Category Archives: News

news as it is happening-ish

THE GAP between the State’s future pension and social welfare liabilities and revenues to fund them stands at €324 billion, according to an unpublished report commissioned by the Government, which has been seen by The Irish Times. That figure is almost twice the size of the national debt as it currently stands.

The review of the Social Insurance Fund – the pot into which about €8 billion in pay-related social insurance contributions (PRSI) go to fund a range of benefits – was commissioned by the Department of Social Protection. Last year the fund’s annual shortfall stood at €1.5 billion, or 1.1 per cent of gross national product.

The bank bailout is a mere blip, people.

State will face €324bn shortfall over pensions (Dan O’Brien, Irish Times)

(Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland)

INDEPENDENT TD Mick Wallace plans to use the €41,000 a year “leader’s allowance” he has begun claiming to fund research into “different issues that concern the people of Ireland”, he has said.

Mr Wallace has for the first time defended his decision to join other Independent deputies in claiming the allowance, which is untaxed and unvouched. “If I don’t claim it, when all the others do, I am at a disadvantage,” he said last night.

The Wexford TD also indicated on his Facebook page that he has no intention of resigning over his building company’s evasion of €1.4 million in taxes.

“I’m also aware that some sections of the media want me out of politics – surely a good reason to stand and fight for what I believe in.”

Oh dear.

Mick Wallace to use ‘leader’s allowance’ to fund research (Paul Cullen, Irish Times)

(Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland)

THE PROPERTY tax will be pitched at 0.25 per cent of current house value, a Government source has predicted.

The source said the new tax to replace the €100 household charge “would not be a million miles away” from the example cited in an ESRI report focusing on a tax rate in the region of €2.50 to €3 per €1,000 of house value.

Minister of State for European Affairs Lucinda Creighton told The Irish Times last week there should be no automatic exemptions from property and water taxes for pensioners or social welfare recipients, although ability to pay should be taken into consideration.

Shouldn’t it, though?

Property tax to cost 0.25 per cent of house value (Mary Minihan, Irish Times)

(Sam Boal, Photocall Ireland)

THE DEPARTMENT of Health and drug manufacturers are close to a deal that could cut the State’s drugs bill by up to €400 million.

Yay!

Although the deal will save the HSE significant sums of money, its impact for consumers will be limited. This is because the prices of most generic drugs, which can range up to 94 per cent of those of their branded equivalents, are not affected.
The mark-up charged by pharmacists to private patients also remains unaffected. The prices Irish consumers pay for their medicines are among the highest in the world.

Oh.

Why trust one drug and not the other? That’s politics, innit?

State’s drug bill could fall by up to €400m under new deal (Paul Cullen, Irish Times)

 

DUBLIN CITY Council has launched legal proceedings arising from a large unauthorised Abercrombie Fitch advertisement on College Green.

The huge hoarding, which features a naked male torso, covers the front of a building undergoing extensive renovation for a new outlet for the US clothing chain.

The council says the advertisement has not got the required planning permission.

Damn spoilsports.

Council takes legal action over hoarding (Colm Keena, Irish Times)

(Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland)

The reviews were conducted by the Catholic Church’s own child protection watchdog, the National Board for Safeguarding Children (NBSC). Its chief executive Ian Elliott, (above) who led the reviews, described the findings as “disappointing”.

Maeve Lewis, executive director of the One in Four group, said after publication of the findings yesterday it was “as if certain senior churchmen continue to believe that child protection procedures are optional, and they are above the law of the land”.

She said in some areas of the church it was “as if the Ferns, Ryan, Dublin and Cloyne reports had never happened”.

New Garda inquiry sought into church practices on child safety (Patsy McGarry, Mary Minihan and John Fallon, Irish Times)

 

Yesterday: The Sacred Heart

(Sasko Lazarov/ Photocall Ireland)

Earlier

ENTERTAINMENT Enterprises, the entertainment and restaurant group run by brothers Colum and Ciarán Butler, has taken on the operation of all 27 Starbucks outlets in the Republic.

Up to yesterday, the brothers operated 10 of the outlets under licence, with the US multinational directly operating the rest.

The chain had just 19 stores in the Republic a year ago. It is intended that another will open shortly in the Stillorgan Shopping Centre, Dublin, also to be run by Entertainment Enterprises.

Staff were told the news yesterday. Starbucks-operated stores employ 210 staff. The number employed at the other stores is not known. There will be no job losses arising from the development.

 

Irish group to operate Starbucks stores (Colm Keena, Irish Times)

(Sam Boal/Photocall Iteland)

HEALTH CUTS and reduced public sector allowances for new entrants are continuing to provoke tensions in the Coalition ahead of this afternoon’s Cabinet meeting, the first since the summer break.

Minister of State for European Affairs Lucinda Creighton said yesterday it was not credible for Government backbenchers to suggest the recent announcement of a €130 million cost-reduction package by the Health Service Executive was a surprise.

“Whingeing and pretending that you were surprised by budget figures that were agreed last December is not really credible,” she said in an interview with The Irish Times.

“We all went into the Dáil chamber and voted for it, including all of the members of Labour and all of the members of Fine Gael. So let’s have the courage to stand over what we voted for last December and don’t pretend that it’s a surprise that the Department of Health has to meet certain targets.”

It’s so on…

Asses will be kicked. Faces will be slapped.

*popcorn, large Sprite, jelly snakes*

Coalition tensions persist over health cuts, public allowances (Mary Minihan, Deaglán de Bréadún and Martin Wall, Irish Times)

(Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland)

Up to four employees of the Socialist Party may lose their jobs as a result of the decision by Clare Daly TD to leave the party.

….the party’s one remaining TD Joe Higgins said he would be asking the relevant authorities to reduce his party leader’s allowance to reflect the fact that Ms Daly was no longer a member of the party.

Mr Higgins told The Irish Times the decision would have implications for the jobs of up to four party workers whose employment is funded by the money. In the immediate future the party would seek to cover the costs itself, through fund raising and subscriptions, he said.

Mr Higgins added that the €120,000 paid to the Socialist Party compared to some €4.5m paid to Fine Gael, €3.3million paid to Labour and some €2.6million paid to Fianna Fáil . 

Daly decision ‘has implications for jobs’ (Tim O’Brien, Irish Times)

Clare Daly denies exit from Socialist Party linked to Mick Wallace (RTE News)

(Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland)

TÁNAISTE EAMON Gilmore has refused to spell out Labour’s position on abortion before the Government-appointed expert group on the contentious issue reports next month.

Oh, go on, Tánaiste. Pop the lid on that coalition-splitting, spittle-flecked can o’ worms…

Mr Gilmore declined to say if he agreed or disagreed with the Labour leader in the Seanad, Senator Ivana Bacik, who insisted recently her party’s official position on abortion was pro-choice.

He said yesterday it was “prudent” to wait for the expert group to report, when asked for Labour’s view.

Earlier this week Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte said Labour’s position was well-established. “There’s no secret about the position that where the life of the mother is deemed at risk, our position is clear”

You’d think, wouldn’t you?

Tánaiste refuses to spell out Labour’s position on abortion (Mary Minihan, Irish Times)

(Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland)