Dublin bus has stopped all services in Dublin City due to the severe weather conditions. There website says:
Dublin Bus wishes to advise customers that due to the recent heavy snowfall there is serious disruption to most services. There are dangerous driving conditions on all main city arteries and we are waiting for roads to be made safe before resuming services. We will have more up to date information available here as soon as possible.
The last of the buses can be seen leaving the city via Dublin City Council cameras:
It’s good to see some passion on Irish media and I think this guy even has a point to make somewhere. Pat Kenny however didn’t seem to see the funny side. The man was brought away and Pat Kenny now uses his skull as a tea cup.
As the Unions position their members for some cold nights outside it’s sure to be a tough time for businesses, workers and the government over the next few months.
Looking at the figures for the first half of this year however and compared to the previous years it seems that things are might not be as tough as the were in the 80’s and 90’s. It seems also that there are many people willing to strike but not for long. It is working out as just over an hour for each person in the first half of 2009. Compare that to 2008 where the average per worker was nearly 12 hours.
The second half of 2009, particularly the last few months, may help to level these figures out. Time will tell.
The winner of RTÉ’s recent Storyland competition is gaining quite a following online. Set in the fictional town of Castletown, Co. Mayo ‘The Hardy Bucks’ follows the lives of a group of twenty-something locals who spend most of their days doing as little as possible. Hopefully RTÉ will give this show the air time it really deserves. It would be a rare thing for them!
A member survey by the Irish Auctioneers & Valuers Institute (IAVI) has confirmed that value of houses has dropped by an average of 9.2% nationwide in the second quarter of the year.
While this will not come as a big surprise to many it is good that this news is coming from the mouths of those who have for so long stoked the fires of the property bubble. If the auctioneers are resigned to the fact that the falls in prices are drastic then you know it must be true.. or even worse.
The economist illustrate how the steady decline in house prices in countries around the world has encouraged some people back into the market very recently. Ireland, however, is one of the few exceptions to this trend. The economist sights Ireland and Spain as having “big supply gluts” which are likely to push down prices for a long time.
It is a fair assumption that the majority of those renting cars in Ireland are tourists. Many arrive into this country on a Boeing 737 having clicked their way into Ryanair’s production line and arrive at the other end with their 15kgs in hand. They have already had their first experience of Ireland before they even know it and if they found the journey here a little less luxurious they are fully aware of what they were getting. They price reflected it.
As many of these budget explorers head to their car rental outlets they assume that their next mode of transport will carry on from their previous. They went online, researched the places to rent from and then proceeded to book their car for their time in Ireland. So it’s a Bank holiday in Ireland, €60 for a car. You can’t beat that.
The car rental companies in Ireland, however, seem to think that the price you pay and the price you were quoted when you book are two different things. It seems that the €60 is more of a ball park for tourists looking to rent a car. As an example, take 2 of the biggest car rental companies in Ireland; Budget car rental and Europcar. It seems that when you collect your car you are told that the insurance you paid for online only covers… well pretty much nothing. If you have a crash you are liable for an excess in the region of a few grand so it makes sense to take out the extra insurance to bring that excess down to around €100. If you’ve booked with Europcar that’ll be an extra €14.09 a day please. There is also an extra Windows and Tyres insurance for €5 a day. How would you like to pay for that? As we don’t accept cash we will accept your credit card so that’ll be €5 extra too. Also, you are collecting the car from us so you’re going to have to pay the €10 “City centre premium” with Europcar and what seems to be €25 for the privilege of collecting the car from the airport. Budget car rental like to treat their customers to a €28 surcharge for both city and airport collections.
So let’s add that all up for our tourist. A car rental for 3 days which was quoted online at 60.78 will actually cost our tourist (AFTER V.A.T.) €151.01 from Europcar and budget are no different. That’s almost 250% of what the budget tourist was quoted.
You’ve been in Ireland 30 minutes and you already want to leave. Oh and before you do leave could you please pay our government €10 departure tax.
Welcome to Ireland, why don’t you tell your friends about us while we’re over here shooting ourselves in the foot.
Fine Gael have a very unique approach to health care in Ireland. They seem to want people to get a good deal. They want to spend tax payers money on things like Doctors and Nurses and good hospitals. They use strange words in their plans like ACCOUNTABILITY. They’re going to weird countries like Netherlands and asking strange questions like “So what are ye lot up ta over here then?”
I don’t understand. It does not compute. It is obviously a joke. Their FairCare plan looks to spend money on healthcare in a good way based on what has succeeded in other similar countries.
This is obviously a con, they even give their Health Spokesman weird titles to make it seem like he knows what’s important. What’s a Dr. anyway. Sorry Fine Gael. Nice try but we’re going to stick with Mary Harney or if you want her official title it’s Mrs Brian “My wife got me a job at Fás” Geoghegan. She know’s everything about health.
One of the areas of change spoken about in the report is the area of the public sector. Public sector reform is, at this stage, a jaded conversation but clearly when top economists point to it as an area of serious concern then it is a sign that things need to happen here.
“The public pay bill has almost tripled since 2000 to reach almost €19bn (encompassing the recent pensions levy) in 2009. This increased cost base has led to a cost-push impact on prices across the economy and has not been matched by improvements in productivity. At a minimum, savings of c.€4bn need to be made to bring public pay/GNP back to 11%, in line with the 2003-2007 average.” – Joint Broker Research Report
In 9 years the public sector pay bill has tripled but equally as important is that productivity is nowhere near this and this fact is evident in almost every section of the public sector with health being the biggest of the black holes.
In order to get this economy turned around it will take at least 3-5 years but this is only if changes are put in place right now. The area of public sector pay has to be adjusted. It will cause pain to those who probably have never before experienced it but there will be little or no sympathy from the general public who have been shouldering 99% of the burden of this bust until now.
Unemployment at the end of March stands at 11% and counting. 369,100 people work in the public sector so there is room for optimisation in every department. There are other ways to reduce this number for the short term such as offering an incentivised career break for 3 years or so, offering early retirement to senior management, offering shorter working weeks etc.
The government have estimate that in 2009 they will need to borrow €23 billion to balance the books, a figure revised up from an €18 billion estimate only a few weeks before. The problem is serious.
Reducing the headcount will help to reduce the problem in the short term but more importantly put the country on the road to a speedier recovery. It is time that this government finally got it’s house in order. The same people have been there for long enough.
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.
