Because our modelling takes so much more into account. It takes in, as I said, data coming into acute hospitals. I takes into account trends in intensive care units, we know, looking at the trends in admission to intensive care, it is not as steep as we feared a week or two ago. It is too early to say it Claire, how sustained that will be.

“And again that message is there, that each and every one of us have the power to save lives, to prevent people getting critically ill and to avoid healthcare workers getting sick when we need them.”

Watch back in full here

Meanwhile…

Anyone?

Hic.

Dublin-based comedian, writer and impressionist Liam Hourican with another ‘character in isolation’.

Liam writes:

‘Sammy Stockport’ embraces self isolation…

Liam Hourican

Previously: Off The Cough

Kitchen Nightmare

Fine Gael’s Kate O’Connell and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar during the presidential election campaign in 2018

This morning.

Fine Gael’s Kate O’Connell, who lost her seat in the last general election, spoke to KFm about the recent Seanad election, during which no female Fine Gael candidate won a seat.

Eleven senators will eventually be nominated by the incoming Taoiseach.

Speaking about a resistance to the progress of women, Ms O’Connell said:

“This stems down, it’s a domino effect from the local elections. But also there was a massive pushback from certain sectors and I’m speaking about my own party because that’s what I have knowledge of.

“When there is progress from women there is pushback from some elements within the party usually the younger, Young Fine Gael wing.”

Anyone?

Listen: O’Connell Says There Is Push-Back From Some In Fine Gael, Against Female Candidates. (KFm, Ciara Plunkett)

Previously: Bay Of Tears

Rollingnews

Herbert Park, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4 this morning

This morning.

Anyone?/FIGHT!

Rollingnews

Health Minister Simon Harris speaking to journalists outside government buildings. merrion this morning

No.

This afternoon.

Breakingnews.ie reports:

Restrictions on movement will not be lifted on Easter Sunday.

While the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) have yet to make a formal recommendation to extend the measures, the Health Minister says its highly unlikely they will be relaxed.

NPHET is meeting today to discuss restrictions but will not make a final call until Friday.

‘We know they are working’: Harris says ‘highly unlikely’ restrictions will be lifted on Sunday (Breakingnews.ie)

Pic: Gavan Reilly

Meanwhile…

Restrictions are being slowly lifted across Europe

This morning.

Tis lifting.

Austria’s chancellor Sebastian Kurz has become the first European leader to provide specific dates for the end of lockdown measures.

He said the aim was to let smaller shops re-open as soon as April 14, with larger ones and shopping malls opening on May 1 if all goes well.

In Spain, which after Italy has seen the highest number of deaths in Europe, Prime minister Pedro Sanchez has said that some economic restrictions could be lifted after Easter.

European countries to follow Italy with plans to lift coronavirus lockdown in days with schools and shops reopening (The Sun)

Graph via The Sun

However…

Eau.

This morning.

At Trinity College Dublin.

Provost and President of Trinity Patrick Prendergast tweetz:

“Today, 7 April 2020, Chancellor Mary McAleese conferred 532 degrees by Zoom, the first time a virtual commencements has been held at Trinity College Dublin. All done in Latin. Congratulations to all our new graduates. The recording will be put on the web.”

Previously: Meanwhile, At Trinity


The government’s COVID-19 Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme payment is taxable, warns financial planner Eoin McGee

This morning.

On RTÉ’s Today with Seán O’Rourke.

Financial planner and author of How To Be Good With Money Eoin McGee warned listeners who are signed up to the COVID-19 Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme that the payment is taxable and that they may face a tax bill at the end of the year.

Mr McGee’s contribution to the radio show followed Mr McGee posting a video about the same on social media.

This morning, he told Mr O’Rourke:

“People do need to be aware that there is tax due on this. This is not a tax-free payment. There is tax due on it. Nobody is collecting on your behalf right now and what I would say to people now is that the right thing to do here is to take, about 30 per cent of it is a reasonable number.

“So for every €100 you’re getting, put €30 of it aside, put it in a little war chest if you want to call it, so that if the taxman comes looking for it you can give it back in one go. That’s the ideal thing to do here.”

“…I think, you know the problem is Seán, I think that the reality here is that if you’re employer is signed up to this, they’re trying to protect your long-term future in that business and they have concerns and they are being diligent about making sure that they can keep the show on the road.

“The reality is that the alternative for your employer could have been that you didn’t have a job at all and, I just, there are people in that position as well, and they will probably sign up to holding back 30 per cent.

“I know this is hard, I know people are getting a real cut in their wages but what you don’t want to do is rob from the future to look after today. You don’t want a problem. You don’t want to get out of this and then have another problem faced with to try and pay the money back.”

During his discussion with host Seán O’Rourke, Mr O’Rourke read out a statement from Revenue which stated:

“Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme payments are liable to income tax, USC and PRSI. However, the subsidy is not taxable in real time through the PAYE system during the period of the subsidy scheme. Instead, the employee will be liable for tax on the subsidy amount paid to them by their employer by way of a review at the end of the year.

“Where a PAYE worker owes tax, it’s normal Revenue practice to collect any tax owing in manageable amounts by reducing tax credits for a future year or years in order to minimise any hardship.”

Mr McGee added:

“People don’t realise if your tax credits get adjusted next year, you are going to pay more tax next year because of the tax you didn’t pay this year. Take a proactive approach and put the money to one side if you can at all possibly do that.”

Meanwhile…

Listen back in full here

Wage Subsidy Scheme (Gov.ie)