Back in a jiffy.
Housekeeping
at
Back in a jiffy.
Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe outside government buildings this morning
This afternoon.
Merrion Street, Dublin 2.
The cabinet will discuss whether Ireland should sign up to global corporation tax reforms that will see our ‘cherished’ 12.5% rate increased to 15%.
The deal brokered by the OECD offers little choice.
Via RTÉ:
The plan proposes changes to where companies would pay their taxes, that the Department of Finance has estimated could reduce Ireland’s tax take by €2bn a year.
The 12.5% tax rate has been a cornerstone in Ireland’s successful foreign direct investment offering for decades and has been fiercely defended by successive governments.
While it accepted parts of the plan governing where companies should pay their tax, it objected to the reference to a global minimum tax rate of “at least 15%” being included in the plan, arguing it created uncertainty because the phrasing would mean the rate could be increased further at a later date.
Donohoe says he is expecting revised corporation tax proposals (RTÉ)
The Antarctic has experienced the coldest winter on record since records began in 1947. With both poles covered by ice all year round, the world is in an ice age, which has lasted 2.6 million years.
South Pole froze over in coldest winter on record https://t.co/7vwXCZgVL5— Peter Clack (@PeterDClack) October 7, 2021
Oh.
How polar bear you.
Abbacaxi – More Than I Need
And the beat goes on.
Irish multi-instrumentalist Abbacaxi (top) combines his love of disco, funk and classic house on his new single.
Abbacaxi says:
“I wrote this track because I was getting tired of the unpredictability of certain things in my life, which had great value. Over time I started to feel that perhaps less is more. Maybe these things weren’t as important as I initially thought, and life could be just as good without them.”
Nick says: Flaming groovy.
UN/WELL
An exhibition of sculpture, photography and painting by Dublin born artist Ana Carey (top) at the International Bar, Wicklow Street, Dublin 8 from Thursday, October 9.
Ana says:
My exhibition is a journey back to art. I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder some years ago. Long before this happened I have always been intrigued with the human form. I have explored the strength and frailty of both the human body and human spirit through sculpture, photography and painting.
Thanks Alan Bracken
The current affairs podcast presented by William Campbell (right) goes country.
William writes:
Is there something wrong with rural Ireland? Is there a common reason for its various social and economic and social problems? And if so, is there someone to blame, or even something we could fix? The Here’s How podcast talks to an academic expert on rural affairs, UCD’s Dr Karen Keaveney (above).
Listen here
Lab Leak
at
Last night/this Morning.
Project Veritas released the fifth video in its COVID vaccine investigative series featuring Pfizer insider Melissa Strickler, who revealed apparently leaked internal emails that show executives telling staff to be secretive about the use of human fetal tissue in laboratory testing of the COVID vaccine.
Previously: Follow The Scientists
A friend (@hughmurphy00) and I are both looking for a room each to rent in Dublin.
Preferable budget: Less than €600
We’re both students.
If anyone knows of anywhere, please let us know.
Retweets would be really appreciated! #rentfairy #dublin
— Ryan Kelly (@RianOCeallaigh) October 7, 2021
This morning.
Anyone?
Thanks Alan Bracken
From top: Tom Burke snapping Charles Haughey and Liam Lawlor in 1990; Enda Kenny in 2010; Leo Varadkar in 2016; Gerry Adams and Sinn Féin TDs in 2011 and keeping warm outside Leinster House in 2009
Yesterday.
The death of veteran Irish journalist and former Irish Independent photographer Tom Burke at the age of 78 was announced. Mr Burke joined the paper in 1967 and recorded everything from the Troubles to Nelson Mandela’s visit, but is best known for capturing events at Leinster House.
RIP
Tom Burke: A legendary photographer who was a true professional and a gentleman (Independent.ie)
From top: Economist Dan O’Brien believes house prices and rents are declining; Anthony Sheridan
You’re talking absolute bullshit, journalist Larissa Nolan told economist Dan O’Brien on RTÉ’s Brendan O’Connor Show.
The issue was housing and O’Brien was telling the nation that house prices and rents were declining and that people should stop catastrophising everything.
It’s astonishing that O’Brien, the chief economist with the Institute of International & European Affairs, is so ignorant of the extent and causes of the housing crisis.
Ms. Nolan also admitted that she didn’t fully understand the underlying reasons but during the discussion she uttered two words that come into common use when a political system becomes hopelessly corrupt – treason and revolution.
Why treason, O’Connor asked in surprise?
Her reply [paraphrased]:
“Because the government has betrayed the people by ignoring their needs in favour of facilitating profit for private landlords.”
She’s not the only person to hold this opinion. Here’s Dr. Rory Hearne, Assistant Professor of Social Policy at Maynooth University:
‘Rising rents is Government policy, and has been since 2011, in order to attract the vulture and real estate investor funds and raise property values to benefit banks.’
Ms. Nolan outlined her personal position in stark terms:
“I’m in the professions, I work 52 weeks of the year and I am nowhere near to being able to buy a one bedroom apartment for me and my son, and that is wrong. There will be a revolution on this soon if it isn’t fixed.”
O’Brien, in a further demonstration of his ignorance, asked Ms. Nolan:
“Why would any government who wants to win votes have a policy to make housing more expensive?”
Nolan admitted she didn’t know but then, unwittingly, provided the answer:
“They wanted the rents to go higher and it is now out of control and everybody’s being affected. It didn’t matter so much when it was a certain class being affected, that’s not my view but I notice that socially…and now that it’s moving up the ladder, it’s affecting middle class people with good wages.”
As Ms. Nolan says, things have got out of control. The disease of corruption has debased the political system to such an extent that there is now only one policy – ensure that house prices and rents continue to soar in order to feed the greed of the rich few. That policy, long inflicted on the poor, is now beginning to destroy the wealth of the middle class.
All corrupt regimes exploit and abuse the powerless poor at the bottom of the pile principally by denying basic rights and inflicting oppressive taxes.
European aristocracies engaged in this despotism for centuries until an emerging merchant/middle class found it necessary to begin cutting off heads in order to gain power and respect.
Ms. Nolan describes herself as being ‘in the professions’. In other words, she [accurately] sees herself as middle class. And it is the middle class that invariably leads the people in destroying corrupt political regimes.
When the middle class begin to [correctly] describe government as treasonous and suggest revolution as a possibility then a bout of head rolling cannot be far away.
Anthony Sheridan is a freelance journalist and blogs at Public Enquiry.