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[] | 2016-08-28T22:51:12 | null | 2016-08-28T22:09:00 | Midfielder pops up with winner at San Mames | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fsoccer%2Frakitic-header-earns-barca-victory-in-bilbao-1.2771410%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771404.1472418049!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Rakitic header earns Barca victory in Bilbao | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Champions Barcelona came through a gruelling La Liga test at a rainswept San Mames yesterday, beating Athletic Bilbao 1-0 thanks to Ivan Rakitic’s first-half header.
The Croatia midfielder glanced in Arda Turan’s cross to complete a sweeping move started by Luis Suarez and settle the visiting side’s nerves after a few early scares, including goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen giving the ball away in his own area.
Barca grew in confidence as the game went on and stand-in captain Lionel Messi spurned two second-half chances while Suarez also failed to capitalise on a couple of clear opportunities.
Luis Enrique’s men almost lived to regret their profligacy as Bilbao’s Raul Garcia fired narrowly wide and Iker Muniain had a late penalty appeal turned down.
Barca now have two wins from two league games this season and lie second in the table on points difference behind surprise leaders Las Palmas. Newly-promoted Las Palmas have also taken a maximum six points after hammering Granada 5-1 at the Estadio de Gran Canaria. | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/rakitic-header-earns-barca-victory-in-bilbao-1.2771410?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/43a21d14c2b654f5dfd45e78193451c546e2f547ab625cf88629aa236d83c803.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T14:52:39 | null | 2016-08-30T14:31:00 | Enduring problems such as rents and vacant properties must be faced up to | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fopinion%2Fcoming-months-will-tell-us-if-government-has-the-will-to-deliver-on-housing-plan-1.2773071%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773067.1472563877!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Coming months will tell us if Government has the will to deliver on housing plan | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The Government’s housing action plan, Rebuilding Ireland, marked a step forward. It brought together a broad spectrum of stakeholders in a single overarching plan with many positive elements. Yet, it must be acknowledged that the enduring issues that continue to give rise to our broken housing system have yet to be solved. The risk is that should we fail to take the decisions necessary to tackle these issues we may simply end up managing the symptoms rather than curing the underlying illness.
As the action plan enters a critical phase the coming months, we should see important strategies on vacant housing re-use and the rental system published in the coming months. These two strategies, together with the establishment of the Housing Delivery Office, which has among its critical tasks, land management supply and affordability, leaves us on course to tackle three areas which have traditionally proved difficult for those in Government.
The National Vacant Housing Re-use Strategy will bring issue of private property rights to the fore. A topic that is traditionally a red line issue in political circles. A full and proper debate on private property rights must take place to create an effective Housing Re-use Strategy.
An incentive based model to realise vacant housing units is set out in the action plan. This avoids more assertive actions or any implicit support for a major scheme to compulsorily purchase empty homes in private ownership. The incentive based model rewards the owners of these vacant properties by allowing them retain the asset, secure a guaranteed income and get a grant for works needed. This implies that policy makers remain unwilling to move to favour measures for the common good. This is highly problematic because an incentive model offers no guarantees of the return to use of these units in any great numbers, in a coordinated or timely manner and in no way addresses how the stockpile of so many vacant properties arises.
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It is, or it was until recently, the view of the Housing Agency that the equivalent of two years’ worth of housing could be delivered through assertive action on empty private properties. However, in the Housing Action Plan the Housing Agency has only been given a firm commitment that it can purchase 1,600 repossessed, vacant former buy-to-let units held by financial institutions. That is 0.8% of all the 198,000 vacant residential units in Ireland (excluding holiday homes).
In Dublin, vacant properties are concentrated in the urban core and re-using them offers a chance to revitalise the city, and match housing need with housing availability. With just over 1,000 properties to rent in the capital, and rents for accommodation rising rapidly, making a major dent on vacant stock could ease pressure on those dependant on the rental system.
The rental sector will have a new strategy by year end and one critical factor that needs to be addressed is how to achieve affordability, something that is not controlled by supply alone. Achieving affordability is crucial because it impacts upon everyone from those who are forced to sleep rough through to senior executives of multinational companies. Affordable rents would offer tenants greater security of tenure because it would mean they would have the capacity to meet modest increases, and not as many now are a rent increase away from losing their accommodation. It can also make the rental system a realistic long term option. Affordable rents are also crucial in limiting increases in public expenditure year on year as the State pays for housing supports for those relying on the private rental market. Ultimately, making sure that rents are affordable is for the common good because more money is then available to be spent by tenants in other areas of the economy. It would also prevent the creation of a barrier to economic growth that could arise should FDI companies choose not to invest in a country that can neither provide affordable nor enough housing for its workforce.
To achieve affordability there are two critical issues, more of the type that Governments do not like to address, land speculation and rent regulation. Rooting out and preventing land speculation, which drives up the cost and impacts on the availability of land for housing, is a critical cost control factor. Land costs are dispporopriantely high in Ireland and set in motion a chain that ultimately delivers overpriced units of accommodation for owner occupiers, investors and tenants. The Housing Delivery Office will need to ensure frameworks are in place to prevent speculation. If not a relative few will gain at nearly everyone else’s expense and we will see more overpriced units of accommodation being produced.
Overpriced units undermine affordability both in the new affordable rental system and the traditional private rental market. In the private rental market investors would either be put off by the poor value for money that the overpriced units represent or, should they invest, are investing larger sums of money to buy the units. This means higher initial rents for tenants. The proposed affordable rent system, (an Irish variant of cost rental systems where rents charged are equal to the cost of the housing unit plus maintenance cost and do not include a profit yield) would be fundamentally undermined as rents are pushed higher than the capacity of low and middle income households. If the affordable rents are not affordable then the scheme fails.
In the absence of effective regulation, rent increases for new rental properties coming on the market and those properties between tenancies, are likely to continue to increase at a rate well beyond the Consumer Price Index removing any semblance of affordability. Landlords and investors will be free to secure quicker returns and higher yields in a market where they hold all the control.
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These enduring problems mean that the foundations of Ireland’s dysfunctional housing system must be addressed. The political will and power that brought about Rebuilding Ireland remain and now in the coming weeks and months we hope to finally see these fundamental issues tackled head on.
Pat Doyle is the chief executive of the Peter McVerry Trust | http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/coming-months-will-tell-us-if-government-has-the-will-to-deliver-on-housing-plan-1.2773071?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/ceffaae6df625c095325d830101037598501d557344d04a9d4a55b69a6283bec.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T12:50:18 | null | 2016-08-27T13:00:00 | Beating the Dubs a mere bagatelle for canny Kerry natives - GAA’s El Classico equivalent | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fgaelic-games%2Fgaelic-football%2Fa-bluffer-s-guide-to-dublin-and-kerry-s-football-rivalry-1.2770728%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2770727.1472288247!/image/image.jpg | en | null | A Bluffer’s Guide - to Dublin and Kerry’s football rivalry | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Is this Gaelic football’s equivalent of El Classico?
Look, there’s to be no soccer references in this piece. They have played 28 times in the Championship with Kerry leading 19-7 with two drawn matches so it might be a bit of a stretch to call it a rivalry – but Dublin have won the last three so . . .
What about that compelling series in the 1970s, when men had sideburns, long hair, short shorts, socks without elastic and everything up to an including GBH was permitted in the game. Don’t people go all dewy-eyed about the great clashes in the 1970s?
That may be down to the fact that on rainy afternoons in August and September the dye that ran from those crepe paper hats was something of an irritant. It was the bespoke fashion item of the time, Sunday suit and crepe hat – then the three Ms; mass, meal and the match.
Were the matches of the 1970s part of a cultural exchange programme?
The Dublin-Kerry clashes of that time are a storied part of the GAA and are directly responsible for the twinning of suburbs in Dublin like Cabra with Kerry towns like Cahersiveen to honour the players born in those places..
How do you mean?
Well how often have you seen a Dublin footballer pictured walking down a street, a beach or a mountain in the Kingdom or a Kerryman peer out from behind a pint of porter in the snug of a Dublin pub? They were arguably more celebrated in each other’s counties.
Is it true that one or two of the players took up positions in the Party Planning industry, cleverly realising the massive public appetite to endlessly celebrate the past?
That’s scurrilous. Just because those teams have had about 172 reunions to reminisce: they had a lot to get through. And anyway they did talk about other things apparently, like golf and where they’d play next like Thailand or the Dominican Republic to spread the ‘good old days’ gospel.
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The crowds that watched those matches were huge.
Yes, bolstered by those lifted over a turnstile and admitted free. Not only children – there were some hairy minors trying.
So the Dubs, the reigning All-Ireland champions, only have to turn up on Sunday to guarantee victory?
Not even the ‘truest blue’ on Hill 16 would dare think. In 2009 Dublin went into their All Ireland Championship quarterfinal clash with Kerry as raging favourites but after 70 plus minutes were transformed into bemused Forficula Auricularia.
I beg your pardon? Startled earwigs.
Can Kerry sell the prospect of winning on Sunday to those non-believers outside the Kingdom?
They came up came up with the idea of putting a Jack Russell terrier on the back of a donkey on a bend in the road 300 yards before the bridge over the Caragh river on the road between Killorglin and Glenbeigh, getting busloads of Americans to stop and while taking pictures sell them pots, pans and tat. Beating the Dubs will be a mere bagatelle. | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/a-bluffer-s-guide-to-dublin-and-kerry-s-football-rivalry-1.2770728?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/f69d5ff424f2755c2ae58b19064cd6d366416c7ae16ee3fee5dfe05acca0f243.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T10:49:23 | null | 2016-08-31T10:00:00 | Hudson Yards will see new skyscrapers and cover 28 acres of midtown Manhattan | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fcommercial-property%2Fmassive-real-estate-development-to-alter-new-york-skyline-1.2772949.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772947.1472572009!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Massive real estate development to alter New York skyline | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The skyline of New York is being transformed by the biggest real estate development ever in the US.
The project, called Hudson Yards, will see new skyscrapers tip the clouds and cover an area of 28 acres of midtown Manhattan between 10th and 12th Avenues and from 30th-33rd Streets. The site is bounded to the west by an elevated parkway, the Highline.
The $20 billion development by privately owned US Related Companies and Toronto-headquartered Oxford Properties will include more than 17 million sq ft of commercial and residential space.
Ambitious scheme
It will include 100-plus shops, a collection of restaurants and food outlets, 4,000 residences, a 750-pupil public school, a 200-room hotel, a cultural space called the Shed and 14 acres of public parks. The extension of the No 7 Subway line will also serve Hudson Yards.
The yards refer to the rail yards of the Metropolitan Transport Authority, Amtrak, New Jersey Transit and the Long Island Rail Road where the development is happening. The massive construction project is being built on two platforms over the existing 30 active tracks where the trains are stored.
There are 23,000 working on the construction phase, and when completed in 2024, 125,000 people will work in, visit and call Hudson Yards home.
Manhattan stands on bedrock and 300 caissons are being drilled 20-80ft into the rock to form the platforms for the development. The trains will be cooled by massive fans similar to aircraft engines. The platforms are engineered to support large scale planting and act as a reservoir for storm-water management.
The first phase of the project, 10 Hudson, a 52-storey block, opened on July 1st, and the initial tenants are Coach and L’Oreal. Space has also been rented by SAP, The Boston Consulting Group and Sidewalk Labs, a subsidiary of Alphabet.
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The tallest block will be 30 Hudson Yards at the southwest corner of 33rd Street and 10th Avenue. The 1,296ft tall building will be 90 storeys, and the second tallest in the city with 2.6 million sq ft. Designed by Bill Pedersen of Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, it will have the highest outdoor observation desk in Manhattan. The One World Observatory stands at 102 storeys high.
Early movers
Time Warner has already acquired 1.5 million sq ft of office space and plans to move 5,000 employees from its corporate operations as well as CNN, Turner Broadcasting and Warner Bros entities under one roof for the first time. KKR, a global investment firm, has acquired the top 10 office floors of 343,000sq ft, and Wells Fargo has taken 500,000sq ft. Both firms are relocating their corporate offices to the tower.
The first residential building to open will be 15 Hudson Yards at 30th Street and 11th Avenue. The 910ft tall block will offer 391 units for sale and for rent. It will be adjacent to the Highline and have access to the Shed. The Shed cultural space will be a multi-purpose venue and is expected to be ready for New York Fashion week in 2019.
Residents will have unobstructed views of the city and the Hudson River. There will also be a fitness centre by Equinox, concierge lobby, garage, valet parking and pet-friendly services. The building is expected to be completed in 2018.
The other two towers will be 35 Hudson Yards, a mixture of residential, Equinox Hotel, Equinox Fitness, offices and retail, and 55 Hudson Yards, at 780ft block which will have 1.3 million sq ft of offices. It was designed by A. Eugene Kohn of KPF Associates and Irish-born Kevin Roche, a Pritzer Prize winning architect, and will have a dramatic outdoor terrace on the 10th floor.
A one million square foot seven-storey mall will house the shops and restaurants at Hudson Yards. There will be the first Nieman Marcus luxury department store in New York City and more than 100 retail units.
Six acres of gardens and public plazas in the Eastern Yard will have a major piece of public art designed by English sculptor Thomas Heatherwick and costing more than €150 million to develop. The design is being kept secret for the moment but is expected that it will be to Manhattan what the Eiffel Tower is to Paris. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/commercial-property/massive-real-estate-development-to-alter-new-york-skyline-1.2772949 | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/6a971be73b2bf0267a355f0f9119e5561f0bf68ae03d5e62d106e5a7e6813d97.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T12:57:20 | null | 2016-08-26T12:16:00 | Get on your bike if you want to meet leading investors or start-up bosses and start pedalling | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Ftechnology%2Fcycling-the-in-sport-in-silicon-valley-1.2769365.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769364.1472214130!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Cycling - the ‘in’ sport in Silicon Valley | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Thinking he needed to take up a “California sport,” Greg Gretsch started cycling in 1988, when he moved to the Bay Area to work in marketing at Apple after graduating from the University of Georgia. He bought a 10-speed road bike and joined a group of other Apple employees for a standing noon ride.
“I think I went four miles before I got dropped,” he said, a reference to being left behind by faster riders.
Today, Gretsch (49) is a founding partner with San Francisco-based Jackson Square Ventures, which makes early-stage investments in fledgling companies, including a social network and performance-tracking app for athletes call Strava.
He rides an average of five days a week on paved roads in the Bay Area and on trails near his second home near Lake Tahoe. Cycling is primarily for exercise and escape, he said, but it has also been good for his career. “Connecting with people is important to what I do, and you can learn a lot about a person, and from a person, on the bike,” said Gretsch, who founded three companies before going into venture capital in 2000 at a firm called Sigma Partners.
For many years, cycling has been the sport of choice for workers in the region’s highly competitive tech community, the antidote to more leisurely pursuits like golf. But just like golf, it has become a way for investors and executives to socialise and strike deals.
Fast-track connections
Max Levchin (41), one of the founders of PayPal who has a well-known cycling obsession, recalls how some people have tried to pitch ideas to him during his typically breakneck daily training sessions, cruising at more than 30km/h. “I’ve been pitched companies on the bike, but I tend to ride fairly fast,” said Levchin, who is an early-stage investor and chief executive of the San Francisco-based financial services company Affirm.
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It was through cycling that he got to know one of his Affirm co-founders, Jeffrey Kaditz. “We did a training ride,” Levchin said, “and he was one of the faster riders out there.”
Sami Inkinen, a co-founder of the real estate website Trulia and an accomplished triathlete, made the case for his startup, Virta Health, while on a ride this year with Levchin and another investor and cycling enthusiast, Raymond Tonsing of Caffeinated Capital. That was exceptional, Levchin recalled. “It’s rare that you have someone who can pitch a company while riding hard, and I’m not going to slow down.”
Tonsing invested shortly after the ride, and Levchin joined in several months later.
‘My shrink’
Steve Anderson, founder of Baseline Ventures, which was the first investor in Instagram, has heard investment ideas while cycling, “but mostly in the context of, ‘can you help me work through my pitch, and if you are interested, let’s talk about it later,’” he said. As a boy he rode 15km a day delivering newspapers, and he started riding again regularly 20 years ago. “It’s my exercise, my shrink and my Zen rolled into one,” he said.
Gretsch got to know the computer billionaire Michael Dell through cycling after Dell acquired the Sigma portfolio company EqualLogic in 2008 for $1.4 billion. The two met in Hawaii after the deal was completed and went cycling. “Outside of college, the strongest relationships I have are with people I have worked with or worked out with,” Gretsch said.
Venture capitalists, recruiters and other professional networkers have introduced cycling events throughout the Bay Area that focus on building camaraderie, not just lactic acid.
In May, Gretsch started inviting “Silicon Valley types” to join a monthly ride that typically meets near the Golden Gate Bridge and covers 30km to 50km around the Marin Headlands. This summer, Gretsch invited the group to a mountain bike ride near Lake Tahoe. The outing, which climbed to a gruelling 2,500m, included Andrew Buckley, who heads up cycling programmes at the Northstar California resort; Jake Knight, an entrepreneur whose family started Knight Transportation; and Anderson from Baseline Ventures.
Startup Ride
To find potential members of the group, called the JSV SF Startup Ride, Gretsch compares his company’s network of professional contacts with San Francisco Bay Area users on Strava, the app that lets users track and compare their times, distances and routes.
Some members of the group, which now has more than 40 members, are longtime acquaintances of his, but Gretsch said he had met new people on every ride and had “already seen one deal because of it”. He is still a regular at some of the continuing group rides in Silicon Valley – there are several of them, each with its own personality and pace. The Noon Ride, for example, meets every weekday, follows the same route around Palo Alto, and has nearly 150 members on Strava. “There are sometimes three group rides on any given day, from moderate to ‘kick you in the butt,’” said Jeff Selzer, general manager of Palo Alto Bicycles, which opened in 1930.
“What I like about cycling is a ride can be any length, and most people know how to ride a bike,” said Ali Behnam, co-founder of Riviera Partners, a national recruiting company that counts Dropbox, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Uber among its clients. “Golf is a big-time commitment, and it requires practice to be reasonably good,” he said. “There is nothing worse than stepping up to a tee and duffing it.”
Cycling, by contrast, is communal and lends itself to the formation of common bonds, whether it’s because of the lung-burning sensations of a hard climb, the endorphin-inducing thrill of a big descent, the expense of the equipment or the form-fitting attire. “You can’t hide much,” said Behnam (49), who has been cycling for 17 years, “but usually there is food and drink involved.”
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In the spring, he participated in the Bottega Gran Fondo, a cycling and culinary event in Napa Valley. He has organised several group rides with cycling celebrities, including the former professionals Gary Fisher and Bob Roll, who is best known for his Tour de France commentary.
With these rides, Behnam said, there is some unspoken etiquette. Fellow cyclists should not monopolise one person’s time, and, unless the group is exceptionally competitive, “You don’t want to just drop the person you’re riding with,” he said. “Don’t try to crush them.”
Likewise, participants should not claim to be “big” cyclists if they are in fact recreational riders – especially if they are trying to win the trust of prospective business contacts.
Before riding with anyone new, Levchin usually does a quick search on Strava to get a read on the person’s experience. “If I think it will be painfully slow,” he said, “I suggest we go for coffee.”
– New York Times News Service | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/cycling-the-in-sport-in-silicon-valley-1.2769365 | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/b1a410edb67c6680f4095c0d72cbe22e0e0f45546521ec36fe0beed2f8637557.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T16:50:06 | null | 2016-08-26T14:09:00 | Business has surpassed levels achieved at height of boom, says port firm chairman | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Ftransport-and-tourism%2Fshannon-foynes-port-handles-7-6bn-in-trade-annually-report-1.2769462%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769450.1472225134!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Shannon Foynes Port handles €7.6bn in trade annually - report | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Shannon Foynes Port handles more than €7 billion in trade every year, according to a report commissioned by the State company that runs mid-western harbour.
Research by W2 Consulting, based on 2014 figures from the port itself and 31 companies using it, shows that it is worth €1.9 billion to the wider economy and handles €7.6 billion in trade annually.
It also shows that Shannon Foynes Port Company and its customers plan to spend €277 million between them over the five years to 2019, which will support 3,372 jobs in the region.
The port company intends to spend €130 million on an expansion plan, dubbed Vision 2041 , that will exploit advantages such as its deep water and sheltered harbours to develop an international trade hub there.
Investment
Combined with private sector capital spending, investment there will total €1.8 billion over the plan’s lifetime.
Chief executive, Pat Keating, said that Shannon Foynes will fund its share of this investment from its own resources. “We are generating the cash flow to do this,” he said.
As the EU recognises it as a core European port, Brussels provided it with €3 million last year to aid development. Mr Keating said that it will be able to get more funding from this source as time goes on.
He explained that the company commissioned the study to demonstrate the port’s worth to the regional and national economies.
“We always knew that it had a huge impact, but we didn’t have the figures to back that up,” Mr Keating said. “These are hard figures, collated from at the primary source, there’s no extrapolation.”
Launching the report, Shannon Foynes chairman, Michael Collins, confirmed that business at the port has overtaken levels achieved at the height of the boom in the first decade of the century.
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“We have a clear vision for the company that envisages it doubling its trade over the lifetime of our masterplan and driving very significant employment growth across the region,” he said.
Ambition
He added the completion of the proposed Limerick-Foynes road, already included in Government spending plans, was essential to this ambition.
“The other key project is the regeneration of the disused Limerick to Foynes rail link and a major feasibility study is being advanced in relation to that,” Mr Collins said.
The report’s author, Mark O’Connell, pointed out that the port has already attracted significant investment since the masterplan’s launch in 2013.
“If you take the capital expenditure of €277 million planned by Shannon Foynes Port Company and its customers up to 2019, that’s almost seven times the investment in redeveloping Thomond Park, ” he said.
“ That’s an indication of the importance that the port authority and the estuary will have in the years ahead.”
The port company has statutory jurisdiction over all marine activities and port management on the Shannon Estuary, covering 500sq km from Kerry and Loop in Co Clare to Limerick city. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/transport-and-tourism/shannon-foynes-port-handles-7-6bn-in-trade-annually-report-1.2769462?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/ddcb1f241d5e4f564df3665d44632fc9524c5b2e681722bea22ef18bd4148a61.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T10:49:08 | null | 2016-08-30T11:20:00 | Irish tax authority says it showed no preferential treatment in applying law to Apple | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Ftechnology%2Frevenue-insists-it-collected-all-taxes-apple-owed-1.2772934.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772933.1472552428!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Revenue insists it collected all taxes Apple owed | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The Revenue Commissioners has insisted that it always collected the full amount of tax due from Apple in accordance with Irish law.
In a statement after the EU ordered the Republic to collect €13 billion of back taxes after ruling that a special scheme to route profits through Ireland was illegal state aid, Revenue’s chairman Niall Cody said: “The issue of international tax planning, involving mismatches between different countries’ tax rules, is well known and is the subject of the OECD Beps Project.”
He was referring to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s base erosion and profit shifting (Beps) project to stamp out tax avoidance loopholes internationally.
“Under Irish law, non-resident companies are chargeable to Irish corporation tax only on the profits attributable to their Irish branches by reference to the facts and circumstances,” Mr Cody said, adding that Revenue provided all relevant information and explanations to the European Commission as part of its investigation into Apple’s tax affairs in Ireland.
“The profits of non-resident companies that are not generated by their Irish branches - such as profits from technology, design and marketing that are generated outside Ireland - cannot be charged with Irish tax under Irish tax law.”
Mr Cody said that Apple has confirmed on the public record that the relevant companies were not tax-resident in Ireland.
He said that Ireland showed no preference in applying the law in relation to Apple and that full tax due was paid in accordance with the law. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/revenue-insists-it-collected-all-taxes-apple-owed-1.2772934 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/1003ec1795095c5e20f70cbbc51e68ad652b069ba734a449f8b7b02443f72a20.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T16:51:03 | null | 2016-08-28T16:57:00 | There are other routes to third level if you didn’t get your choice of college offer | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Feducation%2Fno-cao-offer-after-the-second-round-you-still-have-options-1.2771075%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771069.1472399824!/image/image.jpg | en | null | No CAO offer after the second round? You still have options | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | This morning brings a level of certainty to many college applicants who were considering the CAO process as one of their options to progress their educational journey in the coming academic year.
The 2,000 places offered across all colleges and disciplines mark, to all intents and purposes, the end of this year’s offer season.
There will be a trickle of offers weekly, over the next six weeks, as some students who have accepted places change their mind prior to registration.
These students may feel, following a detailed consideration of the course they were offered and then initially accepted, that the course is not for them, or they may not be able to afford to take the place or find affordable accommodation.
Some students will also apply for one of the remaining places listed on the “available places” list on the CAO website, and colleges will continue to fill these course places through further offers.
Also, some calculation errors will be discovered in the tots on the front cover of exam answer booklets this weekend during script viewing, and some new offers will be issued based on these discoveries.
In mid-October, up to 2,000 grade upgrades in Leaving Cert papers out of the 10,000 remarked will bring about a further round of offers to those who failed to secure a place this morning, or who will start on a lower choice course in the weeks ahead, and will be offered a course higher up on their order of preference, following an upgrade and additional points.
At that point they may opt to stay with the course they are about to start, transfer over to the new course offered or, if they feel that they have missed too much lecture content by that stage, accept the new offer and defer starting into it until September 2017.
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But, for the majority of young people and adults who are considering appropriate routes to further their education and career progression, who have not secured – or who never sought in the first place – a satisfactory offer in this second round, it is now time to make decisions about alternative options outside the CAO.
Some of those options are:
Further education
For many, further education is by far a preferable option to a CAO course at this stage in their educational journey.
Second-level education demands competency across a range of subjects, which many students would not necessarily choose if they had the option to do so.
Many of these students perform relatively modestly in their Leaving Cert as a result, but get good grades in one or two subjects in which they excel.
They may have enough CAO points to get into a number of “Any Qualified Applicant” (AQA) courses listed in this supplement, and may be tempted to apply for them if they are listed on the CAO “Available Places” list.
I would suggest, to such students, that they should resist the temptation to seek a place on such courses, unless you genuinely feel they suit your needs and that you feel confident in your ability to meet the challenges the course presents.
Far more preferable may be the option of taking a Post Leaving Cert (PLC) course in one of the areas you excelled at in the Leaving Cert.
PLC programmes comprise of eight modules in your area of interest.
They are taught in small class groups, of less than 30, and your teachers get to know you very well over the course of the year and assist you in compiling your portfolio work, as continuous assessment is a key part of the PLC sector.
At the end of the year, you can present your PLC qualification as your entry route to a CAO course who want to study.
The links between PLC courses and CAO programmes are all available on careersportal.ie, and the details of all courses are on qualifax.ie
All further education (FE) colleges are still taking enrolments and students can apply on college websites.
Classes start in earlyto mid-September, so there is plenty of time for you to seek a place over the coming week.
Many popular courses will have waiting lists, so act now if you want to secure your place.
Apprenticeships
Many young people and parents are not aware of the high-quality, flexible and affordable options that are available to them outside of the CAO process, such as apprenticeships, professional qualifications, management training and “earn as you learn” programmes.
While it may be true that, as parents, we want our children to gain the best education possible – the reality is that many of these alternative programmes offer what a third-level course cannot; invaluable skills that are globally transferable, the opportunity to qualify in a chosen field while working with a local business or for a larger corporate sector firm, and earning certificates, diplomas and honours degree qualifications while gaining vital life and career experience, in tandem with earing a salary.
Furthermore, many of these programmes can be funded by your employer and include built-in study and exam leave and, in some cases, are offered on a part-time basis, allowing sustainable progression.
The ACCA, for example, offers the opportunity to undertake an “earn as you learn” programme, which is designed to best educate and prepare each student in their career in finance and accounting.
Many of our top-class young accountants enter the world of work straight out of school and embark on a degree in this way, and subsequently go on to lead incredibly successful careers, either within their own private practice, or within larger and high-profile organisations.
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With a bit of extra drive and the enthusiasm to succeed, it is possible to achieve a third-level degree in as short as three years, while working your way up the career ladder.
The Irish Defence Forces launched The Air Corps Trainee Military Aircraft Technician on Tuesday, August 9th, 2016.
Successful candidates will graduate with a Bachelor of Engineering Technology in Military Aviation Technology Level 7 (Tech), accredited by the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT). Closing date for applications is September 4th, 2016. Applicants must at least 18 years of age, and under 21 years of age, on this date.
