Daily Telegraph
Irish Independent
Ah here.
A religiously altered quote from Daily Telegraph Golf journalist James Corrigan’s interview with Rory McIllroy in today’s Irish Independent.
Anyone?
Thanks Laurie James
Wordplay
at
Anyone?
By Mick Flavin
Risky Quizzness
The part-movie themed monthly quiz night at Irish Film Institute café bar [Temple Bar, Dublin].
They say:
Think you can be the general knowledge champion and beat the IFI Café Bar Regulars? Bring your brains and your best team names on Wednesday, September 2nd at 21.30 in the IFI Café Bar for a fun night of quizzing action. Film gets its own round but you’ll need some general knowledge too if your team is aiming for the top!
FIGHT!
Any excuse
Former Environment Minister Phil Hogan
The BRegs Blog was started in November 2013 as a forum for those interested to debate
the Building Control (Amendment) Regulations (BCAR) that were introduced on March 1, 2014.
In light of the Longboat Quay situation, this morning the blog writes:
It looks like there is a growing realisation that our new system of “reinforced” self-regulation i.e. BC(A)R SI.9 introduced in March 2014 will do little to prevent another Longboat Quay.
…As Minister for the Environment, before he decamped to Brussels as EU agriculture commissioner, Phil Hogan had the opportunity to remedy the situation by specifying that construction activity is monitored by suitably qualified local authority professionals, as in the past. Instead, he introduced a regime that merely requires a newly-completed building to be certified as compliant by an architect, structural engineer or other “assigned certifier”.
Widespread criticism, notably from within the architectural profession, that this would offer no real protection for buyers was blithely dismissed by Mr Hogan, who continued to insist that his light-touch approach “will provide consumers with the protection they need and deserve.”
The then minister went even further, stating in April 2013: “As soon as these regulations become operational, homeowners who encounter a problem with a building will be in a radically better place. They will be able to immediately access information which can lead them towards a solution to the problem.” …
Mr Hogan expressed his hope that the issue of latent defects insurance for construction projects would be addressed before the new regulations came into effect on March 1st last year. But this didn’t happen, with the result that residents of new apartment buildings subsequently found to be defective have no way of seeking redress for problems emphatically not of their own making. An appalling situation that must be brought to an end, and quickly.
Phil Hogan’s Building Regulations… “were a step backwards” (BRegsForum)
Related: SI9 Where Do I Start? (BRegsForum)
Previously: The Longboat Of The Law
Different Strokes For Different Folks
Rollingnews.ie
Lucinda Creighton at the launch of Renua’s pre-budget submission yesterday at the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin
Um.
You may recall how yesterday Lucinda Creighton announced Renua’s proposed tax plans which include a 23% flat tax and tax rebates, on a sliding scale, for those on welfare and lower income.
Under the proposals the disposable income of those on middle and higher incomes would increase. But those on the minimum wage would earn less.
This morning, Ms Creighton spoke to Seán O’Rourke about the proposals. Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty also took part in the discussion.
Seán O’Rourke: “Is Pearse Doherty right when he says you’re going to have people on the minimum wage paying more?”
Lucinda Creighton: “No, what we are proposing, at the moment, anybody who’s on the minimum wage, is in a trap. So if they receive a €10 increase, which amounts to, a €10-a-week increase, which amounts to €520 – rather than benefiting from that pay increase, they actually end up being worse off in terms of their net take home pay, so they actually end up being down €8, rather than up €10 or part of the €10. Under our proposal, for every extra euro that that person earns, for every extra hour that they work, they will be rewarded. They will be incentivised to work harder. There are incentives for employees [sic] to pay people better and there are incentives for people to actually take and accept pay rises. At the moment, there is no incentive because you lose money because of our bizarre PRSI system, you lose money on the minimum wage if you…”
O’Rourke: “But are you going to retain the present tax exemptions so that the credits that are there for people on low income.”
Creighton: “No, we’re not retaining tax credits. What we are proposing is a direct payment, a graduated basic income for everybody who is a low earner and that’s phased out or graduated out, up to an earning income level of €70,000 and that simplifies the system. It means people can see on their payslip what they’re receiving, what they’re contributing and everybody is incentivised to work. We have to make work pay. People pay lip service to it.”
Read Renua’s submission in full here
Listen back in full here
Previously: Way To Go
Mark Stedman/Rollingnews.ie
Roo The Day
at
Deliveroo, the online-based food delivery service (and this week’s broadsheet sponsor), has finally officially opened in Cork.
The website and app allows users to order food from local restaurants around the city delivered in an average of 32 minutes.
To celebrate, THREE Broadsheet readers will get €50 worth of Deliveroo credit.
To enter, simply complete this sentence…
‘During the average 32-minute wait for Deliveroo I like to_____________________________’
Lines MUST close at 5.45pm.
No way, Hosé
Marc, from YouthTuber, writes:
“Apparently at Halloween, Grannies give the best treats and you should NEVER watch ‘I Am Legend’… We asked these kids ‘What Makes An Irish Halloween?”
Previously: ‘It’s Like A Piece Of A Really Smelly Puzzle’
Pampered
at
Kilkenny hurler Henry Shefflin
Dr Jacky Jones writes:
The GAA and other sports organisations do great community work. The problems arise with the amount of media coverage given to male sport, and a complacent listenership. Irish sexist attitudes mean most people think the excess coverage is normal. Women are so used to being left out, ignored, sidelined, and occasionally indulged, that even they think the coverage is normal….
In the week following the All-Ireland hurling final, Seán O’Rourke interviewed Kilkenny hurler Henry Shefflin, who described his parenting when training as “15 minutes of fatherhood”. He writes about parenting, and how it impinged on his sports career… “I’d describe myself as a modern father, in that I’d happily change nappies, do my little bit.” On his 15 minutes of fatherhood: “I leave the house at 5.30 [15 minutes after he gets home from work], when I’m pulling back in the gate everyone’s in bed and asleep.”
Crying babies upset his routine: “To be woken by a teething baby in All-Ireland final week is to feel a rising panic. What if I don’t get back to sleep and end up feeling drained?” Who cares? Is sport as important as a child’s needs?
Unfortunately, this behaviour is par for the course, not only for sportsmen but for many Irish males.
….If sportsmen and their fans spent even a quarter of the time, energy and zest they devote to sport, to a campaign for publicly funded childcare, the country would be awash with cheap creches by Christmas. In fact, it is scary to think of how quickly they could make it happ
Byrned
at
Claire Byrne Live on RTE One last night
Last night, on RTÉ One’s Claire Byrne Live, there was a panel discussion about the forthcoming Budget before Ms Byrne interviewed Fianna Fáil leader Mícheál Martin.
The panel included economist Dan O’Brien, Fine Gael TD Simon Harris, Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty and sociologist Niamh Hourigan.
Social Democrat candidate Anne-Marie McNally writes:
Well it turns out that Claire Byrne live last night had zero interest in hearing from ANY election candidates despite having invited some of us out. It wasn’t just SocDems; FF & FG candidates were also studiously ignored.
We were all placed sitting in the same vicinity and hell or high water wasn’t going to make Claire call on us despite the raised hands.
Interesting debate but defo time that could’ve been better spent at home!
Cold.
Watch back here
Previously: Unchallenged