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)

Dublin city centre yesterday

a kind of ballet

the aisles are wide
we slide and turn
scanning the empty places
all the new and sudden spaces

with our trolleys and our paper faces
moving fluid
gaps between
we enter and leave
a kind of ballet

this is how it has to be
no muzak; silent ticking
we flow
in and out
a choreography
of survival

Spaces on the shelves
and
spaces between us
a dance no-one rehearsed for;
we orbit, lonely planets
and

the coffee and the bread
and the instant noodles
and the cereals
and kitchen towel
and petfood
are still here

but everything else has changed

Stephen Brady

Meanwhile…

After You’ve Wiped Your Arse But Before You’ve Washed Your Hands 

After you’ve wiped your arse but before
you’ve washed your hands,
you’re putting your life on the line.
You’re practically committing hara-kiri.
You could give yourself a very nasty
infection at the very least.

Because after you’ve wiped your arse
but before you’ve washed your hands
you have to stand up and pull up your trousers.
i.e. You have to touch your underpants and
your trousers with the four fingers and thumb
of the hand that has just wiped your arse.
(Unless you hop over to the sink
with your trousers and underpants
around your ankles, that is. Unlikely).

It’s not a healthy situation whichever
way you look at it. And please,
don’t look at it for too long.

No matter how many times you wash
and disinfect your hand in the sink
when you get over to it,
the danger will still be lurking
all over your trousers
and later in the evening
you’ll touch your trousers unconsciously
and perhaps then touch your face.

That’s the moment at which you are unwittingly
putting yourself in mortal danger.
Dicing with death. Screaming at Satan to
come and have a go if he thinks
he’s hard enough.

So I beseech you.
The solution is simple.
I suggest that after you’ve wiped your arse
but before you’ve washed your hands
you put a plastic glove on your wiping hand.
As a precaution.
And pull up your trousers
-wearing it. Then bin it immediately
when you get over to the sink.

Now please,
wash your hands

Camillus John

Meanwhile…

Squalor

We shall live in squalor
No visitors expected
No one rings the doorbell
No need to disinfect it

I’ll wear pyjamas if I want
Let my hair dry naturally
No point in ironing anymore
For nobody will see me

The stack of books beside the couch
Rises higher day by day
Dust gathers on the shelves
I want to blow it all away

I can’t be bothered anymore
Ain’t no one calling at my door
Dirty laundry hides the floor
A knob hangs off a wonky drawer

Who would I be tidying for?
Only thieves and robbers
I’d welcome them inside y’know
To beg, steal or borrow

No appetite for housework
It’s time I’d rather squander
I’m resigned to live in squalor
For just a little longer

Eimear Grace

Yesterday: Lines on the Lockdown

Lines on the lockdown to broadsheet@broadsheet.ie

Rollingnews

‘sup?

Last night.

Camden Street, Dublin 2.

Rollingnews

Meanwhile…

Zzzz.

CEO of the HSE Paul Reid, letter from Digital Rights Ireland to the HSE

Yesterday.

Further to a report in the Business Post by Susan Mitchell and Aaron Rogan on March 29 last that the HSE will be rolling out an opt-in “mobile phone tracking and tracing app” that will allow people to be notified if they were in close proximity to people who tested positive for Covid-19…

Digital Rights Ireland has written to the head of the HSE Paul Reid (above) asking to discuss the HSE’s plans for this app “and other digital initiatives” over a videoconference call.

It’s been previously reported that the HSE has been in contact with the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner about the track and trace app.

However, details of the app are not clear in terms of what information will be used, how and where this information will be stored and with whom it will be shared. It’s also not clear if the roll-out of the app will be subject to a time limit.

In its letter, Digital Rights Ireland, who successfully argued in the European Court of Justice in 2014 that laws requiring ISPs and mobile phone companies to log details of a phone user’s location, their texts, emails, internet use, and to store that information for up to two years, was a breach of privacy,  also asked for Mr Reid to provide it with the app’s Data Protection Impact Assessment.

It’s also not clear if such an assessment has been carried out.

Meanwhile, last night…

Phone tracking app set to be used as next step to fight Covid-19 (Susan Mitchell, Aaron Rogan, Business Post)

Previously: Track And Trace

G’Wan De Digital Rights

4G, 5G and data radio relay antennas on a Vodafone mast in Berlin, Germany

We all know how tough life can be
When you’re facing a threat you can’t see
But it also makes sense
That you’d have to be dense
To blame all of this on 5G

John Moynes

Reuters

This morning.

YOUR Prayers and hopes were answered!

RTÉ’s Ryan Tubridy returned to his RTÉ Radio One show after recovering from Covid-19.

Give him a raise.

Previously: ‘Tested Positive’

‘Persistent Cough’

Broadsheet.ie