The Construction Industry Federation (CIF) have also launched a new website (www.apprentices.ie) dedicated to promoting the opportunities available to young people who take up apprenticeships and the careers that are available in the construction sector.
The Insurance Institute recently launched the Insurance Practitioner Apprenticeship, a Level 8 degree “earn and learn” apprenticeship programme aimed at school leavers, graduates and career changers.
Two apprenticeships have recently been validated by Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI) – the Bachelor of Engineering (industrial electrical engineering) at Limerick Institute of Technology (LIT).
It is an add-on, designed for those who are already qualified electricians and the Insurance Institute course in association Sligo IT.
Accounting Technician Ireland, Ireland’s leading body for Accounting Technicians, is partnering with five Colleges of Further Education to launch the first ever Accounting Technician Apprenticeship programme in September.
It’s a two-year programme for both school leavers and mature students, where apprentices work four days in an accountancy practice and study one day in one of the following colleges: Blackrock, Bray, Rathmines, and Monaghan Institutes of Further Education, and Cork College of Commerce.
ATI have been successfully running this programme in Northern Ireland for the last two years.
The progress of apprentices is monitored by mentors in both work and college.
Students who successfully complete the apprenticeship programme will then have an opportunity to progress to Chartered Accountancy after just two years.
For further information visit www.accountingtechnicianapprenticship.ie
Private colleges The private education sector still has a wide range of courses available, either through vacant places on the CAO or by direct application to the college.
Fees are €4,000-€7,000 and tax relief of €400 may be claimed.
Dublin Business School offers a variety of programmes, Griffith College has a number of campuses in Ireland and a number of other specialist colleges locally and nationally have a range of programmes still on offer.
Study in Europe Application deadlines have passed for many continental European degrees, taught through English in public universities which feature in the top 200 colleges in international rankings.
However, applications are still open for a range of courses for entry this September or starting in January/February, particularly in the Netherlands. Check out what is available on eunicas.ie.
Studying abroad is a fantastic opportunity for many young people, but a level of maturity is a prerequisite to successfully navigate through the three or four years of any degree programme.
European universities are relatively easy to get into, but completing first year can be a challenge, so intensive commitment to the programme is a given, if you want to make it into second year.
Repeating the Leaving Cert This is an option if you genuinely believe a further year of study will get you a much improved result in August 2017.
You need to ask: what will change within me that will bring that improvement about?
You can repeat in the public school system in your local school, or through a college managed by the Education Training Board (ETB), or through private providers such as the Institute of Education in Dublin; Bruce College in Cork; the Limerick Tutorial Centre in Limerick, or Yeats College in Galway.
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Gap year There are many creative ways to take a year out before you decide what you want to study at third level.
They including volunteering at home or abroad, or getting a job for a year to experience the hard reality of life on the bottom rung of the career ladder. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/no-cao-offer-after-the-second-round-you-still-have-options-1.2771075?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/e601d0a780e1fb69dda16f8cc48f1d9d35cd24e8d59124cde277e2f68b5683d4.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T00:52:29 | null | 2016-08-31T01:04:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fopinion%2Fletters%2Ffrance-and-the-burkini-1.2773378%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/assets/images/favicons/irishtimes.png | en | null | France and the ‘burkini’ | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Sir, – I wished that the commentariat got as upset about the treatment of women in Islamic countries on a daily basis as they are now getting about a woman being forced to remove an item of clothing on a French beach. – Yours, etc,
PAUL WILLIAMS,
Kilkee, Co Clare. | http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/france-and-the-burkini-1.2773378?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/d6567ae4f806a19775c3678c579b831e01301492cc3ccf9d67c6da9ee6abc634.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T10:52:52 | null | 2016-08-31T11:39:00 | Economist says: ‘You got jobs at the cost of stealing revenues from other countries’ | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fjoseph-stiglitz-says-ireland-should-not-appeal-apple-ruling-1.2774184%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2774183.1472640328!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Joseph Stiglitz says Ireland should not appeal Apple ruling | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Nobel prize winning economist Prof Joseph Stiglitz says the Irish government is wrong to appeal the EU decision on Apple and its tax obligations.
He described comments by Minister Richard Bruton on RTE’s Today with Sean O’Rourke Show, in defence of the government’s position, as ‘utter balderdash.’
On the same programme Prof Stiglitz said: “the fact is that you were encouraging tax avoidance, you knew it.
“Let’s not make any pretence about it, you got a few jobs at the cost of stealing revenues from countries around the world. That’s the kind of activity that has to be stopped.”
He said that the question now was: “what are the rules of the game about tax competition, about state aid and it’s very clear if a company says that they got revenue associated with Ireland, you have to pay a tax on it.
“Whether that income was correctly attributed to Ireland is another matter. If Apple is saying that this is Irish income, you have an obligation to impose taxes on income that they say originated in Ireland.
“Apple is claiming that the income was associated with activities, that’s why they said they could book it to an Irish subsidiary. Can they book it to a subsidiary for activities not occurring in Ireland? The issue is, if they book it to Ireland should there be an Irish tax?
“That’s what the issue is. They were booking it to an Irish subsidiary and they were not paying taxes.”
Prof Stiglitz said he found it mystifying that Ireland didn’t “just pocket that €13billion and use it for the enormous hardship that the people of Ireland have had to face.
“The argument that you will lose lots of jobs is absolute nonsense. It’s a new world, it’s very clear that the rules of the game have changed, under those new rules Ireland will have to compete on the basis of going forward, what it can provide economically.
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“I think Ireland can provide a lot - it has a well trained labour force, a disciplined labour force, and that is the basis on which countries should compete, with infrastructure.
“This idea that all these people will leave and their jobs will disappear is a vote of lack of confidence in Ireland. I’d rather have a vote of confidence in Ireland and say, maybe a few people engaged in cheating, relatively few, but nothing to compensate for the loss of the €13billion.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/joseph-stiglitz-says-ireland-should-not-appeal-apple-ruling-1.2774184?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/5a4c694eeb917e3a476168b356882376ff37da1ebb825c703e3568352f143892.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T12:49:09 | null | 2016-08-30T12:05:00 | Tax case stretches back to 1991 when Ireland granted the first “tax ruling” to Apple | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Ftechnology%2Fapple-timeline-countdown-to-13bn-irish-tax-bill-1.2772973.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772971.1472556436!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Apple timeline: countdown to €13bn Irish tax bill | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | 1980: Apple sets up base in Cork
1991: Ireland granted first “tax ruling” to Apple, according to the EU, to determine what profits of the company’s Apple Sales International and Apple Operations Europe units in Ireland are payable in this country
2007: Apple’s tax agreement in Ireland is replaced by a second “tax ruling”, according to the EU, on the two Irish-based units
May 2013: US senators John McCain and Carl Levin label Ireland a tax haven for multinational companies such as Apple during hearings in Washington on tax avoidance. The California-based company is accused of avoiding billions of dollars in US taxes by sheltering profits in Irish “ghost companies” which didn’t pay taxes anywhere.
May 2013: Apple says it had paid an effective tax rate of less than 2 per cent in Ireland over the previous ten years
May 2013: McCain and Levin reject the contention by Ireland’s then US Ambassador, Michael Collins, that the State is not a tax haven, as the two men said: “Most reasonable people would agree that negotiating special tax arrangements that allow companies to pay little or no income tax meets a common-sense definition of a tax haven”
June 2013 : EU begins to quiz Ireland, Luxembourg and Netherlands on the legality of various tax deals with companies, including Apple’s arrangements in this country
October 15th 2013 : Minister for Finance Michael Noonan outlines plans to ensure Irish registered companies cannot be “stateless” for tax purposes, closing off a loophole that was used for many years by Apple
June 2014: EU opens formal probes into Apple’s tax affairs in Ireland
September 2014: EU issues preliminary findings, saying Apple’s tax arrangements were improperly designed to give the company a financial boost in exchange for jobs in the country.
October 2015: EU concludes Luxembourg and Netherlands granted selective tax advantages to Fiat and Starbucks, respectively
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November 2015: Apple chief executive Tim Cook says during trip to Dublin that EU probe will not affect Irish operations, as company unveils plans to add 1,000 additional jobs
January 2016 : EU Commission concludes that Belgium granted tax advantages to at least 35 multinationals
August 2016 : EU issues final decision on the Irish-Apple case, saying the Republic must recover up to €13 billion in back taxes from the company; the Government plans to appeal the decision | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/apple-timeline-countdown-to-13bn-irish-tax-bill-1.2772973 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/40abd758155e12f230fb5c6508f00461958c77227c45cc95d1054c6de211e220.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T08:52:49 | null | 2016-08-31T07:19:00 | UK merchanting sales were ‘relatively flat’ in July and August after Brexit vote | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fconstruction%2Fgrafton-shares-slide-most-since-brexit-vote-on-uk-merchanting-woes-1.2774071%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2774070.1472629518!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Grafton shares slide most since Brexit vote on UK merchanting woes | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Shares in Grafton Group dropped in early trading on Wednesday as analysts prepared to cut their earnings forecasts for the group as its key UK building marchanting business faces challenges following the Brexit vote.
Grafton shares lost as much as 9.5 per cent of its their value, to £5.50 (€7.21), within minutes of trading getting underway in London. It marked the biggest sell-off in the stock since the end of June, when UK voters decided to exit the EU.
Earlier, the company said its adjusted operating profits for the first half soared 12 per cent as strengthening Irish and Dutch economies offset weakness in its UK builders merchanting business amid concerns about Brexit.
Adjusted operating profit rose to £68.4 million from £61.2 million for the same period last year, helped by the €91.5 million acquisition late last year of a Dutch took distributor, Isero.
And while thee Dublin-based company said its UK trade-only Selco Builders Warehouse business continued to see its profits grow during the first half, its traditional UK merchanting businesses, which accounts for more than 70 per cent of group sales, faced “more challenging markets”.
“Progressively weaker trading conditions were encountered during the period at a time of increased uncertainty in the lead-up to the UK’s EU referendum,” Grafton said on Wednesday.
The group had previously warned in mid-July that its UK merchanting sales had dipped in June and that Brexit is likely to dampen demand for new housing and home improvements for the remainder of the year in its most important market.
On Thursday, it said: “It is still too early to assess the likely impact on the UK economy of the vote to leave the European Union. Following weak trading in June, demand in the UK merchanting business was relatively flat during July and August with markets remaining very price competitive.”
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“Against a backdrop of a challenging UK merchanting market and the associated start-up costs with a pick-up in Selco branch openings, we see full-year 2016 operating profit forecasts being reduced by circa 10 per cent to £131m,” Robert Eason, an analyst with Goodbody Stockbrokers, said in a note.
“Revisions are likely to be larger for full-year 2017 as we start to incorporate slower growth across our merchanting coverage to factor in the potential impact of Brexit,” Mr Eason said.
Analysts at Investec said they expect consensus forecast for the group to fall by 8 per cent, as the group’s operating martings face pressure.
Meanwhile, Grafton said its Woodie’s DIY retailing business in Ireland performed well in the first half as a result of management actions combined with increased household spending in the sector.
The interim dividend approved by the board has been increased by 6 per cent to 4.75p, in line with its progressive dividend policy. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/construction/grafton-shares-slide-most-since-brexit-vote-on-uk-merchanting-woes-1.2774071?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/aa63193482fd9281c25b785732b8b7f360ab029d0f63239f50271e7a83247806.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T10:50:55 | null | 2016-08-28T11:01:00 | Opinion: Nigel is thrilled to play Danny Glover to Donald Trump’s Mel Gibson | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Fus%2Fnigel-farage-from-brexit-hero-to-donald-trump-s-little-helper-1.2770926%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2770925.1472378581!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Nigel Farage: from Brexit hero to Donald Trump’s little helper | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Some say Britain doesn’t make or export things any more. But it did supply Donald Trump with a straight man
What a thrill to see new life breathed into the buddy demagogue movie in Jackson, Mississippi, on Wednesday night. You only had to look at Nigel Farage’s little face to see how thrilled he was at the chance to play the Danny Glover to Donald Trump’s Mel Gibson. As for Trump, he was all over Nigel’s cheap suit like a cheap suit.
I still find it impossible to imagine Trump touching anyone except his daughter without pulling the full Mariah Carey and screaming for the hand sanitiser the second he’s offstage. But Mr Soon-They-Will-Be-Calling-Me-Mr-Brexit made an excellent fist of embracing Mr Brexit for his crowds of occasionally bemused supporters. A fanfare for the little people ensued.
I’m sure Farage’s life wants him back and everything, but duty calls.
This week found the outgoing Ukip leader shaving off his gap year moustache and going all the way to that America.
He was joined by his backer, Arron Banks - still growing into the role of kingmaker, it must be said - though the pair left their immigrant wives at home, so we were denied the spectacle of a bilateral with Melania. (Incidentally, why do so many of our most frothingly anti-immigrant elite populists seem to have immigrant wives? I find all my non-scientific answers to be entirely unprintable. Perhaps an academic study could put it mildly.)
Initially, alas, Farage’s visit was not without its indignities. Barely hours out from the event, Trump’s campaign spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, said she would “highly doubt” reports that such a joint appearance would happen, adding dismissively that the two men “don’t know each other”.
But it all ended in a populist form of triumph, when the day after their appearance in Jackson, Hillary Clinton devoted a passage in her speech denouncing the rise of the alt-right to Farage.
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“Just yesterday,” she warned, “one of Britain’s most prominent rightwing leaders, a man named Nigel Farage, who stoked anti-immigrant sentiments to win the referendum, to have Britain leave the European Union, campaigned with Donald Trump in Mississippi.”
If this cast Farage as some distance to the right of Trump, it wasn’t the only carnival mirror moment of the week.
“You’ve got to have some weight to get someone like that to come out here,” judged one member of Trump’s audience of the candidate’s success in pulling off the Farage booking. “It shows Trump is a heavyweight.” Blimey. I hadn’t realised quite how damaged America’s self-esteem was.
That a significant section of people feel left behind by mainstream politics is clear from the rise of populist movements on both sides of the Atlantic. That Trump can make their lives better seems considerably less likely even than Farage being able to do the same.
The only way these two men can show their supporters how much they care about them is to display how much they despise almost everyone else. Yet the suspension of disbelief holds, and shows no sign of breaking in the short- or even medium-term future.
A highly indifferent former City trader cosies up to the bizarre confection of megalomania that is Trump, yet the sense of rebellion against elites among their supporters is real.
It may seem odd, considering he resembles a picture too hideous even for the attic, but Trump frequently reminds me of a line in The Picture of Dorian Gray: “You are the type of what the age is searching for, and what it is afraid it has found.”
There is no need for a word cloud after a Farage event these days, because his shtick can be reduced down to about four phrases that would sound patronising in any less looking-glass a world.
“Little people”. “Ordinary people”. “Decent people”. “Real people”. Farage thinks America’s infinitely superior polling is as out of whack as the UK’s, so you can see why Trump likes him so much right now. But on the off chance that the Donald isn’t triumphantly landing his private jet on Pennsylvania Avenue on November 9th, I’d like to see Trump launch a range of colognes to go with his established lines, Success by Trump, and Empire by Trump. Why not market Little People by Trump, Real People by Trump, Ordinary People by Trump, and Decent People by Trump?
After all, Trump is incapable of having an experience without wondering primarily how it might be monetised.
Persistent rumours suggest he is eyeing the establishment of a rightwing news network, post-election, which would allow him to maximise the opportunity of the audience he has acquired.
Perhaps Farage envisages a role for himself on this putative network. It would be something to fill the time and keep him in a version of the limelight before his inevitable return to lead Ukip - or whatever successor to the party Banks is planning - in time for the 2020 election.
As Farage was saying with hilarious specificity by the end of his own resignation speech: “Let’s see. Let’s see where we are in two and a half years’ time.”
Any Farage show on the Trump network wouldn’t be within four hours of prime time, obviously. I see him in the Alan Partridge graveyard slot - 3am till 6am - taking calls from deranged insomniac survivalists and consoling himself with the thought that there are far higher callings than spending time with one’s family.
Then again, perhaps he prefers the smaller pond. Farage’s failure to go as far as endorsing Trump suggests he has more than one eye on how it might play back where it really matters to him, while his reaction to Hillary’s speech could scarcely have been more UK-centric, leading with: “She sounds rather like Bob Geldof and can’t accept Brexit.” If that line was designed to land anywhere in the States, then Farage probably wants to buy in some new writers.
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Still, look at him now - all dressed up and doing the town. As I was sorry to have to observe before the referendum vote itself, all those who voted out for reasons of sovereignty or whatnot would eventually discover that what they really ended up voting for is something embodied in Farage.
A lot of those same people are always complaining we don’t make and export anything in this country any more. I beg to differ: we make desperately grateful straight men for Donald Trump.
The Guardian | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/us/nigel-farage-from-brexit-hero-to-donald-trump-s-little-helper-1.2770926?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/f800f904fe515b381a8bf99f98864a35ab24287cf72b6fe4399c8fe72e4077e1.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T12:52:29 | null | 2016-08-30T11:54:00 | Una Butler campaigning for families to be involved with treatment of mental illness | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fcrime-and-law%2Fmurder-suicide-cases-being-brushed-under-carpet-in-ireland-1.2772960%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772959.1472555126!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Murder-suicide cases being ‘brushed under carpet’ in Ireland | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Murder-suicide cases are being swept under the carpet and are not being investigated thoroughly, according to Una Butler, whose husband killed their two children.
Ms Butler’s husband John killed their two young daughters Ella (6) and Zoe (2) on November 16th, 2010. Mr Butler (41) subsequently died after crashing his car into a ditch.
Ms Butler is campaigning for families to be involved in the treatment of people with mental health issues.
She told RTÉ’s Today with Sean O’Rourke Show that she has researched the area herself.
“Murder-suicide, people seem to think they’re rare, but they’re not - there have been 27 cases since 2000. I’ve researched it myself because there aren’t any official statistics here in Ireland on murder-suicides,” she said.
“Of those 27 cases, 20 involved children, 29 children have been murdered and ten adults. I was campaigning for changes to the Mental Health Act because my husband was suffering with depression at the time - I am campaigning to involve family members because patient confidentiality is being put ahead.
“I’m not saying that all these cases involved people suffering with their mental health.”
Ms Butler said there is not enough investigation into murder-suicides in Ireland and the Garda investigation concludes at the inquest.
“These cases are being brushed under the carpet. Family should involved in treatment.”
Speaking about her own experience, she said: “It’s very had to live without my children. I just had to learn and to do the best I can every day.
“Zoe was six, Ella was two - there was no forewarning that their lives were at risk. John loved his children, he had never been physically abusive to me or Zoe or Ella.
“He was a good father, a very hard worker. He did suffer from depression which was very hard to live with.”
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Greater insight
She said: “Looking back in hindsight I’m saying I should have been involved in his treatment, the medical professionals would have had a greater insight into his behaviour. I would have been able to learn about his illness and support him, maybe better, or be able to deal with his illness in a better way if I’d been educated about it.
“By involving me in his treatment everybody would have benefited from it.”
She said that in her research she found that in over 60 per cent of the cases the person had contact with psychiatric services.
“I don’t believe there is enough research going into murder-suicide cases in Ireland. No more investigation is carried out because the person who did it is dead,” said Ms Butler.
“I’m absolutely shocked at the news from Cavan. It numbs me. My heart goes out to their family, their friends, it’s shocking.
“There doesn’t have to be another case for me to be reminded of my children or what happened. I’m living with it every day and it’s a living nightmare.”
She said: “There will be loads of occasions, their birthdays, their anniversaries - what should have been, what we should be doing, unfortunately you can’t make sense out of what happened. Nothing justifies killing anybody let alone an innocent child. It’s unnatural.”
She said if she had been further involved with John’s treatment, she believes the tragedy could have been prevented.
“You end up racking your brains wondering, why why why,” she said.
“I’m living with it every day, I’m trying to be grateful for the times I had with Zoe, Ella and John and to embrace those times, but it’s a very cruel unbelievable nightmare to be living every day.
“I’ve great friends, brilliant family, support from the community. I’m not one for sitting down, sitting in a corner all day. The support of friends is very important.
“I was numb for 12 months. Reality didn’t sink in for years.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/murder-suicide-cases-being-brushed-under-carpet-in-ireland-1.2772960?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/6f470bfe50ba817402ffbaf95fd2df90a4b8f83d450752cc6d7f582de98fbcac.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T12:48:06 | null | 2016-08-27T12:00:00 | The boom in the former ‘oil capital of Europe’ has come to a shuddering halt | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fenergy-and-resources%2Fhard-times-for-aberdeen-as-oil-price-slump-hits-home-1.2768374.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2768354.1472225139!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Hard times for Aberdeen as oil price slump hits home | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | On paper, Aberdeen is one of the UK’s richest cities, with only London having more millionaires per capita. House prices are well above the British average and expensive cars cruise down the city’s grey, granite streets.
But beneath the surface, Aberdeen’s long boom has come to a shuddering halt. The discovery of North Sea oil in the 1970s transformed this one-time fishing town on Scotland’s northeast coast. Now, with a barrel of crude retailing at under $50, the former “oil capital of Europe” is struggling.
The UK Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (GERS) figures from last Wednesday estimated that the takings from the North Sea fell from £9.6 billion in 2011-12 to just £60 million last year. An estimated 100,000 people have lost jobs in the lengthy oil and gas supply chain with more redundancies expected.
Paul Wheelhouse, the Scottish National Party (SNP) minister for business, innovation and energy, has said the Scottish economy faces “substantial challenges” as a result of lower oil prices.
Many of the upmarket restaurants that catered for the well-heeled oil and gas industry have shut their doors. Former customers now queue for packets of rice and fresh fruit at the plethora of food banks that have sprung up across the Granite City.
“You have a situation where white-collar workers are turning to food banks,” says Rick Brooks from the Trussell Trust food bank in Aberdeen. “People are basically giving away their cars because they cannot afford to run them.
“Two years ago you couldn’t find white-collar workers using a food bank; now 50 per cent of new users in the last six months are white-collar workers who were administrative staff or above.”
Global crash
The global oil crash, which was largely attributed to a price war being waged by Saudi Arabia against the US shale industry, has seen seen profits in the North Sea nosedive since 2014.
Although production remains high, exploration drilling is at levels last seen in the 1960s, before the North Sea was a major oil producer. Now “efficiency” is the watchword. Operating costs have dropped from more than $30 a barrel to almost half that but cannot compete with barely a dollar in Saudi Arabia.
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“The North Sea was high cost by international standards anyway,” says Alex Kemp, professor of petroleum economics at Aberdeen University. “At the current prices quite a lot of fields are showing losses.”
Kemp, a leading expert on the North Sea oil economy, predicts tough times ahead for the industry, at least in the short term.
“Our modelling is suggesting that the rest of the year will be quite tough and there could be more redundancies,” says Kemp. “The only bright spot is that [the North Sea] is very completive internationally.”
Cost reductions have largely come from massive cuts to once lucrative salaries. Falling wages have had a big impact on Aberdeen’s economy.
House prices, which rose by 17 per cent in 2013, have fallen sharply in the last year, according to a report from Aberdeen Solicitors’ Property Centre. The city’s population has declined by 15 per cent since the crash with the majority of students and young professionals in Aberdeen considering leaving the city in the next few years, according to a recent PwC report.
“We anticipated cuts and a pretty severe downturn, but I don’t think anyone anticipated what we are currently going through. I don’t know when we will come out of it,” says Jake Molloy, an organiser for the Rail Maritime and Transport (RMT) union. Offshore strikes, the first in more than 20 years, took place recently over pay and conditions.
“Morale is very low,” says Molloy, himself a veteran of the huge platforms that sit hundreds of miles off Aberdeen’s rugged coast. A bronze scale model of the Piper Alpha glints in the sun in the window of the RMT’s Aberdeen office: the rig was destroyed in an explosion that killed 167 people in 1988. Molloy says concerns about safety are growing as budgets are slashed.
Many oil companies are increasingly relying on cheaper foreign labour to service their offshore platforms.
“The oil companies have reduced costs but to do that they have brought in Filipino, Indian, Malaysian crews on around £2 an hour,” says Molloy. In the largely unregulated offshore world, these workers are not subject to minimal immigration restrictions.
Little hope
The downturn in the global oil economy has affected almost every aspect of life in Aberdeen. Hotel rooms were once so hard to come by that offshore workers were put up in Edinburgh , more than 100 miles away. Now, newly built hotels stand practically empty.
“What we are experiencing now is here to stay,” says Stewart Spence, owner of the five-star Marcliffe Hotel. “When we had $100 oil we had 100 per cent occupancy. Now we have $40, $50, we have 40, 50 per cent occupancy. That’s what we have to live with for the future.”
Earlier this year, New Yorker Stephen Dillon closed his steakhouse Prime Cuts after a decade in business. Midweek sales had fallen by about 70 per cent. Dillon and his French wife, Pascaline, opened a new barbecue restaurant but have little hope for the future.
“All of the fine dining establishments in Aberdeen have been hit really hard by the oil crisis,” says father-of two Dillon. “Last year cost me about £40,000. I was able to absorb that. Since January we’ve fallen off the plank.”
The UK’s recent Brexit vote has increased uncertainty for North Sea oil and gas – and for Aberdeen. The city has often looked to the EU and its near neighbour, Norway, says Barney Crockett, a councillor in the Labour administration that sits in Aberdeen’s 1960s-era city chambers.
“We often feel we don’t get a fair look from Scottish or British governments so Europe has been really important,” says Crockett, pointing to the city’s hydrogen bus fleet, which is part-funded by the EU. “Brexit means we need to work harder on our links with Europe.”
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The downturn in the North Sea could have political as well as economic implications. The Scottish National Party’s prospectus for independence in 2014 was based on prices more than $100 a barrel. With oil currently wholesaling for less than half that, the prospect of a second referendum appears to be receding, despite Scottish first minster Nicola Sturgeon saying another vote on leaving the UK was “highly likely”.
The immediate question in Aberdeen is how to turn the city’s fortunes around. “You can’t just abandon a city of 200,000 because even those people not working directly in oil and gas are affected. What else should politicians be tackling, if not this?” says Lynn Bennie, professor of politics at the University of Aberdeen.
Just a few feet from the city’s windswept docks, the Aberdeen Food Bank Partnership warehouse is filled with plastic bags stocked with dried food. Business has been brisk. By the end of 2015, chief executive Dave Simmers was dispensing about 750 food parcels a month. Now that figure is 1,200.
Many of those coming for help used to work in the North Sea, says Simmers.
“The downturn has had a dramatic impact across the social and economic fabric of the northeast and wider: it has had an impact right across Scotland and the UK.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/energy-and-resources/hard-times-for-aberdeen-as-oil-price-slump-hits-home-1.2768374 | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/ab6c3134fd5a2f0b9c9806af77cc898172bff6bd0291f85a2bc3981141ebb397.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T10:51:44 | null | 2016-08-29T09:59:00 | Culture of openness and transparency needed, says Independent Victor Boyhan | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fcrime-and-law%2Fsenator-to-table-motion-calling-for-register-of-judges-interests-1.2771824%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771833.1472462117!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Senator to table motion calling for register of judges’ interests | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Proposals for the introduction of a register of interests for judges is to be debated in the Seanad this autumn.
Independent Senator Victor Boyhan has said he will table a motion calling for the introduction of a register to “foster a culture of openness and transparency”, as well as confidence, in the judiciary.
County councillors and members of Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann make annual returns and must comply with a register of interests, declaring property and business interests including directorships and share ownership.
At present, there is no such register for judges. When they take office, judges promise to execute their office “without fear or favour, affection or ill-will towards any man”.
The Association of Judges of Ireland has said, not only must judges be impartial, but they must do everything they can to ensure that they are perceived as such.
Code of conduct
In general, it says, a judge will recuse himself from any case to which he has a personal connection, or if circumstances might create a risk of his impartiality being called into question.
Last year, Chief Justice Mrs Justice Susan Denham recommended the establishment of a judicial council – first suggested by the Committee on Judicial Conduct and Ethics in 2000.
This would develop a code of conduct for judges, as well as oversee and support their training and develop a complaint structure for litigants.
Reform
Mr Boyhan said the Government should introduce such a council, as well as a judicial appointments commission, promised in the programme for government, and intended to reform the selection of judges.
He called for a consultation process to begin with the judiciary on the establishment of a register of interests for judges. “I, personally, would be uncomfortable if a judge was a member of a Masonic lodge, for example, or other secret society, and I think that should be declared, as should shares in financial institutions,” he said.
