A Special Guest

Admin at 12:43 pm January 12, 2016

One of a small number of extremely fortunate Bowie fans from back in the day writes:

It was very cloak and dagger. Can’t remember exactly how I heard about it initially, but the procedure was that you had to attend a drum and bass gig run by Quadraphonic in The Kitchen nightclub [Clarence Hotel, Temple Bar, Dublin] a few days before, and find the person who would then give you a ticket (like the one above).

I did this, and went on my own, as no one else I knew seemed to grasp how important this was/. I spent a night in a small room with less than 200 people with free drink and food as Bowie and his band did a whole concert. I am extremely grateful to life now for providing this amazing experience.

David Bowie’s secret gig at the Factory, Ringsend in May 1997 (Cormac Larkin, irish Times)

Of The Moment

Admin at 12:31 pm January 12, 2016

Wise words from the American philosopher William James (1842 – 1910)

For the month of new leaves and false starts that’s in it.

thisisnthappiness

A Limerick A Day

John Moynes at 12:29 pm January 12, 2016

Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall at the Rugby World Cup Final 2015

Old Rupert and young Jerry Hall,
Have news that may just appall,
His newspaper’s said,
That the pair will be wed,
Which is charming, not creepy at all.

John Moynes

(Getty)

Everybody Knows Him Now

Admin at 12:16 pm January 12, 2016

“Can you find a local angle on this Bowie feller?” pic.twitter.com/z6XT0gkgtz

— Michael Moran (@TheMichaelMoran) January 12, 2016

Old Coulsdon man delivered David Bowie’s milk in summer of ’69 (Croydon Advertiser)

Fire Starters

Admin at 12:04 pm January 12, 2016

Following a fire in Islandbridge, Dublin 8, last night.

Dublin Fire Brigade tweetz:

“A fire in Islandbridge last night caused by a charging device on a duvet. Be safe. Bed and gadgets don’t mix.”

Independents’ Charter

Admin at 11:31 am January 12, 2016

This morning.

Independent Alliance candidates, and the group’s Charter For Change, are announced ahead of the forthcoming general election.

Meanwhile…

.@CllrMcGuinness, who ran in two by-elections for Fianna Fail in Dublin West, officially joined @IndepAlliance this morning

— Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly) January 12, 2016

And…

Pics: Gavan Reilly

Independent Alliance

How Low Can We Go?

Admin at 11:30 am January 12, 2016

From top: Enda Kenny and Joan Burton at government buildings yesterday; Michael Taft.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny plans to move Ireland ” to US levels of income tax”.

So what does he think we have already?

Michael Taft writes

Ireland already has a US-style taxation system – if we use general government revenue as the benchmark.Before the crash Ireland was awash with revenue from the speculative boom; revenue that quickly evaporated. Since then, Irish government revenue has been steadily falling.

The graph (above) is what the EU Ameco [the annual macro-economic database of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs] database tells us:

By 2017:

The Government projects revenue will be below 32 percent of GDP. When we factor in multi-national accountancy practices, this figure rises to 34.5 percent

Ameco projects that US revenue will be 34 percent

Ameco also projects that Eurozone revenue will be over 46 percent.

A few things stand out in this. First, we are already at low US low-levels of taxation. Second, we are certainly not at European norms. We’d have to raise taxation by a mind-boggling €26 billion to reach the Eurozone average.

Even with the demographic benefit of having fewer elderly (which is substantially negated by a higher level of young people) we’d have to increase taxation massively.

Third, the Government projections foresee revenue falling even further out to 2021 when it will be below 34 percent.

And here’s the kicker: this doesn’t factor in tax cuts that a future government may introduce. For instance, Fine Gael wants to abolish USC. That will drive tax revenue down further, potentially falling behind US levels.

When measured as a percentage of GDP, Ireland is at the bottom of EU tables – fighting it out with Romania and Latvia for the rock bottom prize. Nods towards quality health and education services, childcare and eldercare, public transport, pensions and incomes supports are made, but these are little more than nods; perfunctory gestures in a debate that effectively excludes the social.

What the Taoiseach really wants is for Ireland to be a basement-without-a-bargain economy where public resources are squeezed, investment is starved, and the energy bulb frequently cuts out without any window to let in the light.

Michael Taft is Research Officer with Unite the Trade Union. His column will appear here every Tuesday. Follow Michael on Twitter: @notesonthefront

In Defence Of Eircode

Admin at 11:06 am January 12, 2016

Nothing encapsulates the awful level of Irish policy discourse like Eircode.

Rather than an objective analysis of the pros and cons, the “debate” is dominated by a series of illogical, contradictory and inaccurate tirades from individuals and vested interests who refuse to consider the bigger picture or long-term benefits.

First and most importantly it is never acknowledged that the only way to bring about a near-hierarchical addressing system would be to allocate road or route numbers to every single non-unique address in the country.

As most roads traverse more than one townland and most townlands contain more than one road, the traditional townland line will not fit properly into these new addresses. Space would have to be reserved for new buildings, resulting in address such as “J Murphy, No 3001 L3867, Ballymagash”.

Do your correspondents really think this would be a significant improvement over the Eircode system? Given the vast resources (dwarfing the Eircode outlay) that would be required to assign route numbers to every highway and byway, mansion and cottage in the country, it would need to be.

Eircode features code redundancy and checking so that a emergency telephone operator immediately sees if an Eircode is valid or if a character is incorrect.

That is not the case with regular street numbers or a GPS system; therefore Gerard Bennett’s advice (January 11th) that readers should avoid Eircode (presumably in favour of manual directions) is truly baffling, if not dangerous.

The Eircode website features an excellent mapping system that can link to a mobile phone’s mapping app. Offline maps from the leading manufacturers will soon be available and will work in areas with no mobile phone reception. This will be an enormous boon to the emergency services and lost tourists.

If adopted by Government and the public service, the new unique addresses have the potential to reduce fraud, waste and errors in many services and in revenue collection and disbursement. As a law-abiding and tax-compliant citizen, I would certainly welcome this.
I also look forward to the day when I can send birthday gifts to my niece without a courier telephoning me to request turn-by-turn directions.

Matthew Glover,
Lucan,
Co Dublin.