StatusIreland

Here are the top 100 names for new born babies in Ireland in 2007. While “Bertie” is nowhere in the list the name “Brian” is just outside the top 50. It will be interesting to see how many children called “Barack” will be born in 08/09. There is a good chance however that the future leader of Ireland could be a Jack or Sarah, probably not an Enda though.

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Live register figures continue to climb. 26,700 people joined the live register in February bringing the total to almost 353,000 people now signing on.

The unemployment rate now stands at 10.4% which is the highest in almost 12 years. The jobs created by the ‘Celtic Tiger’ have now been eradicated in around 12 months and the country is faced with a worsening situation. As the government toy with which tax to increase and how to reduce public spending they will be aware more than anyone else that unemployment figures are set to continue increasing.

There is also the situation that these figures are not even accurate, long delays in dealing with Social Welfare claims means that many people who are currently unemployed are not yet even included in these figures.

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There has been much talk of energy prices over the past while and therefore we have put 2 new charts onto StatusIreland. These 2 charts show the cost of electricity across Europe and as you might expect Ireland is up there as one of the most expensive.

As the prices of electricity are calculated in bands we have posted those which are most relevant and informative. The lowest band for domestic is usage of under 1000kWh and for commercial <20 MWh, and the following chart illustrates what the average cost is for customers who fall into this bracket.

Ireland is clearly leading the pack here due to what seems to be outrageously high standing charges and network charges in comparison to the rest of Europe. Holiday homes which stand empty for most of the year would fall into this bracket.
The following chart illustrates the D band which represents usage of between 2500 kWh & 15000 kWh in 1 year for Domestic and between 2000 MWh & 20,000 MWh for Commercial:

While more in line with Europe it shows Ireland still up there as one of the highest in Europe in a band that many people would fall into.

Obviously electricity prices are very complex and these figures are only some of what is available so for more information it is worth a visit to www.sei.ie which can help answer some more questions.

Finance, ireland cost, Department of Communications Energy and Natural Resources, electricity, Energy, European Union