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Mr Boyhan said, in the UK, judges have been found to have conflicts of interest in some cases. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/senator-to-table-motion-calling-for-register-of-judges-interests-1.2771824?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/2c74d1fa1e1dd74ece66a2c2331fed81d0616f29b9a46c105886f96ad6e8e151.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T06:51:46 | null | 2016-08-29T07:00:00 | Jurgen Klopp not the type of manager who makes allowances for an injury-prone artist | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fsoccer%2Fken-early-daniel-sturridge-s-prospects-looking-grim-at-liverpool-1.2771228%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771219.1472409354!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Ken Early: Daniel Sturridge’s prospects looking grim at Liverpool | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Last week, Daniel Sturridge and Jurgen Klopp discussed tactics through the media. After scoring twice against Burton in the league cup, Sturridge told journalists that he preferred to play up front rather than out wide.
“I’m a centre-forward. In the modern-day game, you have to try and be flexible but everyone knows my best position,” Sturridge said, adding: “I have to do a job for the team. That’s not saying I am happy to do it. That’s saying I have got to do a job for the team.”
Klopp replied that he saw Sturridge as the kind of wide player who can often get in the box and score. He complimented Sturridge for his intelligence and talent. Then he left him out of the team to play Tottenham. On 70 minutes, Klopp replaced Philippe Coutinho with a forward but it was Divock Origi rather than Sturridge, who didn’t seem to be working too hard to conceal his disgust.
It’s easy for supporters to see Sturridge’s attitude as selfish and egotistical–- to conclude that despite the lip service he paid to the principle that football is a team game, he actually thinks it’s a game that is all about Daniel Sturridge.
But they should also consider the type of person Sturridge is. He’s more of an artist than an athlete. That doesn’t just mean that he can do things with the ball that are beyond most of his team-mates. It also says something about his mentality. Sturridge is a natural performer, the kind of person who loves to show a crowd what he can do. It hurts when he feels he is prevented from doing that by being played out of position. Complaining about it might be a betrayal of the team ethic, but staying silent would be a betrayal of his gift. For an artist, that’s not a simple choice.
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It’s hard to think of a more alienating game for a football artist to have to watch than Tottenham v Liverpool last Saturday.
Mauricio Pochettino and Jurgen Klopp both come from a school that prioritises perspiration over inspiration.
In teams like these, chances are not “created” by moments of insight from gifted individuals. They are generated by massive, structured, collective effort; the relentless application of choreographed patterns of pressing and counter-attack.
As Spurs and Liverpool ran furiously back and forth, winning the ball and immediately losing it again, you thought of Jorge Valdano’s famous “shit on a stick” critique of the Liverpool v Chelsea Champions League semi-final in 2007.
“[These two teams] are the clearest, most exaggerated example of the way football is going: very intense, very collective, very tactical, very physical, and very direct,” Valdano said. “But, a short pass? Noooo. A feint? Noooo. A change of pace? Noooo. A one-two? A nutmeg? A backheel? Don’t be ridiculous. None of that.”
Valdano correctly identified that top-level football was an increasingly inhospitable environment for what used to be called “flair” players: “Such extreme intensity wipes away talent, leaving even a player of Joe Cole’s class disorientated.” Cole, of course, was an archetypal street footballer of the old school.
But he traced the root of the trend to the wrong place.
“Neither Mourinho nor Benítez made it as a player,” he said. “That has made them channel all their vanity into coaching. Those who did not have the talent to make it as players do not believe in the talent of players, they do not believe in the ability to improvise in order to win football matches.”
If Valdano hadn’t been preoccupied with the desire to insult Benitez and Mourinho, he might have perceived how silly it was to blame the collectivisation and intensification of football on the frustrated egomania of a few glory-hunting coaches.
The trend is driven by the athletic arms race that affects the whole world of sport. You could choose to opt out and concentrate on feints, nutmegs and backheels, but nine times out of ten the athletic pressing team will run you off the pitch.
Which brings us back to Sturridge. After Spurs and Liverpool drew, Gary Lineker tweeted “Don’t know what’s going on with Daniel Sturridge at Liverpool, but I do know, when fit he’ll score a lot more goals than Firmino or Origi.”
The weak point of the argument is that the words “when fit” are having to work harder than the full-backs in a Mauricio Pochettino team. The problem with Sturridge has never been that he doesn’t score enough. It’s that he doesn’t play enough.
Sturridge is 27 on Thursday and has played 234 club matches, scoring 93 goals. By the time he was Sturridge’s age, Wayne Rooney had played more than 450 matches for his clubs and scored nearly 200 goals. Robbie Keane had played almost 400 and scored almost 150. Luis Suarez had played more than 350 matches, scoring more than 200 times. Managers prefer players who don’t miss games. As Slaven Bilic recently said of Andy Carroll, “The worst situation is when you plan, then you can’t count on him. All the time.” (Carroll, like Sturridge, was born in 1989, and for all his many injuries he has still played more club matches than Sturridge).
Sturridge’s frequent absences had already given Klopp reason enough to doubt his worth before the player started issuing guidelines on which positions he’d rather not have to play.
A parting of the ways looks likely. If he does leave Anfield, it’s another disappointment for lovers of street footballers.
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It gets easier once you accept that today’s top-level football is nothing like the game you used to play on the street. | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/ken-early-daniel-sturridge-s-prospects-looking-grim-at-liverpool-1.2771228?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/de7ba7e48573453ff0b5a5ce50704ade6b5ac2f56c6fd67a7b975e409a54574a.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T06:49:23 | null | 2016-08-31T06:30:00 | Mixed-use property on Francis Street producing annual rent roll of nearly €60,000 | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fcommercial-property%2Fapartments-and-shop-in-dublin-8-for-695-000-1.2772104.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772102.1472484629!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Apartments and shop in Dublin 8 for €695,000 | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | A shop with four apartments overhead at 57 Francis Street in Dublin 8 is on the market at €695,000 through DNG Advisory.
Should it sell for its guide price, this would represent a gross investment yield of 8.6 per cent.
The ground-floor retail space is occupied by an antiques trader while the apartments are set out as three studio units and one two-bed.
These fully-let apartments and shop are producing an annual rent roll of €59,700 – but the agent says this could be increased “through active management”.
Francis Street, the heart of the antiques business in the city, has a big student population due to its proximity to the NCAD, Trinity College, St James’s Hospital and the DIT campuses at Aungier Street and Kevin Street.
The area is well serviced by public transport, including the Luas which is close by, while the city centre is within walking distance. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/commercial-property/apartments-and-shop-in-dublin-8-for-695-000-1.2772104 | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/e70eb5fabf29334a2b1b18fec4a3e118476a9e625ba1982a4ccaf3d17bd33a52.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:06:30 | null | 2016-08-26T13:26:00 | Remarks as China forges closer ties with Russia and Iran in support of Bashar al-Assad | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Fasia-pacific%2Fchina-playing-positive-role-in-syrian-conflict-says-military-1.2769423%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769418.1472214407!/image/image.jpg | en | null | China playing ‘positive role’ in Syrian conflict, says military | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | China is playing a “positive role” in finding a political settlement in the Syrian conflict, a spokesman for the country’s military has said, after one of Beijing’s top brass visited the country for talks with Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian government.
The visit to Damascus by rear admiral Guan Youfei, who is head of international co-operation in the China military commission, for talks with Syrian defence minister Fahd Jassem al-Freij, came as China allied itself more closely with Russia and Iran to support Mr Assad’s government in the six-year war.
The Russian military has backed Mr Assad since September and its air strikes have been accused of killing thousands of civilians.
At the weekend, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said that a video of Syrian boy Omran Daqneesh covered in dust and blood, which went viral and caused outrage around the world, may have been faked as part of a western “propaganda war”.
China’s state broadcaster CCTV ran a report showing the video of the four-year-old sitting in an ambulance looking shell-shocked and caked in dirt, with a subtitle saying: “Video suspected of being fake”.
“Critics have suggested the video is part of a propaganda war, aimed at creating a ‘humanitarian’ excuse for western countries to become involved in Syria, ” ran the commentary on the TV report. Russian media have made similar claims.
A spokesman for the Chinese defence ministry told a monthly news briefing that this year marked the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties between it and Syria, that China’s role was to facilitate a political settlement, and that Beijing supported the independence of Syria.
“Upon mutual agreement, the Chinese military has provided humanitarian assistance including medical equipment as well as medicines to the Syrian side to help ease the humanitarian crisis in Syria,” Wu Qian told the briefing.
“For the same reason, we have also provided training slots to the Syrian armed forces on medical service and nursing.”
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Asked if Chinese troops were providing military training in Syria, Mr Wu said the training was in the medical field.
During the same briefing, Mr Wu spoke of the importance of mil-to-mil relations after a number of joint exercises with US and other navies in recent months. However, relations between China and the US are in a difficult patch since Washington gave its support to an international tribunal’s decision criticising China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea.
The Chinese military is also angry that the US will install the THAAD anti-missile system in South Korea, ostensibly as a buffer against the nuclear threat from North Korea. China sees the THAAD system as a threat to its own nuclear arsenal.
There have been a number of strong anti-US editorials and stories in the media in the past few days, including commentary in the Global Times newspaper that the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server showed the “hypocrisy of the US elite”. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/asia-pacific/china-playing-positive-role-in-syrian-conflict-says-military-1.2769423?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/05690da77aad079c80ae985d725da9c7abc02c531cef2bcb052a4a7d4063f7e6.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T06:48:40 | null | 2016-08-29T06:55:00 | Music streaming site said to be retaliating against musicians who introduce new material exclusively on rival Apple Music | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fmedia-and-marketing%2Fspotify-is-burying-musicians-for-their-apple-deals-1.2771789.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771788.1472450115!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Spotify is burying musicians for their Apple deals | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | An escalating battle between Apple and Spotify is leaving some musicians caught in the crossfire.
Spotify has been retaliating against musicians who introduce new material exclusively on rival Apple Music by making their songs harder to find, according to people familiar with the strategy. Artists who have given Apple exclusive access to new music have been told they won’t be able to get their tracks on featured playlists once the songs become available on Spotify,said the people, who declined to be identified discussing the steps.Those artists have also found their songs buried in the search rankings of Spotify, the world’s largest music-streaming service, the people said.
Spotify said it doesn’t alter search rankings.
Spotify has been using such practices for about a year, one of the people said, though others said the efforts have escalated over the past few months. Artists who have given exclusives to Tidal, the streaming service run by Jay Z, have also been retaliated against, the person said, declining to identify specific musicians.
Biggest challenger
Apple’s music service has emerged as the largest challenger to Spotify over the past year, signing up more than 15 million subscribers since its debut last June, the company said two months ago. Exclusive deals for new music from artists such as Drake, Chance the Rapper and Frank Ocean are central to Apple’s strategy.
Spotify has more than 30 million subscribers globally.Apple Music also has ways to promote artists, such as highlighting their songs in its Top Tracks section, giving it ways to play favorites with musicians.
The dustup over exclusives comes at a critical time for Spotify, which is in the midst of renegotiating licensing contracts with the world’s biggest record labels. The company is aiming to hold an initial public offering by the end of next year, but needs more favorable long-term agreements with the labels to attract a higher valuation from investors, according to a person familiar with the plans. The company isn’t profitable despite generating more than $2 billion in revenue, in part because it has to give 55 per cent of the money to labels and an additional cut to publishers.
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It’s not clear whether major artists like Drake and Ocean have been affected by Spotify’s measures, and their representatives didn’t respond to questions. In any case, artists of their stature need less help from Spotify to draw attention to their music, emerging acts rely on the service to find new listeners.
The company has threatened to use its retaliatory practices on lesser-known artists who introduce music on a Beats One show hosted by DJ Zane Lowe, an architect of Apple’s radio service, the people said.One representative of a singer-songwriter said the client canceled plans to debut a song on Lowe’s show because of concern that the artist would lose promotion from Spotify. The agent asked not to be identified, and that the artist not be named, to avoid damaging relationships with the music-streaming companies.
Lowe, a former BBC radio host, has introduced new tracks from his first day on the air with Beats One, and his show has become an important platform to debut songs worldwide.
Ratcheting up
Apple and Spotify have been feuding since before Apple Music’s debut, and competition between the two ratcheted up again in the last several weeks after Apple proposed changing songwriting royalties in a way that would increase costs for competitors like Spotify by putting its music in a different category that requires a higher rate.
Spotify has also accused Apple of blocking a new version of its iPhone app, the latest volley in an ongoing dispute over Apple’s cut of sales from its app store. Apple denied blocking Spotify’s app, saying its rival hadn’t met its terms of service.
Led by former record executive Jimmy Iovine, Apple Music has kept its strategy flexible to appeal to what an artist wants. In the case of Frank Ocean and Drake, the company paid for exclusives. With Adele and Beyonce, it agreed to keep the music off its streaming service and initially only make it available for a paid download. The company also has been appealing to artists and industry executives by limiting its streaming service to paying subscribers and not having a free advertising-supported version like Spotify.
Spotify has decried exclusive deals as harmful to musicians, fans and the growing business of music streaming. However, it has sought to make exclusive deals with some artists, such as rock band the 1975, but refused to limit the release to the company’s paid service only, as labels and musicians have sought, two of the people said.
Spotify has said a robust free service is needed to attract new users who can eventually become subscribers.
Record labels are still pushing Spotify to let artists release music for paying subscribers only, and have yet to sign new long-term deals with the service as a result.Yet Apple’s ability to attract those big exclusives may also be in jeopardy. In an internal memo this week, Lucian Grainge, chief executive officer of Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group, directed the heads of his company’s labels to stop giving any music services long-term exclusives, according to two people familiar with the matter. Universal has sold Apple many of its biggest exclusives, including Drake.
Bloomberg | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/spotify-is-burying-musicians-for-their-apple-deals-1.2771789 | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/82f48e63ce02e4ad1fbdd1ce3bbfcc5be93549117be038cb7ab0709bd35a0e27.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T14:51:04 | null | 2016-08-28T13:56:00 | Fighting next US recession likely to involve using tools from crisis, says Fed chair Yellen | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fcentral-bankers-to-persist-with-brave-new-world-1.2770978%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2770976.1472388970!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Central bankers to persist with brave new world | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The message from the meetings in Jackson Hole was clear: there is no winding the clock back to the pre-crisis world of central banking as officials seek ways of improving their monetary weaponry.
The point was made by Janet Yellen, the Federal Reserve chair, in the speech that opened the Kansas City Fed’s annual symposium – a gathering of the central banking elite in Grand Teton National Park.
Fighting the next recession, she said, would be likely to involve the new tools that the Fed invoked during the financial crisis – not just rate cuts but also asset purchases and forward guidance. She also raised the prospect of further changes by future generations of policymakers, including changes to the central bank’s inflation target and purchases of alternative kinds of assets when it needs to do quantitative easing.
Interventions by fellow central bankers bore out that impression. Governor Haruhiko Kuroda of the Bank of Japan (BoJ) said he saw “ample space” for further loosening of the institution’s monetary policy, as he defended the central bank’s attempts to bolster growth and inflation via policies including negative rates.
The BoJ wrongfooted markets in January when it set a minus 0.1 per cent rate on some deposits that banks place at the central bank. Growth and inflation have disappointed since then.
Mr Kuroda said the BoJ’s easing efforts including negative interest rates amounted to an “extremely powerful” policy scheme, adding that the central bank would take further action without hesitation if it was necessary to achieve its price stability target.
Unwanted side-effects
Benoît Cœuré, a member of the European Central Bank’s executive board, told the conference that the unconventional measures being deployed by big central banks could come with unwanted side-effects.
Nevertheless, if other parts of governments did not do their part to bolster economies, the ECB “may need to dive deeper into our operational framework and strategy to do so,” he argued.
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Papers presented at the conference support the notion that central banking will remain in the brave new world it entered, after the crisis forced policymakers to rip up traditional templates.
On Saturday, for example, Jeremy Stein, a former governor of the Fed who is now at Harvard, presented an argument that the US central bank should maintain large balance sheet instead of allowing its holdings of assets to shrink radically back towards its pre-crisis profile.
He argued in a presentation that this would ensure that there was an ample supply of safe, government-provided short-term claims. This would compliment the Fed’s efforts to improve financial stability and reducing the tendency of private-sector financial companies to finance risky assets using large amounts of short-term debt.
The paper comes amid an intense debate within the Fed as to how far it should allow the $4.5 trillion balance sheet it amassed during quantitative easing shrink as it heads back to a supposedly more normal monetary policy.
The possibility of central banks holding vast quantities of debt on their balance sheets for a long time raises the risk of blurring the boundary between monetary and fiscal policy, raising new questions about central bank independence.
The previous day Marvin Goodfriend, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, told policymakers they should be thinking of ways of pushing interest rates into even more negative territory in order to stimulate their economies.
The former Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond economist wrote back in 1999 that negative rates were a feasible option years before central banks started actually experimenting with them. Today the BoJ, ECB and several other European institutions have implemented negative rates to prop up growth and prevent deflation.
Challenges
However, the various means Mr Goodfriend proposed to permit more deeply negative rates would raise huge challenges. Among them is the outright abolition of cash to prevent retail depositors from taking money out of their accounts and hoarding it in their mattresses, or the creation of an electronic currency on which the authorities can set a positive or negative interest rate.
The notion of negative rates is apparently being viewed with scepticism by the Fed, as shown by Ms Yellen, who made no mention of negative rates in her discussion of future policy options.
The protracted period of ultra-low rates has already provoked deep concerns in the financial sector, including among pension funds and insurance companies, and has triggered worries that bank profits could be impaired. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016) | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/central-bankers-to-persist-with-brave-new-world-1.2770978?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/584fc836470d8bd58dede0ff181907a95ca3db3f8c7350084ab37deade0d18b2.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T00:51:27 | null | 2016-08-29T01:08:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fopinion%2Fletters%2Fmedical-careers-and-aptitude-tests-1.2769823%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/assets/images/favicons/irishtimes.png | en | null | Medical careers and aptitude tests | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Sir, – Times have changed. The old-fashioned notion of the doctor with the big stethoscope, dressed in tweeds, never off duty, charging in guineas and the object of worship from his patients is long gone.
Today’s doctor needs to be “tech-savvy” to read complex scans, to be familiar with endless numbers of new drugs and tests, to work in shifts, to engage in teamwork rather than function as an individual, and to follow protocols of international best practice rather than decide his own way of managing an illness.
In addition, much time is spent carrying out screening such as blood pressure and cholesterol levels where the patients are mostly healthy. Nurses and allied health professionals such as occupational therapists provide most of the “caring” aspect of medicine nowadays.
Medicine has become a technical job rather than a caring profession, although it remains a difficult and challenging career.
Perhaps against this background the Leaving Certificate points race is sufficient for entry into medical school.
There is no need for a supplementary test that claims to measure the nebulous concept of “aptitude”. – Yours, etc,
PAVEL MARIANSKI,
Dungarvan,
Co Waterford. | http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/medical-careers-and-aptitude-tests-1.2769823?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/b4dec2b8e5d9d9b7628922d69d6072fe7a5c27141a47d398244cb7e548824cfe.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T12:50:32 | null | 2016-08-27T12:47:00 | He follows up on Olympic silver medal by winning the lightweight single sculls title | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fother-sports%2Fireland-s-paul-o-donovan-wins-gold-at-world-rowing-championships-1.2770761%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2770764.1472299688!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Ireland’s Paul O’Donovan wins gold at world rowing championships | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Paul O’Donovan, whose interviews with his brother Gary were one of the highlights of the Olympics, has won gold at the world rowing championships, a fortnight after winning a silver medal in Rio.
The Corkman, who was thrust into the limelight with his brother following a series of entertaining TV interviews during their lightweight double sculls competition, won in the single sculls in Rotterdam on Saturday morning.
He finished 4.11sec clear of Hungary’s Peter Galambos. Slovakia’s Lukas Babac was third.
“The first stroke was bad, but then the second one was good so I went from there,” O’Donovan said. “At the 500m left I remembered I told my friends when I was in Rio that I would win here by open water, so I thought I should probably keep my promise. Then at 200m to go I guess I started smiling a little.”
The brothers, from Lisheen in West Cork, won Ireland’s first ever rowing medal at the Olympics and became web sensations following interviews in which they bemoaned the absence of Kerr Pinks at the athletes’ village in Rio and said they were disappointed not to compete in windy conditions because “it would have been a bit of craic”.
Guardian services | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/other-sports/ireland-s-paul-o-donovan-wins-gold-at-world-rowing-championships-1.2770761?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/4e84db71fcdae0875de04cdc92a8a515633605cf9ba003529763e59da1f13081.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T08:49:05 | null | 2016-08-30T08:37:00 | Maker of Cadbury chocolates shelves deal two months after Hershey turned down its $23 bn bid | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fagribusiness-and-food%2Fmondelez-abandons-pursuit-of-us-chocolate-maker-hershey-1.2772857.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772856.1472542652!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Mondelez abandons pursuit of US chocolate maker Hershey | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Mondelez International, the maker of Oreo cookies and Cadbury chocolates, said it was no longer pursuing the acquisition of Hershey Co, two months after the US chocolate company turned down its $23 billion cash-and-stock bid.
The abandoned deal, which would have created the world’s largest confectioner, underscores the grip that a charitable trust has on the maker of Hershey’s Kisses and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. The trust which controls Hershey was set up by the company’s founder over a century ago to fund and run a school for underprivileged children.
Hershey rejected a $107 per share acquisition offer from Mondelez at the end of June.
An unrelated row between the trust and the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office ensued over the trust’s governance, which resulted in a reform agreement being announced at the end of July. The agreement calls for the trust’s board to be expanded from 10 members to 13, and for five members to resign in order for 10-year terms to be enforced. One trustee resigned last month, leaving a total of nine openings.
Mondelez’s chief executive Irene Rosenfeld approached Hershey chief executive John Bilbrey again last week, and indicated that Mondelez would be willing to offer up to $115 per share for Hershey, according to a source familiar with the discussions who asked not to be identified because they were confidential.
Hershey responded that the trust would not be able to consider an offer until it is reconstituted next year, the source said. Even then, Hershey would not be willing to enter into deal negotiations for an offer of less than $125 per share, the source added. Hershey did not respond to a request for comment.
Its shares fell 11.4 per cent in after hours trading in New York on Monday to $99.00. “Following additional discussions, and taking into account recent shareholder developments at Hershey, we determined that there is no actionable path forward toward an agreement,” Rosenfeld said in a statement. The Hershey trust holds 81 per cent of the company’s voting stock, and so a sale is not possible without its approval. About two-thirds of its $12 billion in assets are in Hershey stock.
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Mondelez’s offer was half in cash and half in stock, sources have said. This means new board members of the trust, which must approve any sale of Hershey, could use such a transaction to substantially reduce its exposure in Hershey by partially cashing out on its stake. “While we are disappointed in this outcome, we remain disciplined in our approach to creating value, including through acquisitions,” Rosenfeld said on Monday. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/agribusiness-and-food/mondelez-abandons-pursuit-of-us-chocolate-maker-hershey-1.2772857 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/b05bb1bc8cb30ef80efbaf59d1efac7d3a21b2bbd296d7668fbd0dfad2dd6819.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T16:50:02 | null | 2016-08-26T17:35:00 | Fainche McCormack said the Rose of Tralee contestants did not sign up to ‘cheap reality television show’ | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fireland%2Firish-news%2Froses-were-treated-like-animals-in-a-circus-says-contestant-1.2769676%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769675.1472229338!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Roses were treated like ‘animals in a circus,’ says contestant | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Down Rose Fainche McCormack has said she and the other Roses were “treated like animals in a circus” in the selection process for the live final of the competition.
Ms McCormack (19), described the 65 Roses who participated in the final as being “manipulated, bullied and mistreated”.
She criticised the televised process in which the women were told who was competing in the live final.
The Roses were divided into two rooms; one with the 32 chosen for the live final and the other room with the 32 that were not chosen.
The selection procedure was shown on the RTÉ 1 documentary The Road to the Dome, which was screened on Monday night.
In a post on the Rose of Tralee Facebook page, which has since been deleted, Ms McCormack said neither she nor the other roses signed up “for a cheap reality television show in which our emotions would be manipulated for entertainment purposes.
“Cameras intrusively followed us all week and asked inappropriate probing questions; asking one girl what colour underwear she was wearing right before she went on stage. What’s acceptable about that?”
Ms McCormack stressed that the 10 days of the festival to that point had been “the experience of a lifetime”.
She added: “It’s just a shame that television viewing numbers became more important that the truly amazing girls that got hurt and that now have to deal with the emotional trauma of the whole, quite frankly disgusting and cruel, ordeal. None of us signed up for a cheap reality television show and now unfortunately the Rose of Tralee is an experience I will never forget, for all the wrong reasons.”
Rose of Tralee chief executive Anthony O’Gara said the majority of the Roses left the festival happy but all agreed that the manner in which the final selection process was determined was wrong.
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“It is not nice when we get comments that are very severe, but we have to take it on the chin. It is the first year and we have to learn,” he said. “When we do get things wrong we put our hands up.
“All would say that the Sunday morning programme was wrong. In fairness to RTÉ we asked them to put on a separate programme and they did a very good job on it, but probably the timing of the judging and the cameras in the girls’ faces was in retrospect not the right thing to do.”
Mr O’Gara said the festival would love to retain both the format of having 65 Roses at the festival in Tralee with 32 going through to the final and the extra television show, but things would have to change.
Meanwhile, Sydney Rose Brianna Parkins has responded to comments made by the director of the Iona Institute David Quinn about the festival.
Mr Quinn told Newstalk’s The Pat Kenny Show that the Rose of Tralee was essentially “a bit of harmless family entertainment” and political issues such as abortion should not be raised.
Ms Parkins (25), who has called for the Repeal of the Eighth Amendment to the constitution live on stage, tweeted in response: “It must really frighten middle age middle class white blokes like @DavQuinn that women can express opinions now. Sorry lads.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/roses-were-treated-like-animals-in-a-circus-says-contestant-1.2769676?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/2efe8c875f4420331dbc7c7c1aaaa701d7e249b9bb9e3397bdfbd263214bc0ee.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T04:49:39 | null | 2016-08-31T05:05:00 | Decisions on the business will now be made in Tokyo rather than Cambridge | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Ftechnology%2Farm-shareholders-to-approve-24bn-softbank-takeover-1.2773385.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773352.1472576710!/image/image.jpg | en | null | ARM shareholders to approve £24bn SoftBank takeover | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | As shareholders prepared to vote on SoftBank’s £24 billion (€28bn) takeover of ARM, former City minister Lord Myners made a last minute plea for the Cambridge-based technology company to remain under British ownership.
“We are selling our winners,” he said, “and we are being left with companies which are either not globally successful or businesses which are controlled from overseas.”
His words went unheeded, however, and just hours later, shareholders in Britain’s most successful technology company gave their overwhelming approval to the £17-a-share, all cash bid from Japan. Friday will be the last day ARM shares are traded on the London stock market and the deal will be formally completed next Monday.
ARM is the closest Britain has to a global technology giant and the loss of its independence has raised fears over the future of Britain’s technology industry. ARM chief executive Simon Segars sought to ease these concerns after yesterday’s shareholder meeting, insisting: “We are not going anywhere. We are still going to be at the heart of British technology.”
SoftBank has given a number of assurances over the future of ARM, whose microchip designs are used in the Apple iPhone and billions of other devices. It has pledged it will double ARM’s British workforce of around 1,700 over the next five years and keep its headquarters in Cambridge. It will also maintain its “unique culture and business model”.
As Myners pointed out, however, decisions on the future of the business will now be made in Tokyo rather than Cambridge. He dismissed the Japanese company’s promises as “not worth the paper they are written on”.
New takeover rules were brought in after Pfizer’s attempted takeover of AstraZeneca in 2014, making such pledges binding, although it’s not clear whether such promises are legally enforceable – and five years can be a very long time in the technology industry.
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Government response
The takeover was warmly welcomed by Theresa May’s government when it was launched last month, just a few weeks after the Brexit vote. It was proof, the prime minister said, that Britain remained attractive to international investors despite the result of the referendum.
For Myners, though, the deal underlines the City’s failure to back British business. “This is evidence once again of the City’s predilection to sell at a premium, get out, don’t invest for the future, don’t back the British economy and don’t back Britain’s future.”
Such a takeover would never have been allowed to go ahead so swiftly in America, Germany, France, or, indeed, Japan, he believes. “There would be a question of national significance and public policy to determine whether we should sell.”
But the sale of ARM was inevitable once SoftBank delivered its terms, a knockout 43 per cent premium on the Cambridge company’s previous share price – and in cash.
The ARM board recommended the deal and urged shareholders to do the same; not that they needed much urging at £17 a share. The only thing that might have derailed the move was unrest from SoftBank’s own shareholders, who fear that it already has too much debt.
Its borrowings are a hefty £90 billion and its shares fell sharply immediately after the deal was announced.
Shareholder windfall
ARM shareholders are not the only winners – the deal has triggered windfalls in the Cambridge company’s boardroom, with chief executive Segars and chief technology officer Mike Muller collecting £55 million between them. Employees at the group could also ultimately benefit to the tune of almost £400 million through share incentive schemes.
It has also been a hugely lucrative deal for the City, with fees for financial advisors and lenders running to just over £200 million. One can only imagine what they would have charged had the takeover been hostile rather than an agreed deal. Include taxes, and the final bill jumps to £350 million.
The firms sharing in the fees bonanza include Goldman Sachs, Lazards, UBS and Barclays, along with law firms Slaughter & May and Freshfields. The bill for financial public relations advice alone is put at £6 million, shared between Brunswick and Finsbury.
The biggest beneficiary, though, is the UK government, which will receive £120 million in stamp duty as a result of the deal. Not enough to make much of a dent in the deficit but welcome nonetheless.
There are plenty of winners in the ARM deal, but will Europe’s biggest technology takeover be good for Britain, as the prime minister believes, and for ARM employees? That will largely depend on whether its new Japanese owner keeps its promises – and sorts out its own debt mountain.
Fiona Walsh is business editor of theguardian.com | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/arm-shareholders-to-approve-24bn-softbank-takeover-1.2773385 | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/cce59420ed484f70164fd560eb4b9bd840a1318951a84e6e2157fb2317549b5a.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T12:55:55 | null | 2016-08-18T17:30:00 | Barbed farewells insensitive to jobseekers but highlight where recruiters go wrong | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fwork%2Fmoaning-millennials-unfair-to-themselves-and-others-1.2759304%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2759303.1471444997!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Moaning millennials unfair to themselves and others | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The barbed office farewell that goes viral is now so common there seems to be room for a sub-genre: the barbed office farewell by audit trainees at the big professional services firms.
The latest comes from Oliver Alcock, a Durham University graduate and former trainee auditor at PwC, who two months ago spent his last day detailing why he had not made the grade.
“I haven’t particularly enjoyed much of [my] time at PwC largely related to exam stress and having a low boredom threshold,” he wrote, listing things he “didn’t do” (“learn anything in a PwC training course”, “consistently pass exams”) and some he did (“a tour of Stoke-on-Trent’s finest supermarket pharmacies”, “claimed a lot of mileage money”).
That there is a small but expanding archive of failed accountants’ emails to their bosses is no surprise. Major firms have to recruit vast numbers simply to cover the attrition rate as more senior colleagues parlay their experience into jobs elsewhere. The law of averages (possibly one of the modules Mr Alcock failed to complete) suggests there are bound to be more disgruntled former would-be auditors than, say, unhappy ex-trainee sailmakers.
Rude email
Mr Alcock would be wrong to assume, though, that a rude email sent in his 20s will fade into the wallpaper of public resignation letters. For one thing, the Daily Mail picked up the story. A job-seeking graduate I interviewed a few years ago had the misfortune to be acquitted on a colourful charge that caught the Mail’s eye: her court appearance still pops up on the first page of any online search of her name.
By voicing his laddish insouciance about his failure to pass his exams, Mr Alcock has not only transgressed Lucy Kellaway’s law of “I quit” etiquette – “A resignation statement is not a time for truth, it is a time for politeness and for causing minimum upset” – he has done his peers a disservice.
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The manner and tone of his incontinent email allows older critics to fit him to the stereotype of “entitled millennials”, unable or unwilling to buckle down and do the basic tasks their elders did. Plenty of graduates take up high-profile traineeships with their eyes open, ready to be worked hard for a couple of years so they can add Goldman Sachs, McKinsey or PwC to their curriculum.
Many people the same age as Mr Alcock do not even reach the threshold of the big groups. About 45,800 applied for 3,000 entry-level roles at PwC UK this year. It is normal, even inevitable, that some trainees will hate the job; it may even be understandable that a few should wilfully squander “the opportunity of a lifetime”, as PwC UK calls it on its recruitment website; but to moan publicly about how rubbish the experience was when others are fighting for the chance to try it is unforgivable.
A lesson
PwC says it wishes Mr Alcock well and “hopes he finds a career that is right for him”. But there is a lesson here, too, for all voracious graduate recruiters – and it is not only that they should take a close look at a process that let the plainly unsuitable Mr Alcock through.
Large companies make vast play of how they are becoming more purposeful, socially aware and work-life balanced, in part because they know this is a good way to attract idealistic younger recruits. Mr Alcock may be an untrustworthy witness, but the fact he described the PwC programme as a “meat grinder” and spent part of his stint in “three business units gradually getting further and further away from the work I signed up for” shows how big the gap can be between glossy promises and gritty reality.
If companies do not bridge that gulf, or explain to bright-eyed trainees why it exists, then the kind of cynicism Mr Alcock unwisely voiced will fill the hole. That cannot be good for employers or employees.
– (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016) | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/work/moaning-millennials-unfair-to-themselves-and-others-1.2759304?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-18T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/c54fc79e4645ce157a9ca7744b893fc290bec0ed5c5faaca83832fbcc8dbf190.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T10:52:19 | null | 2016-08-30T11:24:00 | Cliff Taylor unravels the complexities and consequences of the European Commission’s ruling | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fanalysis-ireland-now-caught-in-multinational-tax-row-1.2772940%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772950.1472553640!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Analysis: Ireland now caught in multinational tax row | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The final details of the European Commission’s decision on Apple is full of complexity and obscure points of tax and competition law. But the essence of this is simple.
The European Commission is arguing that the profits which Apple earned outside the US between the years 2004 and 2014 should have been taxed in Ireland. The Revenue Commissions here had decided – on the basis, Ireland says, of international practice – that Apple should pay corporation tax in Ireland only relating to what it sold in the Irish market.
The difference between these two numbers is very large – some €13 billion on the European Commission estimates – and hence the demands from the commission that the Government collects this amount in tax.
The scale of the finding means that the whole issue of multinational tax will be front and centre again in international business debate, and this is bound to spark off serious tensions between the European Commission and the US, which will be furious at what has happened.
Ireland is caught right in the middle. It is a decision which will involve significant collateral damage for Ireland, which has always claimed to have a transparent and legally based tax system. The Revenue is merely meant to apply the rules in collecting tax here.
Rules
The European Commission has found that it offered Apple a “selective advantage” by the way it applied the rules to the US multinational – in other words it gave it too generous a deal, and one which was not on offer to other companies.
The Government and the Revenue strongly deny this and Ireland will take the fight to the European courts. However the scale and high profile of the judgement means Ireland – and the IDA – will have a fight on their hands.
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It remains to be seen if the European Commission now targets other Irish-based companies. And while the Irish tax system has changed in recent years, the decision will inevitably now create some uncertainty about the tax structure on offer to inward investors, even if the Government will loudly argue that this is not the case.
The amount of money involved will put the Government on the defensive, both at home and internationally. However the Government says it “profoundly” disagrees with the decision and a Cabinet meeting will be held on Wednesday at which Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan will seek approval to appeal the case to the European courts. Apple, now a party to the case after the decision has been reached, is also expected to appeal.
Apple established its European headquarters in Ireland in the early 1980s and for many years paid no tax on sales outside Ireland under the old export sales relief rule.
This was abolished on April 5thj, 1990, to be replaced by the 10 per cent corporation tax rate, since raised to 12.5 per cent. And so Apple entered into talks with the Revenue about how tax would be applied to its operations here, culminating in a so-called tax ruling, a non-binding letter given by the Revenue outlining the principles it would use to tax Apple here.
It is here that the dispute lies. The Government says Apple did not get a special deal. The commission disagrees and holds that the two tax rulings - one in 1991 and one in 2007 – represents illegal state aid from the country to the company. The demand that Ireland collect the tax involved follows as the legal remedy to recoup this “illegal” aid to Apple.
Case
Ireland’s case will be that it offered Apple no favourable deal and that the European Commission has taken an extraordinary use of state aid rules without any proper legal basis. The view in Dublin is that this is something of a power grab by the Commission, which has seen the OECD emerge as the main international body in the tax arena.
The Department of Finance also believes that the commission has moved away from taxing economic activity where the “ substance” of it takes place - as favoured by the OECD. It points out that much of the money moving through Apple’s Irish subsidiaries related to products such as the iPhone, on which key research and development work was undertaken in the US, and sales of which were greatest in big European markets. The commission was, Ireland will contend, operating on the basis that “if it is not taxed elsewhere, it should be taxed in Ireland.”
The commission’s ruling will now be for the European courts to decide, though Irish officials say it goes against established international tax practice.Ireland has also moved to change some of the tax structures in question.
Apple used the double Irish structure – with a company registered here but not tax resident in Ireland. In fact one of its key companies – as a US Senate hearing discovered – was not tax resident anywhere. A change in Irish tax rules means this loophole allowing the registering of a company here with no tax residency anywhere has been closed.
And the whole double Irish structure is being phased out by 2020. In hindsight it was the right move to make these changes in 2014, but it will not stop Ireland being the butt of huge international criticism.
Ireland’s case will be that it collected all the tax which Apple declared and was due here – and it was not its job to police its worldwide structures. The commission argues that the Irish Revenue authorities, influenced by jobs in Ireland, gave Apple a favourable deal.
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Law
A lot of this comes down to complex tax law on transfer pricing - the way big companies allocate costs between their subsidiaries, vital in the case of Apple where a huge intellectual property or IP charge was levied on sales across Europe, pulling money back into Irish registered subsidiaries.
Ireland will now be forced to raise a tax demand on Apple and the money will, as Father Ted put in, be “resting in our account” – or some kind of escrow half way house – as the case wends its way through the European courts. With Apple also certain to appeal, Irish officials say that “the idea that we could ever get our hands on this cash could be seen as fanciful.” This will not stop a huge political debate at home.
However such is the scale of the money involved that this is bound to have significant political implications internationally, too.
The US reaction will be furious – and retaliatory measures may be threatened – and Ireland’s competitors for foreign direct investment elsewhere in Europe will make hay.
This one will run and run. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/analysis-ireland-now-caught-in-multinational-tax-row-1.2772940?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/0f9da5dde5c20a358205a33bb00df0c29300a19eaf6a1ed688a05d9e8c75df9f.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:10:39 | null | 2016-08-26T12:00:45 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Flife-and-style%2Ffood-and-drink%2Frecipes%2Fthyme-lemonade-1.2768396%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2768394.1472139405!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Thyme lemonade | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Thyme lemonade
Serves: 4
Cooking Time: 15 mins
Course: Side Dish
Cuisine: Fusion
Ingredients Serves four
For the thyme syrup:
A good handful of thyme
1 part sugar/1 part water
For the thyme lemonade:
1 part lemon juice / 1 part thyme syrup
4-5 parts soda water
Ice cubes
Sprigs of thyme
Method
This is a wonderfully refreshing drink that is perfect for dinner parties. If you want to make an alcoholic version, add one part good quality rum to the mix. The thyme syrup can also be used for cocktails instead of a sugar syrup. Place the thyme, sugar and water in a small saucepan and bring to a steady simmer, stirring to ensure that the sugar is completely dissolved. Allow the syrup to cool completely before using it.
Fill a large pitcher with ice and pour in one part lemon juice, followed by one part thyme syrup and the soda water. Garnish with thyme sprigs and swirl them through. Serve straight away. | http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/food-and-drink/recipes/thyme-lemonade-1.2768396?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/ef23266af4d9d47b3be637b646b9705308ab16241b5a396a727807efdf220581.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T12:51:39 | null | 2016-08-29T13:00:00 | Scroll down for the answers. Congratulations to Mary McCauley, who has won 24 titles from the Macmillan Collector’s Library | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fculture%2Fbooks%2Fare-you-a-literary-lightweight-or-big-hitter-quiz-answers-and-winner-revealed-1.2758991%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2758990.1471423385!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Are you a literary lightweight or big hitter? Quiz answers and winner revealed | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | 1. Which macho novelist spent the first four years of his life dressed as a girl?
2. Which Nobel Prize-winning poet was inspired by his wife’s automatic writing?
3. Les Miserables is the longest-running musical in London’s West End but who wrote the original novel?
4. Which Jane Austen novel was Mark Twain talking about when he said ‘Every time I read [ ]I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone’?
5. What was the unusual cure Victor Hugo had for writer’s block?
6. Jane Austen never married but she was engaged for one night. Name the man she was engaged to?
7. Name the author who said the only reason he wrote was so that he/she could rush ‘off to Mexico to catch volcano rabbits’?
8. Which iconic feline character was reputedly inspired by cheese moulds?
9. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous creation, Sherlock Holmes, was well known for his powers of deduction and debunking the supernatural but which fantasy creatures did Doyle believe were real?
10. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was not the first writer to kill off Sherlock Holmes. Who was?
11. Which famous Irish novelist was not only born in the same year as Virginia Woolf but also died in the same year as her?
12. What chocolate collection was named after a comic play by JM Barrie?
13. James Joyce liked to go out drinking in Paris in the 1920s and would often end up in drunken brawls. Which famous American novelist did he often ask to protect him?
14. Which famous explorer was considered for the role of James Bond but was eventually rejected for having ‘hands too big and the face of a farmer’?
15. Which famous Irish writer is in the crowd of people on the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band?
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16. What well-known song did Sting write at the same desk that Ian Fleming wrote his James Bond novels?
17. In 1890 William Butler Yeats joined a secret society called the Golden Dawn. What did the society supposedly practice?
18. William Butler Yeats proposed to Maud Gonne five times and was rejected each time. When he finally gave up who did he ask next?
19. Name the poet who may have someone else’s body in his grave?
20. What job did Shakespeare’s father have that would be the envy of many people today?
21. Charlestown in Cornwall was used as a filming location in the BBC’s latest adaption of Poldark. It has also featured in a famous film and TV show. What were they?
22. Who was the character Demelza in Poldark based on?
23. The co-founder of Microsoft Paul Allen paid an undisclosed sum for the original manuscript of which book?
Please email your answers to bookclub@irishtimes.com by Saturday, August 20th. The first correct entry chosen at random will win 24 titles from the Macmillan Collector’s Library, a covetable collection of hardback classics priced at £9.99 each. The winner’s name and the correct answers will be published next week. The usual Irish Times competition rules apply.
Answers
1. Ernest Hemingway
2. WB Yeats
3. Victor Hugo
4. Pride and Prejudice
5. He would take all his clothes off and give them to his servant with strict instructions that they were not to be returned until he had written something.
6. Harris Bigg-Wither
7. Gerald Durrell
8. Alice in Wonderland’s Cheshire Cat
9. Fairies
10. JM Barrie
11. James Joyce
12. Quality Street
13. Ernest Hemingway
14. Sir Ranulph Fiennes
15. Oscar Wilde, James Joyce and George Bernard Shaw (one or all was accepted as correct)
16. Every Breath You Take
17. Ritual Magic
18. Her daughter Iseult
19. WB Yeats
20. Beer taster
21. Dr Who and Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland
22. Winston Graham’s wife Jean Williamson
23. Dracula
The winner is Mary McCauley, who will now receive 24 titles from the Macmillan Collector’s Library, | http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/are-you-a-literary-lightweight-or-big-hitter-quiz-answers-and-winner-revealed-1.2758991?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/2e686fa7a4e0b890d4a9c619c999c264e8075b36499bf3d3e3b17546f56ce051.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T16:50:14 | null | 2016-08-26T15:13:00 | Case bolstered by improving labour market conditions and economic growth expectations | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Ffed-s-janet-yellen-says-case-for-us-rate-hike-has-strengthened-1.2769500%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769499.1472223935!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Fed’s Janet Yellen says case for US rate hike has strengthened | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The case for raising US interest rates in the United States has strengthened in recent months because of improvements in the labour market and expectations for moderate economic growth, Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen said on Friday.
Ms Yellen did not indicate when the US central bank might raise rates, but her comments reinforced the view that such a move could come later this year. The Fed has policy meetings scheduled in September, November and December. Speaking at a three-day international gathering of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Ms Yellen said the “US economy was nearing the Federal Reserve’s statutory goals of maximum employment and price stability”.
“In light of the continued solid performance of the labour market and our outlook for economic activity and inflation, I believe the case for an increase in the federal funds rate has strengthened in recent months,” Ms Yellen said in prepared remarks.
‘Gradual’ increases
She added that the Fed still thinks future rate increases should be “gradual”. The Fed raised rates in December, its first hike in nearly a decade, but it has held off further increases so far this year due to a global growth slowdown, financial market volatility and generally tepid US inflation data.
Investors currently see an 18 per cent probability the Fed will raise rates at its September policy meeting and a 53 per cent chance of an increase in December, according to CME Group’s FedWatch tool.
Ms Yellen’s comments, by failing to lay out a clear roadmap for what the Fed needs to see to raise rates, will likely not convince some investors that a rate increase is imminent, in part because Fed policymakers are seen as sharply divided over whether to increase rates soon or take a more cautious approach.
Ms Yellen was speaking on Friday at a Fed conference on designing new monetary policy frameworks, with central bankers eager to find new ways to stimulate economies even after they have cut rates to near zero and flooded banks with money.
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Future recessions
She devoted much of her speech to outlining how the Fed may deal with future recessions now that many economists and Fed officials believe that an aging population and other dynamics appear to be slowing US economic growth over the long term. Because slower growth means future US interest rates will likely also need to be lower on average, some analysts have suggested that the Fed will have less room to fight future recessions because there will be less room to cut rates.
Such a view is “exaggerated,” Ms Yellen said, because the Fed will be able to use bond purchases and forward guidance to ease conditions. It may also want to explore other options, including broadening the range of assets it can purchase, raising the inflation target, or targeting nominal GDP, she said.
– (Reuters) | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/fed-s-janet-yellen-says-case-for-us-rate-hike-has-strengthened-1.2769500?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/a0cdc6a74a0543b1450b0b2103f38a36b3dfb85911e2155eba0624c9c1191169.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T06:52:44 | null | 2016-08-31T07:45:00 | Kerry gave all they could but it wasn’t enough as Jim Gavin’s men rose to the challenge | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fgaelic-games%2Fdarragh-%25C3%25B3-s%25C3%25A9-no-doubting-dublin-are-a-team-for-the-ages-1.2773381%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773373.1472577897!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Darragh Ó Sé: No doubting Dublin are a team for the ages | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | I got into a taxi in Dublin on Sunday morning feeling like I had left too much money in the city on Saturday night. The driver was a real old-fashioned Dub. Delighted with himself. Full of chat.
“I know you,” he says. “You’re Tomás Ó Sé.”
So maybe my day was cursed from the start.
My man was looking forward to his day. He was doing a few hours in the morning to pay for a few pints in the local watching the game. He must have wanted a few bags of crisps to go along with the pints because he was definitely going the long way round. I said this to him and he explained that he was avoiding roadworks. Good one, I thought.
He was a sound fella, real soft-spoken. But he had plenty of Dublin arrogance to go along with it.
“You know,” he says, “youse are very good to come up. It’s a long way to come to get a hiding.”
So I’m not ashamed to say that my first thought as the teams went in at half-time with Kerry five ahead was for my taxi-driver. I imagined him sitting on a barstool somewhere on the northside, his face gone white from the shock of it all. Where’s your hiding now?
As Popeye says, I am what I am. I wouldn’t be human if I was able to watch that last 10 minutes of the first half with a cool head. I had a brother down there, I had some of my best friends on the sideline and on the pitch. For them to come up to Croke Park and do what we all hoped and prayed they could do, that was blood-pumping stuff.
But in the end, Dublin are a team for the ages. There’s no doubting them. I have an issue with people who try to knock them or try to find excuses why everyone else doesn’t measure up. They have had every question asked of them and they’ve always found an answer. We’ve seen them many times now fall behind and refuse to accept defeat.
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I don’t care what anybody says about money or population size or any of that – when you’re staring down the barrel, it comes down to each individual and whether they have it in them to turn things around. These are serious players and they clearly have a serious manager who wants them to win playing good football. The only problem I can find in them is the colour of their jersey.
Survive anything
Kerry gave all they could and it wasn’t enough. Dublin can near enough survive anything at this stage. They don’t care if you score a couple of goals. They don’t panic, they don’t look around wondering where all the leaders are. They take it on themselves.
They don’t care if you want to mix it physically. They want to mix it themselves. I really like that about them. They want the game to be manly, they want you to know that this is a contact sport.
For Paul Geaney’s first point on Sunday, Cian O’Sullivan threw himself in Geaney’s direction for an attempt at a block. I was sitting up in the stand and I had as much chance of getting a block on it as O’Sullivan but his follow through carried him into Geaney and knocked him on his ass. The message was clear – score your point but expect to eat a bit of dirt as well. I love to see that in a player.
O’Sullivan was exceptional on Sunday. You can tell just by watching him that he’s an intelligent guy. I heard he works in one of the big accounting firms in the city and I wasn’t a bit surprised.
It’s the way he carries himself around the pitch – you can see him thinking ahead, organising the players around him, radiating calm. He’s never cribbing to the referee or lambasting his team-mates. He’s just staying cool, working over and back, over and back to cut off the space down the middle. He’s like a line-dancer, just without his hands on his hips.
He’s a dream for Jim Gavin to have in his team. You know the fella you play poker with who hasn’t won a hand all night and starts complaining that he isn’t getting good hands? Gavin would have no time for that. He has good hands most of the time but he can play poker too.
That role he has O’Sullivan playing is a step above what most managers would risk. Gavin is putting a huge amount on his plate there – he’s basically saying that the most important area on the pitch from a defensive point of view is O’Sullivan’s responsibility. Most teams wouldn’t come up with that job in the first place but Gavin obviously knows what type of fella he has in O’Sullivan.
Some of the things Diarmuid Connolly did in the game, only two or three players in the country are capable of. For his first point, he wriggled out of a couple of tackles, burned them off with a sprint to give himself room and popped it over from 40 yards off his right foot. His point to win the game was from nearly the same position at the opposite end of the pitch but this time he curled it in with his left.
Those players don’t come along every year. Not just players of that ability but players who are able to have that crucial impact on a game when it matters most.
Connolly had the first two shots at the posts – one went over, one went wide. In the quarter-final against Donegal, he had the first shot as well but the Donegal goalie saved it.
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He wants to get into it, get the show on the road, get the business done early. And he wants to be the one taking the shot at the end. You can’t buy that attitude.
An Apparition
On the Kerry side, I thought Donnchadh Walsh was outstanding. I’m always amazed at his ability to pop up out of nowhere. He’s just always running, running, running. He’s like an apparition. You’d be driving along a country road late at night and you’d half-expect to see the Kerry number 12 shirt pop out of the bushes and make a burst across the road. How does he turn up out of nowhere so often?
That touch for Darran O’Sullivan’s goal was perfect and it nearly summed up his whole Kerry career. Kerry broke down Stephen Cluxton’s kick-out and once Geaney got onto it, you would have expected maybe the Gooch to be the one running in on goal to get the pass. But Donnchadh just materialised.
When the ball came to him, he knew the right move to make – one touch and Darran only had to walk the ball in. And then he was away off, running the roads again. Where he’s going, nobody knows.
I’ve heard people say that half-time came too quick for Kerry. But it’s nonsense really. As far as I’ve seen, half-time comes at the same time every Sunday above in Croke Park. There’s very few certainties in life but I’d say we can add half-time to death and taxes. You know when it’s coming, you know what you have to do after it. If you don’t do it, that’s your own look-out.
The difference ultimately was that some of the Kerry decision-making just wasn’t smart enough when it had to be. In a game like that, the margins get so tight that doing the right thing becomes non-negotiable.
At one stage in the second half, James O’Donoghue and Colm Cooper burst themselves to work Tadhg Morley into a shooting position out on the 20-metre line below the Cusack Stand.
It was hard-won space – O’Donoghue got savaged by Michael Darragh Macauley and James McCarthy on his way to feeding Gooch. Gooch could have had a go himself but Morley was closer to goal and in plenty of room because O’Sullivan had pulled his defence in to protect the goal. So it wasn’t a difficult chance.
Morley is new to the team and this was his first game in Croke Park. I’m not picking him out to pick on him, just to make the point about experience and decision-making. He snatched at his shot and pulled it wide at the near post. You can’t do that. Not in this sort of game. Put it this way – I played long enough with the Gooch to know that Morley’s ear would have been red raw going back to his position.
New ball
You need to be smart. You need to turn all the little battles your way. Above all, you need to be tuned in. Stephen O’Brien got through for a great point in injury-time to level the game. He ran in along the endline and fisted it over the bar and his momentum carried him nearly into the net behind the Canal End goals.
Before he was able to turn around, the game was back on. If you watch it again, O’Brien is still running across the line, the ball is still in the air going over the bar and Cluxton is already bending over to pick up a new ball at the foot of his right-hand post for the quick kick-out. In Cluxton’s mind, a Kerry player is out of the game so let’s go. Let’s get on with it.
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To me, O’Brien had to cut across there and disrupt the kick-out. Get in Cluxton’s way, cause a row maybe, do something to slow the whole thing down. Even just run across his line so he has to change the direction he wants to go. Stop the quick kick-out so that everyone can get back in position and everyone can get their heads clear.
But he did what 99 per cent of players would do – he got back out to his position and Dublin started building again. It’s very hard to fault him for that because he did so well to get the point in the first place but these are just the tiny things that you need to turn in your favour. Kerry still have that bit of naivety whereas Dublin are just so well tuned-in.
Right zone
Kerry have run into Dublin at a time when Dublin are in the exact right zone in terms of their age profile.
They have the perfect spread of ages in terms of knowing what to do when the game is close. They’ve been in that situation so many times, they take the right option more or less every time.
There’s no disgrace in Kerry losing to them. There’s no disgrace in anybody losing to them. When it isn’t Kerry on the receiving end, they’re a pleasure to watch.
I hope the taxi driver enjoyed his pints on Sunday night. My only consolation is the porter’s a lot dearer where he was drinking than it was where I was. | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/darragh-%C3%B3-s%C3%A9-no-doubting-dublin-are-a-team-for-the-ages-1.2773381?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/94192577a9ab11d7297e73158c471402979a910c00b01fb0e900f39409e3933e.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T16:48:34 | null | 2016-08-28T12:59:00 | Little progress on Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, says minister | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Feu-us-free-trade-talks-have-failed-says-german-minister-1.2770951.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771115.1472401744!/image/image.jpg | en | null | EU-US free-trade talks have failed, says German minister | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Germany’s economy minister says free-trade talks between the European Union and the United States have failed.
Negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) have made little progress in recent years.
Sigmar Gabriel, who is also Germany’s vice-chancellor, said: “In my opinion the negotiations with the United States have de facto failed, even though nobody is really admitting it.”
He noted that in 14 rounds of talks the two sides had not agreed on a single common chapter out of 27 being discussed.
Mr Gabriel compared the TTIP negotiations unfavourably with a free-trade deal forged between the EU and Canada, which he said was fairer for all sides.
If reached, the deal could encompass almost half the global economy, potentially generating €92 billion in added output for the EU and US. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/eu-us-free-trade-talks-have-failed-says-german-minister-1.2770951 | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/cb760b25a5ec4ac20e5c047b5ec3dad14ed11f920c69ac63580eb7fa7d7c05b5.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T04:48:58 | null | 2016-08-30T05:32:00 | Q&A: Dominic Coyle | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fpersonal-finance%2Fwhere-can-i-get-a-risk-free-return-on-a-six-figure-sum-1.2772172.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2763452.1472487923!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Where can I get a risk-free return on a six-figure sum? | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | I have a six figure sum in a deposit account due to mature next month. The interest is very bad. It’s with Bank of Ireland and they want me to meet an adviser there about my options. Maybe a five-year term low risk. The money I got was from a house sale. I don’t really like the idea of risk. Any ideas, Post Office and so on? I don’t mind it being put away three to five years or so.
Mr JB, email
Answer:
Maturing investments are proving a right headache at the moment, especially for low risk investors.
You’ll have seen the news last week that Bank of Ireland is joining the growing trend by financial houses of charging customers for deposits. It is only major corporate customers – those with more than €10 million in the bank – that will have to pay, but even the idea that depositors are having to pay banks to hold (and use) their money tells a tale of a deeply dysfunctional market.
Essentially, it is proving next to impossible to make a decent return on cash at the moment, unless you are willing to take chances, and even then there’s no guarantee it will not go against you. For the banks, the option is to lodge the money with the European Central Bank, which is considered the safest way of ensuring they don’t lose anything.
This, however, runs counter to ECB policy, which is looking to encourage banks to invest in the real economy in an effort to improve the economic situation in Europe. When persuasion didn’t work, the ECB eventually brought the rate at which they accept deposits from the banks overnight down below zero. So the banks are paying the ECB to accept their money.
Where banks turn to the ECB for a “state guarantee”, individual consumers tend to turn to State savings , i.e. An Post. You may not make much on your money – from 0.33 per cent per annum on three-year savings bonds to 0.98 per cent on five and a half year savings certificates – but it is tax free and more than you make on basic term deposit with the banks.
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And while you can make a better return by investing in funds with Bank of Ireland or elsewhere, you will have to accept some level of risk. As a general rule, the higher the risk, the higher the potential returns – but that also comes with a higher risk of losing some or all of your money.
At least, with An Post – like the basic bank deposits – you’re backed by a State guarantee that you will get your money back.
The bad news for investors is that the outlook does not signal any easing in the harsh and volatile investment environment over the medium term; in fact, the post-Brexit turmoil, exacerbated by problems with the Chinese economy and uncertainty around the US presidential elections, mean choices are likely to remain difficult.
I was wondering what you think is coming up in the next budget? At present a house is tax free if you’ve inherited it while living in it for a few years, but I read that this is being reviewed. I’d just like your take on this.
Mr J.McJ, email
Answer:
At this remove, it is hard to have any clear sense of what will be in the budget in October, although there has been some fairly clear signalling of an intention to address/reduce the impact of the universal social charge. Ironic really, as it operates more cleanly and transparently than a lot of our tax system.
In any case, the two driving forces shaping the budget will be, first, the Government’s determination to be seen to share some of the benefits of the recovery – especially after the last election showed the presumption of a rising tide lifting all boats was not shared by the electorate. This might be mitigated somewhat by the second influence – the impact of the UK Brexit vote on the Irish economy and the exchequer.
One of the things that has been brought into the mix is the relief you’re talking about – dwelling house relief. I certainly did see some venting in certain media channels on the subject, much of it very exaggerated.
However, it is true to say that the number of families availing of the relief has jumped sharply, and there are concerns in Revenue circles that it is being abused – which it most likely is.
As usual, eagle-eyed tax specialists have been advising their often wealthy clients of the possibility of providing a home for children without any tax implications on. They have been surprisingly open on the subject of such “tax planning”.
Revenue has been clamping down recently on the practice of wealthy parents financially supporting the lifestyles of their adult children. Most recently in the 2014 Finance Act, it tightened up the rules for such support under section 82 of the Capital Acquisitions Tax Act 2003, covering the “support, maintenance and education” of children. The suspicion is that support no longer available under section 82 is now being redirected to dwelling house relief.
If they have strong grounds to suspect the tax exemption on dwelling houses is being similarly abused, I would expect them to push hard for reform.
Still, the relief is a valuable element of social policy to ensure that family members living with, and often caring for, elderly parents are not effectively forced into homelessness by inheritance tax charges on the death of those parents which forces them to sell the only home they know.
I think, as with the review of section 82, any reform will look to retain the relief for those people who have been genuinely living in the family home for the three years prior to any inheritance with an aged or infirm parent and who subsequently remain in the home (or replacement accommodation) for six years thereafter.
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Please send your queries to Dominic Coyle, Q&A, The Irish Times, 24-28 Tara Street, Dublin 2, or email dcoyle@irishtimes.com. This column is a reader service and is not intended to replace professional advice | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/personal-finance/where-can-i-get-a-risk-free-return-on-a-six-figure-sum-1.2772172 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/774db17a53bbd04333f2e7caeaf20e87f112e6ee0dafe29d22ea4eb14b86beb2.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T20:51:11 | null | 2016-08-28T20:01:00 | Scot starts as US Open favourite after winning both Wimbledon and an Olympic gold medal this summer | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fother-sports%2Fnovak-djokovic-still-a-major-obstacle-for-andy-murray-to-overcome-john-mcenroe-1.2771238%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771236.1472410909!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Novak Djokovic still a major obstacle for Andy Murray to overcome - John McEnroe | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Andy Murray is in the form of his life but still a long way short of Novak Djokovic at his best, according to seven-time grand slam champion John McEnroe.
Murray begins his US Open campaign on Tuesday against world number 82 Lukas Rosol and he arguably starts as tournament favourite after winning both Wimbledon and an Olympic gold medal this summer. A fourth grand slam title at Flushing Meadows would also represent a significant power shift given only two months ago Djokovic held all four major titles.
With Roger Federer out injured, Djokovic wrestling with “private issues” and a niggling wrist problem, and Nadal searching for his first grand slam semi-final since the French Open in 2014, there appears finally to be an opening for Murray’s own period of dominance.
But McEnroe, who toiled with the likes of Bjorn Borg, Jimmy Connors and Ivan Lendl, believes it is still too soon to dismiss Murray’s biggest rivals.
“Can Murray dominate now? I think Novak is still obviously the most obvious obstacle,” said McEnroe, speaking on behalf of espn.co.uk. “He’s been playing at a level the last couple years that Murray hasn’t been able to attain. That’s frustrated him.
“Things have changed the last couple months, the shock that he lost early at Wimbledon, but to me the level that Novak was playing, it was higher consistently. The bar was higher maybe than anything I’ve ever seen as far as his consistency.
“There’s a way to go where he would be able to lift it to do what Novak has done the last couple of years and is going to continue to try to do. And Nadal on clay, at a French Open, you’re not going to convince me he’s done yet the way he was playing leading up (before withdrawing injured) – I thought he was getting close to what he was before on the clay.
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“That would be an interesting match, to say the least, with Murray. I don’t think Murray would go in as a favourite on that surface against Nadal in a best-of-five.”
Murray cannot meet either Djokovic or Nadal until the final in New York but should he get there, the Scot will become only the fourth man in the Open era to make all four grand slam finals in a calendar year, joining Federer, Djokovic and Rod Laver. He has also reached seven consecutive finals heading into the last major of 2016 and with coach Ivan Lendl back by his side, the 29-year-old looks primed for another challenge.
“Murray is playing the best tennis of his life. He seems to have everything in order. He’s in a good space,” McEnroe said. “He wants to get closer to be talked about in the same breath as these three guys that are like three of the five greatest players that ever lived.
“So Murray has been meticulous. He’s done a great job. But he’s still got a ways to go to even get close to those guys.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/other-sports/novak-djokovic-still-a-major-obstacle-for-andy-murray-to-overcome-john-mcenroe-1.2771238?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/5edbf865e0b458192f1b8c334425ae848909e9e49633bacd6f065d9d17b25cde.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T14:48:31 | null | 2016-08-28T13:56:00 | Fighting next US recession likely to involve using tools from crisis, says Fed chair Yellen | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fcentral-bankers-to-persist-with-brave-new-world-1.2770978.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2770976.1472388970!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Central bankers to persist with brave new world | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The message from the meetings in Jackson Hole was clear: there is no winding the clock back to the pre-crisis world of central banking as officials seek ways of improving their monetary weaponry.
The point was made by Janet Yellen, the Federal Reserve chair, in the speech that opened the Kansas City Fed’s annual symposium – a gathering of the central banking elite in Grand Teton National Park.
Fighting the next recession, she said, would be likely to involve the new tools that the Fed invoked during the financial crisis – not just rate cuts but also asset purchases and forward guidance. She also raised the prospect of further changes by future generations of policymakers, including changes to the central bank’s inflation target and purchases of alternative kinds of assets when it needs to do quantitative easing.
Interventions by fellow central bankers bore out that impression. Governor Haruhiko Kuroda of the Bank of Japan (BoJ) said he saw “ample space” for further loosening of the institution’s monetary policy, as he defended the central bank’s attempts to bolster growth and inflation via policies including negative rates.
The BoJ wrongfooted markets in January when it set a minus 0.1 per cent rate on some deposits that banks place at the central bank. Growth and inflation have disappointed since then.
Mr Kuroda said the BoJ’s easing efforts including negative interest rates amounted to an “extremely powerful” policy scheme, adding that the central bank would take further action without hesitation if it was necessary to achieve its price stability target.
Unwanted side-effects
Benoît Cœuré, a member of the European Central Bank’s executive board, told the conference that the unconventional measures being deployed by big central banks could come with unwanted side-effects.
Nevertheless, if other parts of governments did not do their part to bolster economies, the ECB “may need to dive deeper into our operational framework and strategy to do so,” he argued.
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Papers presented at the conference support the notion that central banking will remain in the brave new world it entered, after the crisis forced policymakers to rip up traditional templates.
On Saturday, for example, Jeremy Stein, a former governor of the Fed who is now at Harvard, presented an argument that the US central bank should maintain large balance sheet instead of allowing its holdings of assets to shrink radically back towards its pre-crisis profile.
He argued in a presentation that this would ensure that there was an ample supply of safe, government-provided short-term claims. This would compliment the Fed’s efforts to improve financial stability and reducing the tendency of private-sector financial companies to finance risky assets using large amounts of short-term debt.
The paper comes amid an intense debate within the Fed as to how far it should allow the $4.5 trillion balance sheet it amassed during quantitative easing shrink as it heads back to a supposedly more normal monetary policy.
The possibility of central banks holding vast quantities of debt on their balance sheets for a long time raises the risk of blurring the boundary between monetary and fiscal policy, raising new questions about central bank independence.
The previous day Marvin Goodfriend, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, told policymakers they should be thinking of ways of pushing interest rates into even more negative territory in order to stimulate their economies.
The former Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond economist wrote back in 1999 that negative rates were a feasible option years before central banks started actually experimenting with them. Today the BoJ, ECB and several other European institutions have implemented negative rates to prop up growth and prevent deflation.
Challenges
However, the various means Mr Goodfriend proposed to permit more deeply negative rates would raise huge challenges. Among them is the outright abolition of cash to prevent retail depositors from taking money out of their accounts and hoarding it in their mattresses, or the creation of an electronic currency on which the authorities can set a positive or negative interest rate.
The notion of negative rates is apparently being viewed with scepticism by the Fed, as shown by Ms Yellen, who made no mention of negative rates in her discussion of future policy options.
The protracted period of ultra-low rates has already provoked deep concerns in the financial sector, including among pension funds and insurance companies, and has triggered worries that bank profits could be impaired. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016) | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/central-bankers-to-persist-with-brave-new-world-1.2770978 | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/4f76270213e806b119fcc928fd6594ded9ffff891d58bc41ae7aedc8a7fcc8f2.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T06:52:13 | null | 2016-08-30T06:00:00 | The pair are that most shocking thing to Hollywood: a middle-aged married couple who actually fancy each other | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fculture%2Ftv-radio-web%2Fmegan-mullally-and-nick-offerman-we-sing-songs-about-our-genitals-1.2768497%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2768496.1472143808!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman: ‘We sing songs about our genitals’ | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Ten years since Will & Grace ended its run, it’s still difficult to separate Megan Mullally from Karen Walker, the scene- stealing sidekick who was as iconic as she was alcoholic. Mullally’s voice isn’t shrill and her jokes aren’t catty, but speaking to her after her latest live comedy show in South Carolina, you would swear every sentence will begin with “Oh, honey . . . ”
And her husband, Nick Offerman, has a touch of the Ron Swansons about him. Like his Parks and Recreation character, he takes his time with words and shares an all-American aura, but he speaks with such sensitivity it’s apparent he would never insist crying is only “acceptable at funerals and the Grand Canyon”, unlike Ron.
“When I think about those roles, I think similarly of both our experiences,” Offerman says. “When you get on set, it’s easy to see if it’s being created out of greed or power. If it’s created with love, like our shows, the writing is often much riskier, and we were the beneficiaries of some of the best progressive writing, socially. Our shows really made a difference.
Mullally adds: “And it was also great experience: for an actor it was like winning the lottery to work every day for seven years. It’s so weird when people get famous for a certain role and they spend the rest of their career trying to distance themselves from it.”
Offerman says: “Although, because I’m a character actor I’ve had to get rid of my moustache. People get upset when I don’t have it. But I know that when they insult my face, they’re praising my acting.”
Mid-career success
The couple’s signature roles came mid- career; both were 39 when they were cast in their respective sitcoms. Growing up in Oklahoma, Mullally intended to become a ballet dancer, but found its acting aspect so appealing she spent the next 20 years pursuing it with bit parts and stage shows until she landed the biggie. Offerman’s background was in theatre, which is where the two met.
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Fast-forward through 13 years of seminal characters and blissful marriage. The latter is the subject of their variety stage show Summer of 69: No Apostrophe. As the risqué name suggests, it’s not a show for the prudish – a surprise, given that most celebrity couples pretend to hide their personal lives.
“We didn’t choose to go public,” says Offerman. “The media in the States has made a really big deal about our relationship. We were touring separately – me as a humorist and Megan with her band [Nancy and Beth] – and when we wanted to go on tour together, we figured it had already been promoted, so let’s take the piss out of that. It’s not a documentary where we give a blow-by-blow account of our behind-the-scenes life. It’s an entertaining send-up of our life together.”
Fancy that
The show has been running for two years, and it defies Hollywood norms by their willingness to present themselves as (shock horror) a wife and husband who actually fancy each other. This despite the entertainment industry’s insistence that middle-aged couples – and women – are asexual (a point excellently parodied in Amy Schumer’s skit Last F** *able Day with Tina Fey, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Patricia Arquette).
“We’ve not been asked about that before, but it’s really interesting,” says Mullally. “It’s not something that we think about in real life; it doesn’t even enter into the equation. I’m 57 and Nick’s 46, and we have a romantic and sexual relationship. But there is a huge discrepancy in film and television. I have a movie coming out called Why Him? where I play Bryan Cranston’s wife. I felt it was important that we showed some kind of sexuality to my character: we need to see more couples who aren’t 23 years old have a sensual relationship. You still have the same feelings and the same desires when you’re older. It doesn’t stop. People in marriages or relationships who are older still get it on.”
The issue perhaps lies with the lazy, 2D roles written for women – which Mullally has avoided throughout her career, be it with Karen, white supremacist Leanne in Sky 1 series You, Me and the Apocalypse, or the neurotic Aunt Gayle in Bob’s Burgers.
“I was offered a lot of dumb comedies during Will & Grace, where you play the best friend or whatever,” she says. “It’s incredibly frustrating, as there aren’t as many parts for women, let alone women over 32.”
Offerman adds: “It’s something that shows its face every day in our household. I’m perfectly satisfied with my abilities, but my wife is so gorgeous and talented and hilarious, and also just a great actress. Then to be in a relationship where we can compare the opportunities that come to us – for me there’s roles as a judge, a sheriff, a coach. You also see roles where the love interest is much younger. But those types of projects with skewed mentality don’t align with our feelings, so it doesn’t come across our desk that often.
“By just being ourselves and celebrating the reality of our lives, we’re afforded this opportunity that people enjoy. We’re a happily married couple and we sing songs about our genitals.”
The Trump song
This leg of their tour – which has been updated with four new songs, including one about Donald Trump – comprises only London and Dublin, which they requested while work took Nick to Scotland. London holds a special place in their hearts; it’s where they were engaged and where they renewed their vows on Valentine’s Day last year. Dublin also gives them the chance to visit Co Galway and discover Mullally’s roots.
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It’s a quick break between their many, many other projects: together they’re guest-starring in sitcom Life in Pieces and preparing for a new film, Infinity Baby. Mullally’s next big release is Why Him? and Offerman’s is The Founder (a biopic about McDonald’s businessman Ray Kroc) and also has a new woodwork book due in October (he has a wood shop in LA).
“We hustle,” says Offerman. “But if our job takes us away, we always make sure that we don’t spend more than two weeks apart. And since we like working together, our next goal is to develop a TV show together, maybe about our marriage. Right now we’re trying to find the right showrunner, so it’s in the early stage.”
With such an enviable relationship, we have to end by asking, what’s the secret to a happy marriage? “Being able to have a sense of humour in common helps,” says Offerman. “We can have a laugh when things get tough. It means she won’t ever be able to fully leave me.”
Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman’s Summer of 69: No Apostrophe is at the Olympia Theatre, Dublin, on September 6th
SCENE STEALERS: GREAT CHARACTERS IN BLAND SHOWS
Karen Walker and Ron Swanson were memorable characters in otherwise bland shows. Here are other fan favourites that bucked the trend of their series.
Ari Gold in Entourage
A group of superficial guys enjoy the privileges of La-la land. Sharp-tongued talent agent Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven) was there to add some edge. He couldn’t save the movie adaption, mind.
Barry off Eastenders in Extras
The second series of Ricky Gervais’s plummeting show was saved by the self-deprecating comic acting of Shaun Williamson.
Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory
Stick through the canned laughter (double shudder) for Jim Parsons’ deadpan delivery of Sheldon’s wonderfully weird views.
Kid Karate in Fade Street
Steve Gannon and Kev Breen’s band was the only credible thing about the defunct RTÉ reality show following Dublin socialites (shudder). | http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/tv-radio-web/megan-mullally-and-nick-offerman-we-sing-songs-about-our-genitals-1.2768497?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/b1e27e0982a7663f7ee5e78b4e65844404b6d26899e0a402527d56a453a417da.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T14:52:13 | null | 2016-08-30T15:05:00 | RTÉ’s brilliantly made new documentary series tries to focus on the small picture. But politics is inescapable. Not even a fly on the wall can remain impartial | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fculture%2Ftv-radio-web%2Flast-night-s-tv-keeping-ireland-alive-the-irish-health-service-in-a-day-1.2773113%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2764415.1471875260!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Last night’s TV - Keeping Ireland Alive: The Irish Health Service in a Day | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Of the many people we meet in RTE’s new documentary series Keeping Ireland Alive: The Irish Health Service in a Day (Monday, RTÉ One), it’s the neurosurgeon I can’t get out of my brain.
David O’Brien is actually the first person we meet, at 7am on May 31st in Dublin, greeting his patient Brendan Flanagan, a Dublin Bus driver, before removing a lump from his spine. Nobody needs to be told how serious this procedure is, but O’Brien explains it anyway, in words both professional, personable and reassuring. Then he asks what music Flanagan would like played during surgery? Led Zeppelin? Stairway to Heaven, O’Brien laughs. “How appropriate!”
Oh, it makes me wonder. Made by Independent Productions for RTÉ, this eight-part series opens with the kind of statistics it would rather avoid: Every day 200,000 people access the Irish health service, 80 people die and 200 babies are born. It adds some figures of its own, having deployed 75 cameras to 70 Irish locations over 24 hours.
But, gliding over the politics around healthcare, the programme insists: “We push past the headlines to tell the human stories at the heart of this often controversial but most vital service.” It’s an admirable undertaking and - with 14 producers and directors behind the first episode alone, and 92 people on the production team - an incredible logistical achievement. But politics is inescapable. Not even a fly on the wall can remain impartial.
They strike gold with Mr O’Brien, though; outwardly avuncular but with the behavioural quirks of a bro: he will indeed rock out during spinal surgery, demand “Who’s the man?” of his colleagues (he is the man, they agree), later requiring high-fives of his patient post (very successful) surgery, before finding amusement in the name of the craft beer Galway Hooker.
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But O’Brien is what the health service needs and an emblem of the programme, someone who can empathise enough to treat his patient as a human being, but not so much that he can’t do his job, relishing the challenge of fishing out a tumour as though it was the prize in an arcade claw machine.
A precise balance
These, I suspect, are also the talents you need to make the series, to consent to be in it, and finally to watch it: a very precise balance between investment and detachment. As an intermediate-level hypochondriac with easy access to Google, these are not skills I possess.
While absorbed in the stoic drama of a woman whose husband has advanced Alzheimer’s (we see her in a rare moment of tranquillity alone in a park, while her husband sings with a Young at Heart choir), or another woman’s unswerving support for her husband’s advanced myopathy, or later flinching from the life-changing open-eye surgery of a blind man receiving a cornea transplant, I add vigorously to my search history: “early symptoms of…” “how to avoid getting…” and “Stairway to Heaven lyrics + surgical appropriateness…”
The level of access here is startling and sensitively handled (I would watch a documentary on the making of this documentary). You see people’s pain, physical and emotional, public and private, but the programme won’t dwell on it.
If it is exhausting to watch nonetheless, that is no fault of the story editors who deftly assemble the narratives within this day, but because there are just so many stories they may overload your empathy and cloud back into statistics and conditions.
The title has clearly been selected to accentuate the positive, and every story in the opening episode concludes with surprising optimism. Yet the makers of this mass-observation documentary know that, here, adequate funding and resources or even conspicuous comforts are few. It’s there for you when you need it, they say of the health service. Let’s keep it that way. | http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/tv-radio-web/last-night-s-tv-keeping-ireland-alive-the-irish-health-service-in-a-day-1.2773113?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/457aeffae3bd94d5ad3ac3f2689a13c852112b173e41c591bbe872c1cdd3451b.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T22:52:03 | null | 2016-08-29T22:00:00 | Extract of Cavan footballer’s book details how he dealt with depression | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Flife-and-style%2Fhealth-family%2Fcavan-footballer-alan-o-mara-tackles-stigma-of-depression-with-his-story-1.2767132%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2766924.1472225055!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Cavan footballer Alan O’Mara tackles stigma of depression with his story | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | My counsellor took a deep breath and looked at me. “Look,” he said, “I have hinted at this before, but I have never felt you were ready to take it on board before now. When did we first see each other?”
“Back at the start of 2012,” I confirmed.
“Well, at the start, the work we did was enough to get you back living your life and back out into the world but I think we both knew there was always another level that you needed to dig down into and work through. I think that time has arrived.”
“What do you mean?” I wondered. It all sounded a bit airy-fairy.
“Okay, try this. Describe yourself to me. Who are you?”
“I’m Alan O’Mara.”
“That’s your name, but who are you? What makes you, well, you?” said the man who had helped me work through so much.
“I suppose people will always say, ‘There’s the Cavan keeper. He’s happy and outgoing’.”
I wasn’t sure if that was the right answer.
“That’s not what I mean. That’s what other people see. Let’s try this a different way. Give me a couple of words that best describe you as a person.”
“Eh . . . intelligent?” I said, before waiting to see if I was on the right track.
He nodded in approval.
“Eh . . . thoughtful?” I added.
“Thoughtful in what way?”
“I suppose I just get on well with people. A lot of times, if people are going through something, they tend to come to me for a chat or ask for advice. I don’t go looking for it, they just tend to find me.”
“That’s good. Between now and our next visit, I want you to take some time to think about what makes you you. Who is the real Alan O’Mara?
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“Not the one people see playing in Croke Park, not the one people see in a pub or a nightclub, in the dressing room or at work. I want you to really think about who you are and what you enjoy doing.”
“Eh . . . okay,” I said.
“You don’t sound convinced,” said Niall. “Trust me. Keep a list of what words you think best define you. Make a list of the things you do or that happen to you that allow you to feel most like you. Try new things. Try going to the theatre, to a comedy gig or a festival, and don’t be afraid to challenge your friends to try new things with you. Break the habits that you’re not happy with and get out of what you think is your comfort zone.”
Habits. I thought about that word a lot when I got home that evening. For most, life is just one long line of habits really. I drove to work the same way every morning, even though there were three or four routes that all took the same time. For some reason, I drove home an entirely different way. Why? Because it was a habit!
I began to question everything I did and why I did it. As habits went, few things puzzled me as much as my relationship with alcohol. There was no denying I had used it to escape more than I should have during my college years, but it wasn’t always like that.
I’d had my first real drink at 16 years of age, when I was in my final year in school and getting ready for my Leaving Cert. Some of the students had organised a ‘Pre-Debs’, which was basically an excuse to get dressed up, drunk and forget about exam stresses.
All my friends were going but my father was adamant that I wasn’t, given that I wasn’t of age. At 16, I was the youngest person in my year by a good bit, and while others had started to hit the town regularly on a Saturday night, I had yet to join them.
It didn’t bother me at all, because I was on my first year with the county minor panel and we had training most Sunday mornings. However, this was one time I felt I needed to bow to the peer pressure and attend. In the end, Dad allowed me to go, but told me he was collecting me at 1am.
I said an early goodbye to my friends, came out to the car on time, and in good shape, and pretended as best I could to be fully sober. Over the years, my reluctance to consume alcohol had diminished, and I’d enjoyed going out as much as anyone else.
I’d probably enjoyed the new-found freedom in college a little bit too much, but that was all part of growing up and finding my feet in the world. That had all changed by the time I was in the fourth year of my degree, when depression was wreaking havoc. When I look back now, I really don’t like the person I was during that spell – particularly when I hit the beer.
At no point was I an alcoholic, but I did consistently choose to get drunk as a way to escape my own thoughts and feelings.
The Best is Yet to Come – A memoir about football and finding a way through the dark. Written by Alan O’Mara, is published on September 1st, 2016 by Hachette Books Ireland. £13.99 | http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/health-family/cavan-footballer-alan-o-mara-tackles-stigma-of-depression-with-his-story-1.2767132?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/169b8b1bc33669a9cb8cdfc43d30e8c95524277d8a51bda5abdfb9bfdf36f641.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T16:48:33 | null | 2016-08-28T15:47:00 | EU countries with most stable outlook likely to benefit most from Brexit, says fund | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fcommercial-property%2Fus-hedge-fund-marathon-targets-irish-property-1.2771024.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771022.1472395652!/image/image.jpg | en | null | US hedge fund Marathon targets Irish property | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Marathon Asset Management, a $13 billion (€11.6 billion) US hedge fund, is building a big Brexit trade, increasing its investments in property across Ireland, France, Germany and the Netherlands, in a bet that they will be among the big beneficiaries from companies leaving London in the next few years.
These countries “have the most stable outlook and [are the] most likely to benefit from Brexit,” said Bruce Richards, co-founder and chief executive of the distressed debt and property specialist.
Hedge funds were reluctant to put on trades ahead of Britain’s referendum on European Union membership in late June given the closeness of the polls. With the volatility triggered by the vote long since vanished, hedge fund managers such as Marathon, and private equity firms such as CVC, have been been preparing for any opportunities created by the UK’s decision to leave.
Planning purchases
Marathon, which acquired a cluster of European real estate this year, including a portfolio of commercial properties in the Netherlands from Credit Suisse, is planning to buy more in France, Germany, the Netherlands and Ireland.
It has bought significantly in Ireland in recent years, purchasing a number of retail parks, a shopping centre in Tralee, loans associated with the area around Dublin’s Heuston station as well as a number of apartment investments. It now looks set to up its spending in Ireland.
“Many bank service sector jobs will undoubtedly move to Frankfurt and Paris as EU rules will likely require bank employees to be domiciled within the EU when serving EU clients,” Mr Richards said.
Marathon believes London will remain the centre for finance in Europe but predicts that many jobs will move elsewhere.
Although UK economic data since the vote has been mixed, there are other signs that hedge fund investors still anticipate trouble for the economy. Bets among speculators on a decline in the pound touched a record last week, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
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Since the first quarter, Marathon has acquired office buildings in Amsterdam, multifamily residences in Dublin, industrial warehouse properties or logistics centres in France and shopping centres in Germany.
Investors will be handed more up-to-date information on the UK economy this week, with a snapshot of the manufacturing sector in August and a survey of house prices for the same month both scheduled for release.
Mild recession
The UK will likely slide into a “mild” recession next year, according to Marathon, so Bank of England governor Mark Carney will probably continue on a path of easy monetary policy that the central bank began at the start of this month.
In the US, the credit cycle is unlikely to present opportunities for investors in distressed assets until 2018, according to Mr Richards.
Investors have been anticipating a rising tide of distress in credit and real estate markets. Marathon expects “anaemic growth” of 1 per cent in the coming year. “Monetary policy has reached a point of diminishing returns,” Mr Richards said, adding that “lower rates are no longer simulative but rather oppressive”.
Marathon, founded almost 20 years ago, in June sold a minority stake to Blackstone Group.
In 2011, Mr Richards said Europe presented “the mother lode of distressed opportunities” as the continent grappled with its sovereign debt crisis and growth sputtered. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016) | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/commercial-property/us-hedge-fund-marathon-targets-irish-property-1.2771024 | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/2574517a564905c85c53a5bf13fd8b9887d2a53cafc6dbd70d8670050aebfb55.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T16:51:55 | null | 2016-08-29T16:53:00 | ‘Women foreign visitors should not wear short dresses,’ warns Mahesh Sharma | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Fasia-pacific%2Fanger-in-india-as-minister-says-women-tourists-should-cover-up-1.2772139%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772134.1472486041!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Anger in India as minister says women tourists should cover up | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | India’s federal cultural and tourism minister has advised foreign women tourists visiting the country against wearing skirts and other “skimpy” clothes, to ensure their safety.
He also said they should refrain from going out at night.
“For their own safety, women foreign visitors should not wear short dresses and skirts. Indian culture is different from western culture,” Mahesh Sharma said on Sunday in Agra, the city of the Taj Mahal.
This advisory would be part of the “welcome kit” brochure being prepared for visitors ahead of India’s tourist season, October to March. The kit cautions visitors about smaller towns and villages, which still have traditional styles of dressing, especially for religious places, and where people frown on revealing skirts.
“Do find out about local customs and traditions from the tourism office or concerned authorities while visiting such places,” states Tips for Travelling in India.
But after Mr Sharma’s remarks triggered public and social media outrage, the minister tried to play down his comments. “I have not given any specific instructions regarding what they [female tourists] should wear or not wear,” he said. The ministry was not trying to impose a dress code, but was only asking foreigners to take precautions while going out at night, he added. “I am simply concerned,” he said.
Fashion freedom
Opposition parties and women activists criticised Mr Sharma’s remarks. “Women had greater freedom to wear clothes of their choice in Vedic times than they have in [prime minister Narendra] Modi’s times” tweeted Delhi’s chief minster Arvind Kejriwal , referring to ancient India.
“These visitors are coming from more orderly countries than India,” said Ranjana Kumari of the Centre for Social Research, a women’s advocacy group. “By issuing such instructions, we are merely telling foreigners that they are visiting India at their own peril; that it is not a safe country for women,” she added.
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“The minister is adding insult to injury. It is also a shameless admission of failure to provide security to foreign [female] tourists”, tweeted Raghunana Rao, while another user said that India needed to “ban such conservative ministers, not skirts”.
Mr Sharma had previously stoked a similar sexism controversy by declaring that a woman going out after dark was against Indian culture.
“Girls wanting a night out may be all right elsewhere. But this is not a part of our [Indian] culture,” he said. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/asia-pacific/anger-in-india-as-minister-says-women-tourists-should-cover-up-1.2772139?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/8f5365100fd763e624af8ed65cfe64969fcc313c7e45e001a753775a5649160a.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T08:49:11 | null | 2016-08-30T07:26:00 | Acquisitions and expansion in north America boosts fresh food group as pre-tax profits jump 5.8%; Davy reiterates ‘outperform’ rating | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fagribusiness-and-food%2Frevenues-rise-10-4-at-total-produce-1.2772847.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772846.1472539186!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Revenues rise 10.4% at Total Produce | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Revenues at Total Produce rose by 10.4 per cent to €1.9 billion in the first half of the year, as the fresh food group got a boost from acquisitions and higher average prices.
In the six months to June 30th, total revenues rose by 10.4 per cent, while adjusted EBITA was up by 13.2 per cent and adjusted fully diluted earnings per share grew by 11.6 per cent. Profit before tax rose by 5.8 per cent to €25.6 million. The fruit distributor spun out of Fyffes said it benefited from acquisitions completed in the period and a circa 5 per cent like-for-like growth in revenue on the back of both volume growth and higher average prices. A strong operational performance was offset in part by a small negative impact on translation to Euro of the results of foreign currency denominated operations.
Chairman Carl McCann said the group delivered “a very strong performance” in the first six months of the year, as the group continued its expansion in north America in 2016, acquiring 65 per cent of Progressive Produce, a company headquartered in Los Angeles, as well as a number of other investments.
“ The group continues to actively pursue further investment opportunities,” Mr McCann said, adding that the interim dividend is up 10 per cent to 0.8096 cent per share.
“The group is now targeting increased full year earnings at the top end of the previously announced range of 10.50 to 11.50 cent per share,” he said.
On the UK’s decision to leave the European Union, Total Produce said while it has “created some macroeconomic uncertainties, it is not expected to have a material impact on the group”.
In a note, Davy Stockbrokers said it was a “strong” set of results, adding that the international segment represents “a significant growth opportunity” for the group, as it reiterated its “outperform” rating. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/agribusiness-and-food/revenues-rise-10-4-at-total-produce-1.2772847 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/3eac9f3eff633b4be808eac81c590ea712038d2b6d02d11704fa8771c35784a2.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T10:53:02 | null | 2016-08-31T11:12:00 | Singer bailed out of jail for $250,000 after 14-hour stand-off with police in LA | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Fus%2Fchris-brown-released-on-bail-after-alleged-assault-1.2774154%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2774153.1472638354!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Chris Brown released on bail after alleged assault | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Singer Chris Brown has been bailed out of jail following his arrest after a stand-off of nearly 14 hours with police.
Brown was arrested late on Tuesday night after posting 250,000 US dollars bail at his home in the Tarzana neighbourhood of Los Angeles.
He had been arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon after a woman called for help from a gathering at his home.
The woman was not identified but but model Baylee Curran said that Brown pointed a gun at her face.
The arrest occurred outside the view of several news helicopters that swirled overhead and throngs of camera crews gathered at the bottom of Brown’s hilltop estate.
Ms Curran said Brown and another man became angry with her when she admired the man’s diamond necklace.
She said she and her friend ran outside as one of Brown’s associates gave chase and hid under a neighbour’s SUV.
The model also said she has visited Brown’s home in the past and never encountered any trouble.
Brown later posted rambling messages on social media proclaiming his innocence and rebuffing reports that he barricaded himself in his “palace”.
“Y’all gonna stop playing with me like I’m the villain out here, like I’m going crazy,” he said in one Instagram video, waving a cigarette and looking at the camera.
“When you get the warrant or whatever you need to do, you’re going to walk right up in here and you’re going to see nothing. You idiots.”
Brown’s attorney, Mark Geragos, arrived at the house before police served a search warrant at 1pm on Tuesday. Mr Geragos stayed on the property until about 5pm when Brown was transported for booking downtown.
The stand-off and subsequent media attention provided a chaotic scene in the balmy and typically quiet neighbourhood as police closed off nearby streets and rerouted traffic.
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Throughout the afternoon, several of Brown’s associates descended to the street below Brown’s estate.
They declined to identify themselves or answer questions from the media about what occurred. In some instances, the men were belligerent, flashing obscene hand gestures and grabbing recording equipment.
The incident is the latest in a series of missteps for Brown, who has been in repeated legal trouble since his felony conviction in the 2009 assault of his then-girlfriend, Rihanna, ahead of the Grammys.
He completed his probation in that case last year.
Brown struck a man outside a Washington DC hotel in 2013 and was charged with misdemeanour assault. The singer was ordered into rehab but was dismissed from the facility for violating its rules.
Brown spent two and a half months in custody, with US marshals shuttling him between Los Angeles and the nation’s capital for court hearings.
Brown was accused of throwing a brick at his mother’s car following a counselling session in another incident while in treatment. It came after Brown completed court-ordered anger management classes.
AP | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/us/chris-brown-released-on-bail-after-alleged-assault-1.2774154?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/9dceac9cd2862658266ea1abd3a2aa84d37296e11916b25437beb24c39e22d4f.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T18:52:23 | null | 2016-08-30T17:59:00 | European Consumer Centre: Flight cancellations, delays, damaged or lost luggage key issues | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fconsumer%2Fair-travel-accounts-for-41-of-complaints-to-consumer-body-1.2773349%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773344.1472576370!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Air travel accounts for 41% of complaints to consumer body | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Air travel accounted for more than four out of 10 complaints handled last year by an Irish consumer body that resolves disputes over services in other EU member states.
The European Consumer Centre said it received just over 3,500 contacts last year, of which 63.7 per cent (2,231) were complaints. The other contacts were requests for information.
The main problems encountered by consumers were in relation to air travel (41 per cent), followed by issues with electronic goods (8.1 per cent) and problems with online services (7.8 per cent).
Dispute resolution adviser Anna Heryan said 41 per cent ( 285 cases) where direct intervention by the centre was required concerned air travel.
“The majority involved complaints made by consumers in another European country against Irish airlines,” she said.
Flight cancellations and delays were the number one cause of complaint for air passengers, followed by damaged, delayed or lost luggage or problems with an airline’s baggage policy.
Technical difficulties
Ms Heryan said issues concerning technical difficulties encountered while booking flights online and policies imposed by air carriers were other major sources of complaint last year.
Twenty-seven cases related to refund requests on medical grounds.
She noted airlines were not automatically required to issue a refund in all such cases and typically required evidence, such as a medical certificate.
Car rental accounted for 7.1 per cent of complaints, while entertainment services such as the purchase of concert tickets accounted for a further 5.5 per cent.
Most of the total complaints last year (1,737) involved consumers from Ireland about traders based in other EU countries, the ECC said.
The service generally assisted consumers to resolve their complaint amicably. However, in 232 instances, further assistance was required and its counterparts in other countries were asked to contact the trader there.
Irish traders
ECC was also contacted by 31 people in other EU countries in relation to complaints against Irish traders.
Similar consumer organisations in other countries last year registered more than 1,900 complaints against traders operating from Ireland.
Intervention by the ECC in dealing with Irish traders was sought in 463 cases.
Nearly 85 per cent of the cases handled by the ECC where further assistance was required related to distance selling. E-commerce alone represented nearly three-quarters of the cases, it said.
The centre said it was committed to empowering consumers and helping them to take full advantage of the internal market by providing information, advice and assistance free of charge to help resolve cross-border consumer complaints. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/consumer/air-travel-accounts-for-41-of-complaints-to-consumer-body-1.2773349?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/c0e61af3cf4566bb73181a71a2ae5213f3fd71900138ac1a74a3a8abd6fe1d54.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T14:51:36 | null | 2016-08-29T14:08:00 | ‘51st and Green’ lounge can seat 180 people and has a shower room | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Ftransport-and-tourism%2Froad-warrior-dublin-airport-adds-us-preclearance-lounge-1.2766673%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2766668.1472475995!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Road Warrior: Dublin Airport adds US preclearance lounge | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Premium passengers are going to enjoy using the United States preclearance facility at Dublin Airport knowing there is now a new lounge beyond. The 51st and Green Lounge has seating for 180 people, along with food and beverage options, a concierge service, free wifi, cable television, charging points and a shower room.
Located past gates 405-406, it serves passengers of the 138 outbound Atlantic flights a week. The lounge is free to access for business-class passengers of Aer Lingus, United, Delta and American. Walk-up passengers on the day can use the lounge for a fee of €39.
Following the collapse on July 15th of online travel agency Lowcostholidays, the Commission for Aviation Regulation(CAR) has received claims from more than 3,000 holidaymakers. It is the biggest agency collapse ever handled by CAR. The previous biggest was Budget Travel, in 2009, when just over 2,000 refunds were made. Customers have until September 19th to submit claims for refunds. Forms are available from the website aviationreg.ie. Accommodation-only bookings made through this website are not covered by the licence and bond issued by CAR. It is believed that a number of travel agents that sourced accommodation on the Lowcost sister site Lowcostbeds will have to refund their customers or pay again for accommodation. The CAR phone number is 01-8889000.
If “music hath charms to soothe a savage breast,” does that also apply to raging travellers? London City Airport has been experimenting with music playing in the security area. The airport is trying two playlists: ambient electronica and upbeat acoustic music. The tunes are selected by music consultancy C-Burn. So far, Ed Sheeran is proving a favourite with passengers. You can listen to the favourite tunes on Spotify, where LCY has a playlist.
The Global Business Travel Association predicts that world business travel will surpass $1.2 trillion in 2016. The annual Global Report & Forecast also expects travel to increase by 5.8 per cent and reach $1.6 trillion by 2020.
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jscales@irishtimes.com | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/transport-and-tourism/road-warrior-dublin-airport-adds-us-preclearance-lounge-1.2766673?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/3e0caf43fb07c983000dcd029b33ef13d8acaeb34c23f4a2d0515884981ab8bb.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T06:48:41 | null | 2016-08-29T06:08:00 | Bragging about not toiling on holiday part of wider trend of shorter working hours | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fwork%2Fpoolside-working-no-longer-a-sign-of-importance-1.2770991.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2770989.1472393563!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Poolside working no longer a sign of importance | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | When I was at university I spent a summer travelling around Europe with some friends, and one of them suggested we drop in on his parents’ place in the south of France.
There are two things I remember about that visit. There was the mortification of being greeted by a butler who ceremoniously carried my tatty luggage – a few things stuffed into a plastic bag – to the suite of rooms I’d been allocated. But what stays in my mind even more was the image of his father – who turned out to be a famous tycoon – clad in small swimming trunks with cigar clamped between teeth, holding a gin and tonic in one hand and a telephone receiver in the other.
The year was 1979 and this was what power looked like. The man was too important to be out of touch with the deals he was doing. So he had installed a telephone line by the swimming pool and passed his summers issuing instructions from a lounger by the water.
A quarter of a century later, technology allowed all of us to pretend to be tycoons. We might not have had the butler or the pool house but everyone could head to the beach with a BlackBerry packed along with their towels. And because we could, we did. Only for most of us, what we were doing was not deals, it was responding to mundane inquiries that could have waited two weeks – or forever.
This year, I decided to do something radical that I hadn’t done for almost a decade. I took a proper holiday. I disconnected myself from work altogether. I didn’t open any work messages. I spent time reading, walking, looking at the sea – and sometimes getting into it – while I thought about not much at all.
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Immersion in work
When I returned to work and reacquainted myself with email, it was perfectly straightforward. I deleted almost all of them unread, responding only to the things that looked interesting. Far from feeling overwhelmed, I felt a certain excitement in the sudden immersion in work. It was a new-shoes and sharp-pencil sort of feeling that used to go with the beginning of a school term.
Over the past week it has started to dawn on me that my radical action was not radical at all. I was merely following the latest fashion.
Last week I sent an email to an entrepreneur I know, and within seconds the automatic reply came back: “I am on holiday until August 30 and will not be checking messages.” This was particularly remarkable given that last time I’d seen him – some five years ago – he had told me how he expected all his employees to respond to messages instantly wherever they were and whatever they were doing.
So I emailed back asking what had made him change his mind – but all I got in return was the same automatic message telling me he wasn’t reading whatever I was sending.
The very next day I got an email from a woman who I had contacted before I went away. It began: “Sorry for my radio silence – I have had a blissful two-week holiday and am just catching up on emails on my return.” Here was the same thing again: a driven, thirtysomething entrepreneur who wanted me to know not how hard she worked on holiday but how she loafed around, and how much she enjoyed it.
Experiment
To see how widespread this change is, I’ve done a little experiment. I’ve collected all the out-of-office emails I’ve had this summer, and counted the number that were followed at once by an email sent from the beach. Three years ago, it was very unusual for an automatic message not to be quickly followed by a real one. This year I’ve had a total of 38 automatic messages telling me the sender was away, only six of which have been succeeded by a personal, poolside reply.
Bragging about not working on holiday seems to be part of a wider trend - which I wrote about a few months ago – in which fashionable execs flaunt not their long hours, but their short ones. To be emailing from the pool does not prove you are powerful, it is starting to be seen for what it is – a sign of weakness, poor time management and an inability to delegate. If you can take two weeks off altogether it shows you have overcome all gadget addiction, and like a modern-day tycoon can control when you work – and when you don’t. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016) | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/work/poolside-working-no-longer-a-sign-of-importance-1.2770991 | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/f68596031ebb3b52fb33395b47d9cd04ae230253f1ae9236b04ab06e6926bf08.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T10:51:49 | null | 2016-08-29T10:00:00 | Eat like our grandparents ... and cut out bread for optimal weight loss, says Pat Divilly | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Flife-and-style%2Fhealth-family%2Ffitness%2Fwhen-it-comes-to-losing-weight-can-you-outrun-a-bad-diet-1.2760827%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2766642.1472214764!/image/image.jpg | en | null | When it comes to losing weight, can you outrun a bad diet? | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | For somebody exercising solely to lose weight, the one thing more soul destroying than the calorie counter on your treadmill telling you after 30 minutes of pounding that you have only burned the equivalent of half a Twix, is the weighing scales that shows you haven’t lost a single pound all week, despite your excruciatingly sweaty efforts.
Many people make the mistake of focusing on exercise to lose weight, but the latest research has shown that exercise alone is not enough, and that cutting back on calorie intake should be the focus for weight loss.
While physical activity reduces the risk of a range of ailments such as heart disease, dementia, some cancers and Type 2 Diabetes, as well as reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety, it does not promote weight loss, according to the research.
A study carried out by Prof Herman Pontzer and his team at City University of New York, published in Current Biology earlier this year, is the latest to challenge obesity prevention strategies that recommend increasing daily physical activity as a way to lose weight.
Focus on diet
While Pontzer stresses the importance of exercise for physical and mental health, his findings show the need to focus on diet when it comes to managing weight, or preventing or reversing unhealthy weight gain. (There has been some concern expressed that the message that this and similar studies are sending out will put people off exercise before they have even got to a stage where they are moderately active).
Dr Aseem Malhotra, cardiologist adviser to the National Obesity Forum in the UK, has pointed out that while exercising in the right way has many health benefits, weight loss is not one of them. To combat obesity, he says, public health messages need to focus squarely on unhealthy eating.
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An outspoken critic of the food industry, Dr Malhotra has accused food and drink firms such as Coca-Cola of wrongly emphasising how physical activity and sport can help prevent people from becoming overweight.
In an editorial in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, Malhotra and his co-authors say many members of the public wrongly believe that obesity is entirely due to lack of exercise. Given the worsening scale of the obesity crisis, he wants to “bust the myth of physical activity and obesity”, pointing out that “you cannot outrun a bad diet”.
Galway-based fitness and nutrition expert and author, Pat Divilly, says that while it is obviously better to combine both exercise and healthy eating for optimal physical and mental health, there seems to be a general lack of awareness about the importance of nutrition for weight loss.
“It’s definitely a very common thing. People will join a commercial gym, plod along on the treadmill and wonder why they are not losing weight. It’s frustrating to see the amount of work some people put in, with no results, because they have not addressed their diet.
“When it comes to weight loss, I always put the emphasis on nutrition because most weight loss happens outside the gym.”
Divilly says he comes across two types of people: those who don’t address their diet at all and those who have the best of intentions, but are so confused by food marketing that they end up filling their shopping trolleys with low fat products that are, in fact, packed with sugar, additives and preservatives.
“My advice is to keep it very simple when it comes to nutrition. I tell my clients to eat like our grandparents ate. It used to be all about food quality and natural food, but first fat was villainised, then sugar was villainised, and this has taken us further and further away from real food. Most people are not really eating proper food any more,” he says.
Nutrition plan
Divilly puts his clients on a one- to two-month nutrition plan before they start an exercise programme, pointing out that people with a lot of weight to lose are more susceptible to injury due to the pressure on their joints.
“If you are very stuck for time, you are far better off spending two hours a week prepping meals than two hours in the gym, even though this may sound counter intuitive. By pre-prepping veg and batch cooking soups and meals for the freezer, you are much more likely to stick to a healthy diet. I make double portions so I get a dinner and next day’s lunch out of the same meal. Smoothies are a good option for breakfast.”
For those who have failed again and again at losing weight, Divilly advises making small gradual changes, rather than trying to change everything overnight, and says “it’s always easier to add stuff than take stuff out”. He suggests focusing on one change a week, for example, adding one extra serving of green veg every day, drinking more water, or starting to take fish oils. He advises cutting out bread for optimal weight loss results, and replacing it with good carbs from fibrous veg and gluten-free sources.
Nutritional consultant Mary Carmody, who specialises in long-term weight loss programmes, sometimes advises clients to reduce the amount of exercise they are doing.
“I work with many personal trainers in my corporate nutrition work and they always say to me that weight loss is 80 per cent diet and 20 per cent exercise. The diet has to be right before exercise will work. A recent client lost four stone after changing his diet and cutting back on the number of times he was exercising every week. He was totally overdoing it, going to the gym six times a week, but his diet was desperate, he was quite overweight and couldn’t shift it.”
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Carmody says that when it comes to weight loss, most people have an all-or-nothing approach, sticking rigidly to a plan for a few days or weeks, then having one ‘bad’ day and giving up. A lot of her female clients complain that they can’t “lose the belly”, but when she looks at their eating habits, she finds that they often skip breakfast and do not eat at regular intervals throughout the day. She advises eating every two and a half to three hours to keep blood sugar levels stable and avoid becoming over-hungry.
“One woman who came into me was very stressed, and couldn’t lose half a stone. She was exercising twice a day, and had cut out good fats like almonds, nuts and seeds, which are full of protein and magnesium. A lot of women will not touch nuts because they think they are fattening, but they eat slimming breads and low fat yoghurts packed with sugar that play havoc with their blood sugar levels.”
Like Divilly, Carmody advises people to go back to the food of our ancestors and to eat protein and carbs at every meal and snack, for example chicken with vegetables and rice, nuts with fruit. To lose weight and keep it off, she also advises avoiding sugar, reducing caffeine intake, drinking two litres of water a day and less than five units of alcohol a week, and keeping a food diary. | http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/health-family/fitness/when-it-comes-to-losing-weight-can-you-outrun-a-bad-diet-1.2760827?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/398cb1b11ba07d4c2f330a8340fe52100156142a45f4990e5ee631b98f2f835a.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T06:52:07 | null | 2016-08-30T07:33:00 | Companies advertise more contract positions as they resist committing to permanent hiring | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fuk-salaries-weaken-in-aftermath-of-brexit-vote-1.2772849%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772848.1472538790!/image/image.jpg | en | null | UK salaries weaken in aftermath of Brexit vote | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | UK job seekers are starting to see the impact of Brexit, with salaries under pressure and companies advertising more contract positions as they resist committing to permanent hiring.
The average advertised salary was £32,688 in July, down 2.4 per cent from a year earlier, according to an index by job search engine Adzuna published Tuesday. When inflation is taken into account, real earnings have fallen 3 per cent, it said.While the Bank of England expects continued wage growth, the weaker pound may push up inflation, eating into real incomes.
Adzuna said Brexit has played a role in the “widespread stagnation” in salaries, as industries such as finance with higher-paid workers delay hiring and “wait for political and economic decisions to become clearer.”The labor market remained relatively stable in the run-up before the European Union referendum, though there were some signs of weakness at the end of the second quarter. Companies added 172,000 jobs in the three months and the unemployment rate stayed at 4.9 per cent.
“The resilience of the jobs market can’t be forgotten,” said Doug Monro,co-founder of Adzuna. “The unemployment rate has fallen to levels not seen since 2005 and this is hugely encouraging.”The report showed the number of advertised positions rose 2.4 per cent in July from a year earlier, though part time vacancies dropped 58 per cent.
Bloomberg | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/uk-salaries-weaken-in-aftermath-of-brexit-vote-1.2772849?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/8ccd633c02e364c77632a08e2732877ad3ca2aa469636672041e2bf8ae1e760a.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T02:50:16 | null | 2016-08-27T03:00:00 | Jo Linehan rounds up this week’s travel news and deals | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Flife-and-style%2Ftravel%2Fcheck-in-country-fairs-and-fashion-getaways-1.2768479%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2768477.1472142822!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Check-in: country fairs and fashion getaways | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | NEWS
Fair game: This weekend, Birr Castle (above) hosts the Irish Game and Country Fair, a two-day celebration for all things country pursuit. Try your hand at clay-pigeon shooting and fly-casting or take in a view of the magnificent grounds and gardens through the castle’s 19th century telescope, the Leviathan, which was the largest in the world for 70 years. irishgameandcountryfair.com
Haute hitters: Luxury travel network Virtuoso has unveiled the winners of its 2016 Best of the Best awards. The world’s most lauded hotels battled it out for the five-star accolade, with big winners being the Faena Hotel Miami Beach for achievement in design and the New York Edition for best bar. virtuoso.com
Raising the bar: The Conrad Hotel in Dublin 2 is toasting its stylish new bar this month. Lemuel’s, named after the hero in Gulliver’s Travels, will serve an afternoon tea in the theme of the classic book, as well as an array of high-quality, locally sourced “bites” and cocktails. Its proximity to the National Concert Hall ensures plenty of buzz in the new lounge. lemuelsdublin.com
FASHIONABLE ESCAPES
Diane von Furstenberg in London: The legendary fashion designer is credited for curating Claridges’ luxurious Grand Piano Suite (below). Think animal prints, deep purple fabrics and gold fixtures in this stylish wing. claridges.co.uk Armani in Milan: With the faint hint of the Italian designer’s signature scent in the air, this hotel’s interior is a minimalist’s dream, as seamless and slick as an Armani suit. The Milanese hotel is an Italian institute. armanihotels.com Ralph Lauren in Jamaica: The American icon brings his signature preppy style to Round Hill resort, complete with dark wood interiors, nautical stripes and crisp navy and white furnishings. This is a Polo lover’s dream stay. roundhilljamaica.com
BECOME A SKY GAZER
Need a new vocation? The Arctic SnowHotel in Lapland is looking for someone to scan the night sky. The watcher’s challenge is to stay awake and watch for the Northern Lights. If they appear, the watcher wakes the other hotel guests. More than 200 people applied for the sky-gazing position last season with two people winning coveted posts.
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The ice-block hotel, in the village of Lehtojärvi, is built every winter, complete with glass-roofed igloos, from which one can marvel at the aurora borealis from the comfort of a warm bed. So, even if you don’t get the job, you can certainly book in now for a once-in-a-lifetime experience. arcticsnowhotel.fi
GET ’APPY
AroundMe: This app allows you to find nearby amenities, from banks and restaurants to shops, ATMs and public transport points. Available from iTunes. aroundmeapp.com
DEALS
Croatia: stay in the new Amarin Hotel in Rovinj on the Istrian Peninsula. Rooms discounted by 25%, book on maistra.com; direct flights with aerlingus.com to Pula until October 11th.
Bahamas: escape to Paradise Island in the Caribbean and stay in the Atlantic Beach Tower resort, one week from €1,759 including flights from Ireland, clubtravel.ie, (01) 608 0056.
Costa Brava: time for solo travellers to explore Costa Brava and Barcelona, one week with traveldepartment.ie – €699 half board in October, (01) 637 1650. | http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/travel/check-in-country-fairs-and-fashion-getaways-1.2768479?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/f6320f598adfb97d2b8ee6733bdd7ab37df8aef21e998029e3cb3de52964c51d.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T12:59:24 | null | 2016-08-26T08:42:00 | Clubs in Europe question whether new owners have commitment needed to fight | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fmedia-and-marketing%2Fchina-s-2bn-football-buying-spree-yet-to-convince-fans-1.2769249.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769248.1472197374!/image/image.jpg | en | null | China’s $2bn football buying spree yet to convince fans | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | An obscure Chinese investor buys an unfashionable Premier League football club and promises to transform their prospects, making them big in China by signing leading Chinese players and sealing lucrative sponsorship deals thanks to his guanxi, or connections.
But the reign at Birmingham City FC of Carson Yeung, a former hair salon owner who became the first Chinese proprietor of an English top-flight team in 2009, ended in ignominy. The team was relegated to the second tier of English football, Yeung was jailed in Hong Kong for money laundering in 2014 and the club remains barely known in China.
The Chinese tycoons who have invested more than $2bn in European football clubs since the start of last year — and the fans who support these teams — are hoping that this time is different.
Keen to fulfil president Xi Jinping’s ambition to turn China into a football powerhouse, and supported by ready financing for acquisitions of overseas assets, Chinese entrepreneurs have embarked on an unprecedented buying spree of foreign teams.
“[China is] the largest consumer market in the world and they are looking to leverage brands from Europe and bring home the associated expertise in running football clubs,” says Steve Horowitz, a partner at Inner Circle Sports, a US-based boutique advisory firm that has worked on a number of European football deals.
Chinese groups have invested in or acquired famous clubs including Italy’s AC Milan and Inter Milan and England’s Manchester City and Aston Villa, as well as a string of lesser teams across Europe. Many more clubs, including Liverpool and Hull City, are being eyed by Chinese investors.
Some of the buyers are politically well-connected, financially well-endowed groups such as Dalian Wanda, Fosun International and China Media Capital.
Others are little-known even in China, including Aston Villa’s new owner Tony Xia, who runs a loss-making producer of food additives, and Lai Guochuan, who acquired West Bromwich Albion this month for £150 million-£200 million and previously built a company he described as “the IBM of landscape gardening”.
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With the Premier League in England and other top leagues more competitive than ever, fans and football executives are questioning whether these newly arrived Chinese owners have the personal and financial commitment needed to fight for long-term success, or whether Mr Xi’s Chinese football dream will turn into a nightmare in Europe.
Investment bankers say there is a big difference between the “first division” acquirers such as Wanda and Fosun, which have deep pockets and a broader plan to develop their sports and media businesses, and the “second division” of investors, who offer fewer synergies and whose finances are hard to trace.
The top tier of Chinese investors see an opportunity to build integrated sports businesses that can sate the hunger for entertainment in the world’s second-biggest economy, in addition to satisfying the whims of Mr Xi.
Last year Wanda bought a 20 per cent stake in Spain’s Atlético Madrid for $52m and acquired Swiss sports rights agency Infront Media, in addition to continuing investments in the film and theme park industries.
China Media Capital, which bought a 13 per cent stake for $400m in the parent company of Manchester City last year after a visit to the club by Mr Xi himself, has also acquired the broadcast rights to the Chinese Super League and launched a film-making joint venture with Warner Brothers, on top of its other media businesses.
Everbright, which has approached Liverpool about a possible investment, previously acquired joint control of MP & Silva, another sports rights group.
But Alexander Jarvis, whose company Blackbridge has advised on several football deals involving Chinese investors, says that many smaller Chinese companies appear to be acting on impulse even though they “have no experience of football”.
“Some football types will sell their granny to do a deal,” he says. “So there’s a risk of the clubs and the Chinese investors getting duped.”
An adviser who worked on the sale of West Bromwich Albion says that roughly a dozen Chinese investors looked at the club but only four had the financial capability and a good rationale to proceed with the deal.
“It’s very difficult to assess the quality of potential buyers unless you have hands and feet on the ground in China,” he says.
Feng Tao, chief executive of Shankai, a Chinese sports marketing company, says that some entrepreneurs believe they can make quick profits by buying underperforming European clubs with a large fan base and turning them round, eventually capitalising on a higher valuation by injecting them into Chinese listed companies.
But the new Chinese owners of second-tier English clubs Aston Villa, Birmingham City and Wolverhampton Wanderers will not find it easy to secure promotion to the money-rich Premier League.
Mr Jarvis says that these backers will need to invest significantly in players and coaches, while managing the expectations of the fans and trying to boost income and cover their financing costs. It is, he says, an exercise akin to “a monkey dancing on a razor blade”.
Keith Wyness, the recently installed chief executive of Aston Villa, admits that getting into the Premier League is “without doubt one of the hardest football challenges”.
He adds that Mr Xia “fully understands this” although the owner has been somewhat more quixotic in his public statements, telling the club website that “my long-term aim is to make Aston Villa the greatest club in the world”.
Like others representing the new wave of Chinese football tycoons, Mr Wyness argues that Aston Villa can use Mr Xia’s connections to gain access to the best emerging Chinese players and tap commercial opportunities in China, saying that “being on the inside gives us a big advantage”.
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But Mark Dreyer, an industry expert who runs a blog called China Sports Insider, says “the idea that clubs will be big in China just because they have a Chinese owner is nonsense”.
“Every club across the big leagues is trying to appeal to the Chinese audience through TV, social media and pre-season tours,” he says. “Some of these purchases are going to end in tears.”
Financial Times | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/china-s-2bn-football-buying-spree-yet-to-convince-fans-1.2769249 | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/1c1e1ae36e2ea8443223e4176319dd5c125867148833f0377857fa0aeeed85af.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T10:52:37 | null | 2016-08-31T11:39:00 | Cabinet meeting at Chequers to discuss ‘opportunities’ Brexit will present | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Fuk%2Ftheresa-may-says-uk-will-not-try-to-stay-in-eu-by-the-back-door-1.2774186%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2774185.1472639977!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Theresa May says UK will not try to stay in EU ‘by the back door’ | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | British prime minister Theresa May has set her face firmly against a second referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union, telling cabinet colleagues on Wednesday that “Brexit means Brexit” and there will be no attempt to stay in the EU “by the back door”.
Ms May was speaking at her country retreat Chequers as her cabinet met for the first time after the summer break.
As work continues on preparations for the UK’s withdrawal negotiations, each cabinet member has been told to use the meeting to set out what opportunities leaving the EU presents for their department.
Speaking at the start of the all-day meeting, Ms May said: “We’ll be looking at the next steps that we need to take, and we’ll also be looking at the opportunities that are now open to us as we forge a new role for the UK in the world.
“We must continue to be very clear that ‘Brexit means Brexit’, that we’re going to make a success of it. That means there’s no second referendum; no attempts to sort of stay in the EU by the back door; that we’re actually going to deliver on this.”
– PA | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/uk/theresa-may-says-uk-will-not-try-to-stay-in-eu-by-the-back-door-1.2774186?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/9a386d6592234438032e766f79248c1efa9143f98466bcd25bd48249275b913b.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T16:51:54 | null | 2016-08-29T17:29:00 | Firm and Government to appeal whatever decision is arrived at | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Feuropean-commission-expected-to-announce-apple-decision-early-on-tuesday-1.2772178%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772176.1472488144!/image/image.jpg | en | null | European Commission expected to announce Apple decision early on Tuesday | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The European Commission is set to announce early on Tuesday that tax agreements between Apple and Ireland represented illegal state aid to the US multinational. The long-awaited decision will say that Ireland should collect a significant sum in tax from the US multinational.
The decision is expected to contain a direction to the Irish Revenue Commissioners outlining how the commission believes that it should calculate the amount of money which Ireland should recoup from Apple. The Commission is also expected to give an approximate figure which it believes that the company owes in taxes.
Both the Government and the company are expected to say that they will appeal the decision to the European courts, a process likely to take some years. However the Irish Revenue may be obliged to issue a tax demand to Apple while this appeal is proceeding.
Investigation
The contentious investigation has been underway now for more than two years. It concerns two tax rulings which the Revenue gave to Apple in 1991 and 2007. Last week the US Treasury accused the European Commission of acting beyond its powers in its investigations of the tax affairs of US multinationals and in particular objected to the idea of tax being collected retrospectively.
However despite this the European Commission has pushed ahead with its final decision, which will be that Ireland offered illegal state aid to the US multinational.
Early estimates were that Apple could be asked to repay up to €19 billion in tax. While the final figure is expected to be substantially lower, sources say that there is no question but that it will be appealed by both sides.
The decision is expected to attract huge international attention. The Government is expected to immediately challenge the decision, saying that the reasoning used was unprecedented. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/european-commission-expected-to-announce-apple-decision-early-on-tuesday-1.2772178?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/37ff0004d1ea98a899c5b8f06eae16c9f331337fc4ee956068e877a8b221a028.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T06:50:37 | null | 2016-08-27T06:15:00 | As both companies vie for broadband business, Eir piles on pressure to use ESB pylons | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Ftechnology%2Feir-wants-esb-to-share-its-toys-1.2769537%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769536.1472223030!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Eir wants ESB to share its toys | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Nobody is more intimately acquainted with the ESB and its extensive network of pylons than its telecoms cousin Eir.
Eir’s chairman Padraig McManus was the former chief executive of ESB , until last year, while its recently retired head of networks, John Shine, was the ESB’s deputy chief executive as recently as 2013.
Confused? Welcome to the merry-go-round of Irish business. Eir’s insider knowledge of the electricity utility could come in handy with both companies vying for a slice of the action under the National Broadband Plan (NBP).
The ESB entered the telecoms market last year via its joint venture with Vodafone, Siro.
Under the EU’s shared utilities directive, infrastructural companies are now obliged to open up their networks to other operators to facilitate the construction of vital telecommunications networks such as the NBP.
As part of its fibre broadband roll-out, and under the auspices of its NBP bid, Eir has already submitted five “access requests” to ESB seeking to use its infrastructure.
Such use could mean a significant cost-saving for Eir, which is forced to drop poles along the country’s circuitous road network unlike the ESB which enjoys a legal right to access private lands.
However, with the ESB bidding against Eir for the NBP contract, it remains to be seen if the electricity company will be sufficiently motivated to facilitate these requests, potentially enhancing its rival’s bid.
“At this point we have made over five requests to the ESB but have received no satisfactory response to date,” an Eir spokeswoman said. The ESB declined to comment.
The ESB could, in theory, seek access to Eir’s network via the same directive but there is an asymmetry in the relationship between the State’s two big utilities.
For one, the ESB’s network is more extensive than Eir’s and is in better condition having benefited from an €8 billion upgrade in recent years.
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Eir can’t boast the same level of upkeep and has suffered from years of underinvestment, which critics link to privatisation.
The escalating friction between these two sectoral incumbents makes for an interesting spectacle. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/eir-wants-esb-to-share-its-toys-1.2769537?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/89c0e6d30bc298f2d2709a30fed788082038c54446389f3d9fb91fd3fcc6c3d9.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T10:50:17 | null | 2016-08-27T11:00:00 | The Lowdown: Malachy Clerkin previews Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final in Croke Park | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fgaelic-games%2Fgaelic-football%2Fkerry-need-a-display-for-the-ages-and-maybe-more-1.2770730%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2770729.1472288983!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Kerry need a display for the ages - and maybe more | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Kerry v Dublin - Croke Park, 3.30 Live RTÉ 1, Sky Sports 5
Somewhere along the way, we’re going to have to apply some science to this thing. So far, it appears the best argument for Kerry prevailing here is that they must. That they have no choice but to arrest a losing streak against Dublin that is getting out of hand. James O’Donoghue has never beaten Dublin in championship; nor have all but six of his teammates. Philly McMahon has never lost to Kerry; ditto all but six of his.
Kerry are going to need a bit more than if-wishes-were-fishes though. This is a Dublin team that hasn’t lost in 26 games. We can take it that at least some of those teams were both motivated to beat them and sufficiently stocked in the belief that it was possible. At a certain point, you’ve got to have a plan that extends to more than simply Be Kerry.
What would that look like?
The team that has pushed Dublin closest during their winning streak is Mayo, who took them to a replay at this stage last year. At various times across those two games, Mayo showed real signs of being able to get at Jim Gavin’s team. If there are lessons to draw from the video, Éamonn Fitzmaurice is as prime a candidate as any to find them.
Life begins and ends with Stephen Cluxton’s kick-outs – or so goes the usual reasoning in Kerry. Blithely asserting that you need to push up on them has been shown to be bluster masquerading as wisdom, however. It worked in 2009 but he’s seven years older and better these days. Mayo’s tactic of giving him a corner-back to play short to before clogging Dublin up between the 45s appears a more likely route for Kerry to go.
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Flooding bodies
Not alone did it work for Mayo – up to a point, granted – but it would chime with much of how Kerry have set up this summer. Apart from the opening half against Clare in June, when Gary Brennan and friends loped through the centre of the pitch at will, a feature of the Kerry approach has been flooding bodies around the middle looking for turnovers.
This is the road Kerry have so far chosen to go down instead of the sweeper deployed by some teams and the blanket deployed by others. At all costs, they look to spare their defence having to deal with quick ball and runners. In the absence of turnovers, Kerry aren’t sniffy about tactical fouling in that area. Dublin aren’t sniffy about it in any area.
For that reason and more, it will be interesting to see what David Gough’s policy on early yellow cards is. Three players on the pitch are a black card or two yellows away from missing the final – Jonny Cooper for Dublin, Peter Crowley and Shane Enright for Kerry. There might have to be some careful stepping while the game settles down.
Like any team facing Dublin these days, Kerry have two tasks here. One is to stay in the game, the other is to win it.
Under Gavin, Dublin have been involved in 16 games in league and championship that were decided by a goal or less; they have lost only four. Sometimes they are fitter than the teams they come up against but not always. Most times, they just think clearer.
Against Donegal, they played out the closing 25 minutes without five All Stars and still didn’t buckle. We take it on trust that Kerry are better than Donegal – but even if they are, Dublin will surely improve beyond that performance too.
In the end, the known knowns point to a reasonably straight-forward Dublin victory. It will take a Kerry display for the ages to spring a surprise. And even that may not be enough.
The Lowdown
Last meeting: September 18th 2015, All-Ireland final, Croke Park – Dublin 0-12 Kerry 0-9
Injuries: Kerry have Colm Cooper back available after missing the quarter-final; Dublin say James McCarthy is fit – although they said that too before the quarter-final he missed .
Betting: Dublin 2/5, Kerry 5/2, Draw 11/1
Tickets: Sold Out
KERRY: Brian Kelly; Shane Enright, Mark Griffin, Killian Young; Brian Ó Beaglaoich, Peter Crowley, Tadhg Morley; Kieran Donaghy, David Moran; Paul Murphy, Colm Cooper, Donnchadh Walsh; Stephen O’Brien, Paul Geaney, James O’Donoghue.
DUBLIN (possible): Stephen Cluxton; Philly McMahon, Jonny Cooper, David Byrne; James McCarthy, Cian O’Sullivan, John Small; Brian Fenton, Michael Darragh Macauley; Paul Flynn, Kevin McManamon, Ciaran Kilkenny; Dean Rock, Diarmuid Connolly, Bernard Brogan.
Referee: David Gough (Meath).
Verdict: Dublin | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/kerry-need-a-display-for-the-ages-and-maybe-more-1.2770730?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/593480cfb75f59b94bf6c23e0531df7eb54ea2ffa2015ab6be2facfc3d597b21.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T14:52:00 | null | 2016-08-29T12:03:00 | Dr Saleem Sharif failed to properly investigate patient who had recently given birth to twins | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fcrime-and-law%2Fcork-based-doctor-admits-poor-professional-performance-1.2771900%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771899.1472482028!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Cork-based doctor admits poor professional performance | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | A Cork-based doctor who failed to diagnose a potentially serious condition in a patient has pleaded guilty to poor professional performance at a fitness to practise inquiry of the Medical Council.
Dr Saleem Sharif, a locum GP from Ballyphehane, admitted he failed to properly examine and perform tests on the patient, who had given birth to twins two weeks earlier.
The patient, Alison Hickey, told the inquiry she was feeling very unwell and could barely walk when she went to see Dr Sharif at the GP Now clinic in Sandyford, Dublin, in October 2014.
“I felt like I had a really bad flu. I ached all over, it was hard for me to walk, and I had to be helped to get to and from the car.”
Two weeks earlier, at age 45, she had given birth to twin boys by emergency caesarean section. The twins, who were conceived using IVF, were born at 32 weeks and Ms Hickey was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia during the pregnancy.
Ms Hickey presented with flu-like symptoms and an odorous discharge. She said the appointment with Dr Sharif lasted less than five minutes, during which he asked her whether she had a sore throat and in relation to the discharge she was experiencing.
He did not check her temperature, blood pressure or heart rate and failed to carry out a breast or abdominal examination. He also failed to arrange a follow-up appointment.
Dr Sharif trained in his native Pakistan and has been on the medical register in Ireland since 2005. In 2011, he was found guilty of poor professional performance over his treatment of a cardiac patient in Cork two years earlier. Last year, he made a €733,000 settlement with the Revenue Commissioners in relation to his tax affairs.
In Ms Hickey’s case, he diagnosed a urinary tract infection and prescribed antibiotics for her. Very few questions were asked and there was little “interaction,” she said.
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Her symptoms worsened on returning home and she became increasingly unwell. Her husband Karl called an ambulance the following day after her temperature reached 39.6 degrees and her body went into spasm.
She was taken to the Rotunda maternity hospital where staff diagnosed endometritis, an inflammation of the uterus which can lead to sepsis and organ failure if not properly treated. She was immediately put on a course of intravenous treatment. Her temperature subsided within days, though she continued to experience bleeding for six weeks.
Simon Mills, for Dr Sharif, said his client had offered Mrs Hickey and her husband his sincere apologies for any inconvenience caused.
He described the incident as an “isolated case” involving a failure to take an adequate history or carry out an adequate examination.
Dr Sharif accepted the wrong diagnosis had been reached and has not come to the attention of the Medical Council since 2014, he said.
GP Dr Catherine Wann, appearing as an expert witness for the council, said there were “serious failings” in Dr Sharif’s treatment of the patient, given the potential for sepsis developing. She stressed the importance of a doctor making relevant investigations and beginning appropriate treatment so the potential for serious infection was minimised.
Before the case opened, Mr Mills sought unsuccessfully to have it heard in private. Before evidence was heard, he said his client was prepared to give the council a number of undertakings.
Dr Sharif promised not to repeat the conduct he is accused of, to cooperate with a performance review and to agree to being censured, counsel said.
The committee rejected this offer and said evidence should be heard in the case.
The case continues on Tuesday. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/cork-based-doctor-admits-poor-professional-performance-1.2771900?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/8ae41e0776e3ce3052dae85ed67f5c4b319760c8ac733c322e8117e795229748.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T08:49:00 | null | 2016-08-30T08:04:00 | Home buyers prepare for autumn selling season by getting pre-approved in the summer; switchers continue to seek out the best deals to save money | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fmortgage-approvals-jump-17-6-in-year-to-july-1.2772851.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772850.1472540686!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Mortgage approvals jump 17.6% in year to July | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | It may still be summer, but that isn’t stopping putative home buyers from seeking mortgage approvals, new figures from the Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) show. In the year to July 2016, the number mortgage approvals jumped by 17.6 per cent to 3,274 , while the value of mortgages approved rose by 28.5 per cent to €659 million. This was the highest volume of mortgage approvals since the series began in January 2011.
There was strong growth in the number of first-time buyers (FTB) seeking approval (+14.7%) and they now account for 48.7 per cent of the total market. Trader uppers reported a similar growth in approvals, and they account for about a third of the mortgage market. While switchers are still a relatively small component of the market (7.5%), approvals for those looking to switch their mortgage soared by 90 per cent in the year to July, albeit above a low base, with just 245 approvals in total during the year.
The figures point to an uptick in mortgage activity since May 2016, after a slow start. Year-to-date (January to July), based on the three-month moving average, show that activity has changed little since 2015, with volumes down 2.6 per cent year-on-year and values up 1.2 per cent, reflecting the increase in the average FTB mortgage approval value.
However Philip O’Sullivan, economist with Investec, is targeting total mortgage drawdowns of € 5.5 billion for 2016, up by 10 per cent on 2015, and says that based on first half drawdowns (€ 2.3bn) and the aforementioned approvals data, “this target looks achievable”.
Mortgage competition
Competition in the mortgage market continues to heat up, with Bank of Ireland announcing on Monday that it is to give home buyers or switchers up to 3 per cent back on the value of their mortgage, if they also have a current account with the bank. This is more than the 2 per cent offered by both Permanent TSB and EBS, although homeowners should also consider the impact of interest rates when making a mortgage decision. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/mortgage-approvals-jump-17-6-in-year-to-july-1.2772851 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/fda6eedd6cd9da6e8e9fcfc66a58bc88d19de3a9813f6903b083d7b583b582cd.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T18:51:07 | null | 2016-08-28T18:13:00 | Belgian golfer times his third European Tour victory to perfection | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fgolf%2Fthomas-pieters-delivers-in-denmark-to-raise-ryder-cup-hopes-1.2771159%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771157.1472404420!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Thomas Pieters delivers in Denmark to raise Ryder Cup hopes | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Belgium’s Thomas Pieters produced a brilliant finish to claim his third European Tour title in the Made in Denmark event and with it a possible Ryder Cup wild card.
In a final round delayed by more than four hours due to bad weather, Pieters birdied the last three holes in a closing 65 to finish 17 under par, a shot ahead of overnight leader Bradley Dredge.
Sweden’s Joakim Lagergren stood on the 18th tee in a tie for the lead with playing partner Pieters, but lost his ball after a wayward drive and the resulting triple-bogey seven dropped him into fifth place behind David Lipsky and Adrian Otaegui.
Pieters was fourth in the Olympics and second in the defence of his Czech Masters title last week to force his name into the frame for one of European captain Darren Clarke’s three wild cards.
And after carding rounds of 62 and 71 while playing alongside the Northern Irishman in the first two rounds, the 24-year-old could not have done anything more to earn his place on the team for Hazeltine next month.
Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer – who finished joint sixth at Himmerland Golf and Spa Resort – have long been favourites to secure two of the wild cards as Clarke looks for experience alongside the five rookies among the nine automatic qualifiers.
But that leaves the former British Open champion with what appears to be a tough choice between Pieters and Scotland’s Russell Knox, who won the WGC-HSBC Champions last November when not a European Tour member and added the Travelers Championship earlier this month.
Shane Lowry is probably an outside bet at this stage, the Irish golfer finishing his week in Denmark with a one-under 70 to finish on five under.
A birdie on the sixth and a bogey on the 10th saw Lowry level through 12 holes before a double-bogey on the 13th put him over par.
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Lowry finished strongly, making three birdies in the final five holes to finish in a tie for 24th position.
Paul Dunne was the best-placed Irish golfer in the field, the Greystones man carding a one-under 70 to finish on nine under and a share of 10th position. Cormac Sharvin ended up on one under after a closing 72. | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/golf/thomas-pieters-delivers-in-denmark-to-raise-ryder-cup-hopes-1.2771159?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/c46a4c285375d22a7658babbc40be8832f6f303954941108a1243fa6e8370ac5.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T10:52:26 | null | 2016-08-30T11:23:00 | New office is an ‘important milestone’ for company CEO says | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Ftechnology%2Fse2-to-double-jobs-at-new-waterford-operation-over-3-4-years-1.2772938%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772939.1472552651!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Se2 to double jobs at new Waterford operation over 3-4 years | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Life and pensions administrator Se2 said on Tuesday it will double the workforce at its new Waterford operations to 135 employees over the next three-four years.
The US company has an existing fulltime team of 70 and hope to fill out its 135 seat office space over the coming years, and opened its new Waterford offices today, in what is an “important milestone” for the company, chief executive Gautam Thakkar said.
“ This is a sign of our continued commitment to the region, which is an important hub for our global service delivery model, and we are excited about this investment in our business.”
Se2 supports services more than 1,000 life and annuity products for more than 20 clients, and has approximately $100 billion in assets under administration.
Janet Dulohery, VP and head of human resources with Se2 said that the company is still interested in “hearing from ambitious people, who are similarly enthused about making a real impact on the US life and pension industry.”
The announcement is the latest jobs win for the region. Earlier this year healthcare company OPKO said it will create 200 highly skilled jobs over the next five years through the expansion of its EirGen Pharma facility in Westside Business Park in Waterford. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/se2-to-double-jobs-at-new-waterford-operation-over-3-4-years-1.2772938?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/3a1f1656a766cd6703667411960543d0ca1a9cecdcf7f129b506c08a9037b8d9.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T04:50:21 | null | 2016-08-27T05:00:00 | Rosy footman moths, fungus gnats, harbour seals and emerald moths | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fenvironment%2Feye-on-nature-your-notes-and-queries-for-ethna-viney-1.2769508%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769507.1472221180!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Eye on Nature: Your notes and queries for Ethna Viney | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Recently in Saint Mullin’s, Co Carlow, I observed the first multiple sighting in Ireland of the very rare rosy footman moth. Until now only four single specimens have been found, all around Graiguenamanagh, on the Carlow- Kilkenny border.
Eamonn O’Donnell
Stamullen, Co Meath
A significant sighting. Biodiversity Ireland’s maps show also show single sightings in Galway and Waterford.
I photographed some black flies with yellow abdomens. Would you have any idea what they are? There were lots of them on hogweed flowers.
Evelyn Stevens
Corrandulla, Co Galway
They were fungus gnats. This one was the yellow-bellied fly, Sciara hemerobioides. The larvae feed on fungus, but the adults feed on nectar and are often found on umbellifers such as hogweed.
I’m sending you a photograph of some prints that I saw on the strand near Mullaghmore, in Co Sligo. The dog was very interested in them.
Heather Wood
Cliffoney, Co Sligo
They are the tracks of a harbour seal hauling out.
I took a photograph beside the boardwalk in Abbeyleix Bog. Are they the shells left after the emergence of some type of insect?
Niamh Lennon
Dundrum, Dublin
They were the eggs of the emerald moth.
The dead crabs found on the Wexford beaches – we featured a photograph on August 13th – were most likely the moulted shells of spiny crabs, which congregate for their final moult and then have a mating session. They can be piled high in heaps out in the shallow water for this process and activity.
Ethna Viney welcomes observations and photographs at Thallabawn, Louisburgh, Co Mayo, F28 F978, or by email at viney@anu.ie | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/eye-on-nature-your-notes-and-queries-for-ethna-viney-1.2769508?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/fe83b9e98bec6745ee5e422b576690f507edaf498a2c4bf72ee33c7c9b2ce642.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T12:52:12 | null | 2016-08-30T12:52:00 | Below is an open letter posted by Apple CEO Tim Cook on the tech giant's website | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Ftechnology%2Ftim-cook-reacts-we-are-committed-to-ireland-1.2773002%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773001.1472557876!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Tim Cook reacts: ‘We are committed to Ireland’ | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Thirty-six years ago, long before introducing iPhone, iPod or even the Mac, Steve Jobs established Apple’s first operations in Europe. At the time, the company knew that in order to serve customers in Europe, it would need a base there. So, in October 1980, Apple opened a factory in Cork, Ireland with 60 employees.
At the time, Cork was suffering from high unemployment and extremely low economic investment. But Apple’s leaders saw a community rich with talent, and one they believed could accommodate growth if the company was fortunate enough to succeed.
We have operated continuously in Cork ever since, even through periods of uncertainty about our own business, and today we employ nearly 6,000 people across Ireland. The vast majority are still in Cork — including some of the very first employees — now performing a wide variety of functions as part of Apple’s global footprint. Countless multinational companies followed Apple by investing in Cork, and today the local economy is stronger than ever.
The success which has propelled Apple’s growth in Cork comes from innovative products that delight our customers. It has helped create and sustain more than 1.5 million jobs across Europe — jobs at Apple, jobs for hundreds of thousands of creative app developers who thrive on the App Store, and jobs with manufacturers and other suppliers. Countless small and medium-size companies depend on Apple, and we are proud to support them.
As responsible corporate citizens, we are also proud of our contributions to local economies across Europe, and to communities everywhere. As our business has grown over the years, we have become the largest taxpayer in Ireland, the largest taxpayer in the United States, and the largest taxpayer in the world.
The Apple tax ruling The EC issued a ruling on August 30th in relation to the tax arrangements of Apple in Ireland, where it has its European HQ. The EC said Apple had been granted selective treatment by Ireland through two tax rulings in 1991 and 2007. The EC has ordered Ireland to recover up to €13 billion from the tech giant. Minister for Finance Michael Noonan indicated Ireland would appeal the decision "to defend the integrity of our tax system; to provide tax certainty to business; and to challenge the encroachment of EU state aid rules into the sovereign member state competence of taxation”. Q&A: Cliff Taylor answers the key questions I found this helpful Yes No
Over the years, we received guidance from Irish tax authorities on how to comply correctly with Irish tax law — the same kind of guidance available to any company doing business there. In Ireland and in every country where we operate, Apple follows the law and we pay all the taxes we owe. The European Commission has launched an effort to rewrite Apple’s history in Europe, ignore Ireland’s tax laws and upend the international tax system in the process. The opinion issued on August 30th alleges that Ireland gave Apple a special deal on our taxes. This claim has no basis in fact or in law. We never asked for, nor did we receive, any special deals. We now find ourselves in the unusual position of being ordered to retroactively pay additional taxes to a government that says we don’t owe them any more than we’ve already paid.
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The Commission’s move is unprecedented and it has serious, wide-reaching implications. It is effectively proposing to replace Irish tax laws with a view of what the Commission thinks the law should have been. This would strike a devastating blow to the sovereignty of EU member states over their own tax matters, and to the principle of certainty of law in Europe. Ireland has said they plan to appeal the Commission’s ruling and Apple will do the same. We are confident that the Commission’s order will be reversed.
At its root, the Commission’s case is not about how much Apple pays in taxes. It is about which government collects the money.
Taxes for multinational companies are complex, yet a fundamental principle is recognized around the world: A company’s profits should be taxed in the country where the value is created. Apple, Ireland and the United States all agree on this principle.
In Apple’s case, nearly all of our research and development takes place in California, so the vast majority of our profits are taxed in the United States. European companies doing business in the U.S. are taxed according to the same principle. But the Commission is now calling to retroactively change those rules.
Beyond the obvious targeting of Apple, the most profound and harmful effect of this ruling will be on investment and job creation in Europe. Using the Commission’s theory, every company in Ireland and across Europe is suddenly at risk of being subjected to taxes under laws that never existed.
Apple has long supported international tax reform with the objectives of simplicity and clarity. We believe these changes should come about through the proper legislative process, in which proposals are discussed among the leaders and citizens of the affected countries. And as with any new laws, they should be applied going forward — not retroactively.
We are committed to Ireland and we plan to continue investing there, growing and serving our customers with the same level of passion and commitment. We firmly believe that the facts and the established legal principles upon which the EU was founded will ultimately prevail.
Tim Cook | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/tim-cook-reacts-we-are-committed-to-ireland-1.2773002?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/321ab3eec4a6076cdb6eb6d18ace81927bbe0b12158c0e74e3e5a2078cc84c2f.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T12:49:56 | null | 2016-08-25T18:28:00 | You can change your relationship to stress and view its management as a skill | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fwork%2Fwhat-not-to-say-to-a-stressed-out-colleague-1.2768049%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2768047.1472147788!/image/image.jpg | en | null | What not to say to a stressed-out colleague | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | I was recently stressed out and sleepless because I had to tell a difficult senior colleague something he wouldn’t like — and I dreaded his pushback. An acquaintance listened to me and said: “People have yelled at me for far less.” His attitude shifted my perspective by normalising the conversation that lay ahead.
If you want to support a stressed-out colleague, it can be helpful to know what not to say. Here are five things to avoid.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
No cliches, no platitudes: these just depress stressed-out colleagues because they sound empty.No one-upmanship: if your intention is to help, a lot of “I” talk that makes a colleague and her concerns feel inconsequential won’t do it. Hold the story about how you bombed at the convention for another time.No minimising: dismissing the issue doesn’t help someone else, but it does make us look small. It’s simply not helpful to say things such as “Don’t worry about it” or “You’re exaggerating this.”No moralising: getting on your high horse isn’t helpful. Resist the urge to say things such as: “Well, if you had managed your time better.”No lengthy commiseration: a short wallow lets your stressed-out co-worker vent. But when you commiserate, there’s no moving forward to something more useful.
Stress affects us mentally, physically and emotionally. Dealing with all of that is a tall order. Instead, pick something manageable, and help a stressed-out colleague to the degree you choose. Here are a few things to try.
Ask:
Encourage.
Exercise:
Introduce a paradox:
“What would help?” If the reply is “Nothing” or “I don’t know,” sit quietly for 15 seconds. The quiet moment lets the person breathe and think about what, in fact, might help.Say: “You can handle this. I’ve seen you come up with an offer that breaks a stalemate [or] navigate a tricky negotiation [or] rework the numbers on the spot in a tough situation before.” You are giving your co-worker a vision of herself that is true, and more functional, than the one she is caught up in.offer to climb up and down eight flights of stairs, or walk across the parking lot with your co-worker, if alleviating stress by physical activity is your choice.people get locked into negative thoughts and see nothing else. Opening a second view of her situation, side by side with her negative view, helps her escape that tunnel vision.
For many, stress becomes a familiar feeling. But this can change. The same approaches you use to help co-workers manage their stress can help you manage your own. When you change your relationship to stress, by viewing stress management as a skill, its grip on you weakens.
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Holly Weeks is an adjunct lecturer in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and the author of Failure to Communicate: How Conversations Go Wrong and What You Can Do to Right Them. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/work/what-not-to-say-to-a-stressed-out-colleague-1.2768049?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-25T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/9966b369098cd7f456a521353af433042cc3263238d0d8497b25ce1a3244a93c.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T12:51:18 | null | 2016-08-28T12:29:00 | Obituary: She accepted the crucial role of forming not one, but two chamber orchestras, which were the highlights of Irish music-making from 1970 onwards | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Flife-and-style%2Fpeople%2Fmary-gallagher-o-rourke-masterful-musician-with-a-skill-for-nurturing-talent-1.2770938%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2770937.1472383770!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Mary Gallagher O’Rourke: Masterful musician with a skill for nurturing talent | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Mary Gallagher, who has died at the age of 76, was the outstanding Irish violinist of her generation. Exceptionally talented as a youngster, she won international acclaim in several arenas as a soloist, but it was as an orchestral leader that she excelled.
Born in Dublin in 1940 to Agnes and barrister Edward Gallagher, Mary had family connections with both Donegal and Mayo. She attended Scoil Caitriona in Eccles Street, before starting violin studies at the Royal Irish Academy of Music with Jaroslav Vanecek. So crucial was this study that it informed her entire professional career.
When Vanecek moved from the RIAM to the (then) College of Music, she followed him and became his teaching assistant. Charles Acton, in this newspaper, described the playing imbued by Vanecek’s teaching as “a very sure, brilliant tone, beautiful intonation and lively crispness of playing”. Those words encapsulated the quality of Gallagher’s playing style. Acton subsequently wrote of her graceful playing and her “real authority, mastery and assurance, and impeccable technique”.
Gallagher subsequently studied with Yehudi Menuhin’s protégé, Alberto Lysy, in Rome and Gstaad, and was later invited to take up a fellowship at the Tanglewood Institute in Boston, where she was awarded the Albert Spalding Prize for the most outstanding musician of the year. It was at this point that composer Brian Boydell predicted a brilliant future for her, remarking that her comparative youth in no way obstructed her musical maturity.
Modesty
Her innate modesty and reticence concealed her huge talent: she never put herself forward to the heights she might have achieved as a soloist, although her performances of the Khatchaturian and second Prokofiev concertos with the RTÉ Symphony Orchestra were acclaimed. Instead, she accepted the crucial role of forming not one, but two chamber orchestras, which were the highlights of Irish music-making from 1970 onwards.
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Already, in 1960, at the age of 20, Gallagher had been under consideration as a potential future leader of the Radio Éireann (today, National) Symphony Orchestra. In 1970, she became inaugural leader of the New Irish Chamber Orchestra. With Gallagher as leader and André Prieur as conductor, the work of NICO over the next 10 years galvanised the Irish music world, attracting soloists of the calibre of James Galway, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Paul Tortelier, Peter Pears and Fou T’song.
The orchestra appeared at the BBC Proms in 1979 and toured to the US in 1978, Russia in 1979 and China in 1980. In China, Gallagher had the task of giving a speech in Irish.
Apart from superb playing skills, orchestral leadership demands firmness, charm, tenacity and wisdom. Mary Gallagher embodied all these behind an innocent profile that belied her determination.
Vibrancy
The essence of NICO’s string playing was the unitary nature of the “Vanecek sound” as it was called, with Gallagher leading players such as Margaret Hayes, Clodagh McSwiney, Ruth O’Donovan and Sunniva Fitzpatrick.
The “Vanecek sound” achieved a middle-European sweetness and vibrancy of tone which was matched by wind playing from Helmut Seeber, Gilbert Berg, Victor Malirsh and Mary’s husband, Brian O’Rourke, then principal clarinet (later general manager) with the RTÉ Symphony.
For Gallagher as soloist, the high point of her career coincided with her leadership of NICO, when she (and they) played Vivaldi’s four concertos “The Seasons” for Dimitri Shostakovich during his visit to Dublin in 1972.
Gallagher left NICO in 1980, to concentrate on her teaching, at the College of Music and privately. Her particular skill was to discover and nurture hidden talent. Her former students include such distinguished players as Dara de Cogan. Many former pupils now occupy key positions in British orchestras.
Gallagher returned to orchestral work in 1995 as leader of the newly-formed Orchestra of St Cecilia, a chamber group whose principal distinction was to perform all 200 of the Bach cantatas, as well as the Mozart piano concertos and the Beethoven symphonies and concertos, with conductors such as Sir Neville Marriner and soloists Hugh Tinney and Barry Douglas. She retired in 2004.
She is survived by her husband, Brian, and her sons Killian, John and Donncha. | http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/mary-gallagher-o-rourke-masterful-musician-with-a-skill-for-nurturing-talent-1.2770938?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/381e3afe632cde0fbee9f870fda846f144133b86dbea71d26da4ff285e63823e.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T16:51:44 | null | 2016-08-29T15:50:00 | Culture ministry to insist on modest dress by performers after incident at beachside gig | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Fmiddle-east%2Fsinger-in-israel-ordered-offstage-for-wearing-bikini-top-1.2772058%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772056.1472482244!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Singer in Israel ordered offstage for wearing bikini top | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Even as France has started an international debate about whether some women cover up too much on the beach, Israel has gone the other way, with new concerns about whether some cover up too little.
The Israeli ministry of culture and sport said on Sunday that it would insist on modest dress by performers at government-sponsored musical events after a singer said she was forced to leave the stage for wearing a bikini top at a beachside concert last week.
The flap over skimpy swimwear here turned Europe’s burkini debate on its head. A flash of skin on a beach in Tel Aviv, a cosmopolitan city on the Mediterranean, is hardly unusual – Tel Aviv teemed with women sunbathing in bikinis over the weekend, just as it has for years. At the same time, there were also religious women, Muslim and Jewish, covered nearly entirely, a sight that caused none of the political and cultural uproar seen on the sands of the Riviera lately.
But if France’s local bans on the head-to-ankle burkinis illustrated an often libertine country’s discomfort with conservative Muslim traditions, the decision by Israeli authorities to weigh in on the side of more clothing reflected a different kind of cultural debate. With the influence of Conservative Judaism on the rise in Israel, a country long dominated by secular elites is struggling with its identity and values.
The culture minister, Miri Regev, has been a driving force behind the debate, seeking to deny state money to institutions that do not express loyalty to the state and proposing to vet the music played by the army’s radio station for its patriotism. Her ministry said on Sunday that it was now acting to respect the sensibilities of those who might be offended by immodest attire at state-financed shows.
“The ministry’s policy, led by the minister of culture, states that festivals and events which are funded by public money will honour the general public that attends the events, which includes all the various sectors and communities,” Sivan Carmon, a ministry spokeswoman, said in a statement.
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The ministry intervened after a concert in Ashdod, south of Tel Aviv, on Friday took a surprise turn. Onstage was Hanna Goor, a singer known for her appearance on A Star Is Born, a long-running Israeli reality television programme featuring new vocalists.
As she performed, Goor was wearing an unbuttoned shirt over a bikini top and shorts when, she said, a man from the production company contracted by the state approached her and told her to cover up. She said she had refused, only to have the man threaten to kick her off the stage. She sang another song anyway, then noticed the production company official return with a security officer, at which point she left the stage to avoid a confrontation.
Ms Carmon, the culture ministry spokeswoman, said by telephone on Sunday that Goor’s attire was not appropriate for performing in front of the general public. Ms Carmon denied that the singer had been forced offstage but said the programme had been running late and Goor’s time had been cut short by maybe one song.
In an interview, Goor said she had only been trying to stay cool in the late summer heat, and had been dressed no different from many watching from the beach. “It’s Friday noon,” she said. “Everything is so sunny, so hot, I was only thinking about how tolerable it would be onstage.”
She said she was stunned by the objection to her clothing. “They made it such a big deal, and now there are new regulations they want to put on and force artists to be more modest,” she said. “It’s just not right. I’m against it, and I will speak my mind about it as much as I can. It’s very important for me to sing the way I want to sing and get up on stage dressed how I want to dress.”
New York Times | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/middle-east/singer-in-israel-ordered-offstage-for-wearing-bikini-top-1.2772058?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/0eebbedaf0dda9d9f230bffbb805210923c9c87881f5306e92614d76fb9cc446.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T10:52:05 | null | 2016-08-30T11:20:00 | He is the second of Danny Blind’s assistants to announce their departure in last fortnight | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fsoccer%2Finternational%2Fmarco-van-basten-quits-dutch-national-team-as-leadership-crisis-continues-1.2772936%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772935.1472552437!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Marco Van Basten quits Dutch national team as leadership crisis continues | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Netherlands assistant coach Marco van Basten is to give up the role by the end of the year as the leadership crisis surrounding the side took another twist on Tuesday, a week before the Dutch kick off their 2018 World Cup campaign.
Van Basten is the second of Danny Blind’s assistants to announce their departure in the last two weeks after Dick Advocaat opted to take over as head coach of Turkish side Fenerbahce.
The Dutch football association (KNVB) confirmed the 51-year-old’s impending exit on Tuesday, saying Van Basten was leaving to start work with the sport’s global governing body.
“Fifa have offered me a chance to work in the development and reform of football, and to use my ideas and opinions over issues like playing rules, refereeing and development programmes,” Van Basten said in a KNVB statement.
“I have agreed with Danny Blind to stay as an assistant until the end of the year.”
The loss of his deputy is the latest blow for Blind, who had asked another former European Footballer of the Year, Ruud Gullit, to assist him, only for negotiations to break down.
The acrimonious fallout between Gullit and the KNVB has since dominated Dutch sports pages at a time when the team are hoping to make a positive start to World Cup qualifying after the disappointment of missing the Euro 2016 finals in France.
The Netherlands start their campaign to reach the 2018 World Cup finals away at Sweden next Tuesday.
Advocaat and Van Basten are both former national team coaches in their own right and were expected to form a powerful support team for Blind.
However, Advocaat left after just three months and Van Basten’s impending departure is a further blow.
“Of course I’m not happy but the Fifa job is something that is tailor made for Marco. Even though it means I have to find another successor, it is a great opportunity for him,” Blind said in a statement on Tuesday. | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/international/marco-van-basten-quits-dutch-national-team-as-leadership-crisis-continues-1.2772936?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/fe85d6e0eba081b58aba62fd47930c70691adf05486805f4e7eeda13534e8188.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T10:52:46 | null | 2016-08-31T10:00:00 | Hudson Yards will see new skyscrapers and cover 28 acres of midtown Manhattan | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fcommercial-property%2Fmassive-real-estate-development-to-alter-new-york-skyline-1.2772949%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772947.1472572009!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Massive real estate development to alter New York skyline | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The skyline of New York is being transformed by the biggest real estate development ever in the US.
The project, called Hudson Yards, will see new skyscrapers tip the clouds and cover an area of 28 acres of midtown Manhattan between 10th and 12th Avenues and from 30th-33rd Streets. The site is bounded to the west by an elevated parkway, the Highline.
The $20 billion development by privately owned US Related Companies and Toronto-headquartered Oxford Properties will include more than 17 million sq ft of commercial and residential space.
Ambitious scheme
It will include 100-plus shops, a collection of restaurants and food outlets, 4,000 residences, a 750-pupil public school, a 200-room hotel, a cultural space called the Shed and 14 acres of public parks. The extension of the No 7 Subway line will also serve Hudson Yards.
The yards refer to the rail yards of the Metropolitan Transport Authority, Amtrak, New Jersey Transit and the Long Island Rail Road where the development is happening. The massive construction project is being built on two platforms over the existing 30 active tracks where the trains are stored.
There are 23,000 working on the construction phase, and when completed in 2024, 125,000 people will work in, visit and call Hudson Yards home.
Manhattan stands on bedrock and 300 caissons are being drilled 20-80ft into the rock to form the platforms for the development. The trains will be cooled by massive fans similar to aircraft engines. The platforms are engineered to support large scale planting and act as a reservoir for storm-water management.
The first phase of the project, 10 Hudson, a 52-storey block, opened on July 1st, and the initial tenants are Coach and L’Oreal. Space has also been rented by SAP, The Boston Consulting Group and Sidewalk Labs, a subsidiary of Alphabet.
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The tallest block will be 30 Hudson Yards at the southwest corner of 33rd Street and 10th Avenue. The 1,296ft tall building will be 90 storeys, and the second tallest in the city with 2.6 million sq ft. Designed by Bill Pedersen of Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, it will have the highest outdoor observation desk in Manhattan. The One World Observatory stands at 102 storeys high.
Early movers
Time Warner has already acquired 1.5 million sq ft of office space and plans to move 5,000 employees from its corporate operations as well as CNN, Turner Broadcasting and Warner Bros entities under one roof for the first time. KKR, a global investment firm, has acquired the top 10 office floors of 343,000sq ft, and Wells Fargo has taken 500,000sq ft. Both firms are relocating their corporate offices to the tower.
The first residential building to open will be 15 Hudson Yards at 30th Street and 11th Avenue. The 910ft tall block will offer 391 units for sale and for rent. It will be adjacent to the Highline and have access to the Shed. The Shed cultural space will be a multi-purpose venue and is expected to be ready for New York Fashion week in 2019.
Residents will have unobstructed views of the city and the Hudson River. There will also be a fitness centre by Equinox, concierge lobby, garage, valet parking and pet-friendly services. The building is expected to be completed in 2018.
The other two towers will be 35 Hudson Yards, a mixture of residential, Equinox Hotel, Equinox Fitness, offices and retail, and 55 Hudson Yards, at 780ft block which will have 1.3 million sq ft of offices. It was designed by A. Eugene Kohn of KPF Associates and Irish-born Kevin Roche, a Pritzer Prize winning architect, and will have a dramatic outdoor terrace on the 10th floor.
A one million square foot seven-storey mall will house the shops and restaurants at Hudson Yards. There will be the first Nieman Marcus luxury department store in New York City and more than 100 retail units.
Six acres of gardens and public plazas in the Eastern Yard will have a major piece of public art designed by English sculptor Thomas Heatherwick and costing more than €150 million to develop. The design is being kept secret for the moment but is expected that it will be to Manhattan what the Eiffel Tower is to Paris. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/commercial-property/massive-real-estate-development-to-alter-new-york-skyline-1.2772949?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/936d81408fe05784ca5ad8ca88a7fca7507ebd02569b249ae57c52256919b491.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T06:49:14 | null | 2016-08-30T05:05:00 | Minister for Finance under pressure to resign is due to visit Interface’s Lurgan plant | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fm%25C3%25A1irt%25C3%25ADn-%25C3%25B3-muilleoir-finds-himself-battling-on-nama-brexit-fronts-1.2772095.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772089.1472506257!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Máirtín Ó Muilleoir finds himself battling on Nama, Brexit fronts | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The North’s Minister for Finance Máirtín Ó Muilleoir will be keen to ensure there are no slip-ups this week during a scheduled visit to the Lurgan plant of an American-owned manufacturer of commercial carpet tiles.
Interface, a key employer in Lurgan, is due to play host to Ó Muilleoir as part of an initiative that aims to give the North’s business community an opportunity to get up close and personal, so to speak, with Executive Ministers.
During the event, organised by the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce, Ó Muilleoir wants to update local businesses about what his department has been doing recently and probably talk about his own endeavours to, as he puts it, “maximise EU funds” as the Brexit clouds hang overhead.
But probably what the business community would be more interested in hearing about is whether Ó Muilleoir is likely to have the rug pulled from under his feet any time soon.
In the last seven days while carrying out the responsibilities of Minister for Finance, Ó Muilleoir has also repeatedly rejected calls to temporarily step aside – or resign – primarily because of the latest Nama-related drama to unfold in the North.
Leaked Twitter exchanges obtained by BBC NI and the Irish News between former Sinn Féin MLA Daithí McKay, the previous chairman of the ongoing Stormont inquiry into the sale of Nama’s Northern Ireland portfolio and the loyalist blogger Jamie Bryson, have cast a shadow over not only the work of the previous committee, but also the way Stormont operates behind the scenes.
It is claimed that the Twitter exchanges suggest McKay and another Sinn Féin member Thomas O’Hara coached Bryson before he appeared in front of the Northern Ireland Assembly’s Committee for Finance to give evidence about the North’s then first minister Peter Robinson. Robinson has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
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Ó Muilleoir, who at the time was also a member of the committee that conducted the inquiry, is also referenced in the Twitter exchange.
The Minister for Finance has strenuously denied any knowledge of any communications between McKay, Bryson or O’Hara and has said accusations that he did, are “no more than petty party politicking”.
For Ó Muilleoir , who consistently and very loudly condemned Nama throughout the previous Stormont inquiry, these twittergate revelations are far from helpful as he continues less than four months into the job to try to win the support of the local business community.
One of his first actions as Minister was to release additional information to the current Stormont Committee for Finance relating to the Project Eagle sale in the “interests of transparency and public confidence”.
When he first became Minister back in May he spoke of the “great responsibility” of the job and said it was “not a role I will take lightly”.
He has embraced it with some enthusiasm – there has been no shortage of ministerial visits to small firms and inward investors alike while the North’s Assembly has been on holidays. But Ó Muilleoir is facing into a key period.
First up he has the “Brexit effect” to contend with including the questions about what could potentially happen to the €1.2 billion structural and investment fund programmes that the European Union had pledged to Northern Ireland to run between 2014 and 2020.
Then there is the looming likelihood of further intense budgetary pressures for the North as the UK government continues to regroup after the EU referendum vote. Ó Muilleoir is already hearing in person from firms who are deeply worried that the Executive may not be doing enough at the moment to make sure that Northern Ireland will get its own “bespoke arrangements” post-Brexit.
A coalition of 11 industry organisations, convened by the Derry Chamber of Commerce, have also urged the Executive to step up and provide “reassurance and confidence” at this time of economic uncertainty.
In the short term, however, Ó Muilleoir will focus on holding on to his job. The UUP, Alliance, SDLP and the Finance committee have all called for him to stand aside, as the Project Eagle inquiry takes yet another unexpected twist. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/m%C3%A1irt%C3%ADn-%C3%B3-muilleoir-finds-himself-battling-on-nama-brexit-fronts-1.2772095 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/51d85b6ad1bad9c45d1d908dce7e0b15455102b36a1474fad27ba705f3fe7ad9.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T18:51:24 | null | 2016-08-28T18:00:00 | The power of helping others is as true for children and young people as it is for adults | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Flife-and-style%2Fhealth-family%2Fparenting%2Fhow-can-you-help-your-child-to-make-a-difference-1.2764343%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2749199.1472217900!/image/image.jpg | en | null | How can you help your child to make a difference? | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | This is the final article in a six-part series by our “Ask the expert” psychotherapist John Sharry on how to promote positive self-esteem, emotional wellbeing and confidence in children. This week, we look at helping your child make a differnce.
This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognised by yourself as
a mighty one; I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.
George Bernard Shaw
As a mental health professional I have always been a big advocate of supporting people in groups rather than just on an individual basis. Aside from the extra support and understanding people gain from being part of a therapeutic group, such groups also give people the opportunity to take on a helping role of their own.
One of the main benefits of being part of a group is that you have the opportunity to help others as well as being helped yourself. Paradoxically, it is by being in the altruistic role of helper or supporter that a person often gains the most benefits.
The benefits of helping others are backed up by many research studies that evaluate the outcomes of mental health therapeutic groups. For example, in the self-help group movement it is the group members who take on the role of leaders or of sponsors and mentors to other people in distress who achieve the best long-term outcomes. The role of helping others is not only beneficial to the people we help but also to our own mental health and sense of wellbeing.
The power of making a contribution and helping others is as true for children and young people as it is for adults. In fact, it can be more so for young teenagers who as part of their adolescence are developing their own sense of justice and a spirit of altruism.
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Often the anger and criticism of teenage rebellion is driven by an idealism, and masks a potential motivation to change the world. One way to respond to this “rebellion” as parents is to channel this righteous anger into constructive action and to challenge teenagers to take responsibility and to make a difference themselves. If your teenager is complaining about how the world is being run, why not help them think of how they can change things?
Alternatively, many withdrawn teenagers who lack confidence are often struggling to find their niche in the world and where they can make a difference. Sometimes simply helping this child make a contribution in their local community can be the start of them finding themselves. For example, through their love of animals a child could volunteer or raise money for the local dog charity and thus engage them in a worthwhile project that makes a difference.
From a young age, a very important way you can build your child’s confidence and self-worth is to help them get involved in socially meaningful activities that benefit others and make a difference in the community.
This can start with encouraging small children to help in the home, care for a sibling, visit elderly neighbours or to donate some of their toys to charity. Older children can be encouraged to take on volunteering roles such as fundraising for a charity by doing a sponsored walk, having a bake sale or packing bags in a supermarket. Teenagers can be encouraged to become a leader or tutor with children in a community club or join a campaign for positive change in their community. Remember, the benefits in being involved in these projects are as much for them as for the worthy causes in which they are involved.
Organisations and programmes
There are many excellent organisations and programmes that help children and young people make a meaningful contribution in their community such as the Scouts or the GAA. One of the most remarkable aspects of the GAA is its voluntary spirit. Almost everyone involved is a volunteer and it affords many opportunities for people to give back and to contribute as leaders and mentors. This voluntary spirit has enormous benefits for the community.
There are also many awards programmes that emphasise holistic development in young people such as the Gaisce or President Awards. To achieve a Gaisce award, the young person must achieve a series of self-directed challenges and learning experiences that involve community involvement, learning a personal skill, physical recreation and an adventure journey.
A key aspect of the awards is that they are self-directed and not competitive. The young people are making a personal achievement and not “beating” anyone else. Therefore they are inclusive and every young person can get involved. In addition, the focus on developing character and important life skills in a range of domains makes them enormously beneficial to those who participate.
Dr John Sharry is a social worker and psychotherapist and co-developer of the Parents Plus programmes. This article is based on a chapter in his new book, Bringing Up Happy, Confident Children: A practical guide to nurturing resilience, self-esteem and emotional well-being. See solutiontalk.ie | http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/health-family/parenting/how-can-you-help-your-child-to-make-a-difference-1.2764343?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/1ac62b0595aedb4c906fc65284dd38eae69e5a8e54fefb1af2e50ff8a61e015c.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T16:52:38 | null | 2016-08-30T17:11:00 | Honour Your Heroes: Survivors attend event to recognise medical and nursing staff | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fhealth%2Fpatients-return-to-beaumont-hospital-to-praise-hardworking-staff-1.2773297%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773295.1472573493!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Patients return to Beaumont Hospital to praise hardworking staff | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Former patients at Beaumont Hospital made an emotional return there on Tuesday to thank doctors, nurses and all the staff for pioneering and often life-saving treatment.
Survivors of stroke and cancer, a young man critically injured when he was hit by a van and a two-year-old girl whose life has been transformed by cochlear implants were among those at the Beaumont Hospital Foundation’s annual Honour Your Heroes reception.
Lexie Noone (2), from Tallaght in Dublin, developed an infection on the day she was born which is thought to have been responsible for her hearing loss.
She wore hearing aids from seven weeks old and gradually became profoundly deaf over the next year and a half. She had cochlear implants in both ears earlier this year.
‘Team effort’
Lexie and her mother Lisa came to thank speech and language therapist Jenny Robertson, who insisted it had been a “team effort”.
Becoming emotional as she spoke before a room full of the hospital’s staff and former patients, Lisa said Lexie’s vocabulary now included not only “mammy” and “daddy”, but also “ice cream”.
Patrick O’Reilly (70), from Killiney, attended with his wife Jackie to thank consultant neuroradiologist Dr John Thornton, who performed urgent surgery after he suffered a stroke last November.
Mr O’Reilly recalled he had been feeding red squirrels in the garden just before the stroke hit.
“I came in and collapsed like a bag of potatoes on the ground. I couldn’t move my legs.”
He was brought to St Vincent’s Hospital for assessment and then transferred to Beaumont to avail of the mechanical thrombectomy service headed up by Dr Thornton.
This procedure involves puncturing an artery in the groin and passing a tube through the blood vessels up to the neck and head. A stint retriever is then passed through the tube to pull out the blood clot and restore blood flow to the brain.
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“Within 15 minutes of it being done I was able to walk again and had no other symptoms of stroke,” Mr O’Reilly said.
Time-critical procedure
Dr Thornton said the thrombectomy procedure was time-critical.
“We see the best results when patients are treated within a recommended six to eight hours following their initial stroke.”
An international study in which Beaumont participated has shown that 53 per cent of patients treated with thrombectomy go on to live a fully independent life with no disability. The hospital is currently working with the HSE on a budgeting proposal for the service.
Also at the event was Fran McDermott, from nearby Artane, who has been treated for testicular cancer and cancer of the thyroid. He came to thank consultant ENT surgeon Mr Peter Walshe.
Meanwhile, Killian Minogue (23), from Dunderry, Co Meath was walking home from work along a dual carriageway in March last year when he was hit by a van.
Severe head trauma
His injuries included severe head trauma, and he was placed in an induced coma for several weeks. He had a craniotomy to allow his brain to swell and spent over nine months in a string of critical care and rehab hospitals.
Killian thanked consultant neurosurgeon Mr Darach Crimmins for his treatment.
Mr Minogue said it was important that people heard about the good things in the health system.
“My experience has been a very positive one and I am very grateful,” he said.
Since its establishment in 1995, the foundation has raised over €5 million for hundreds of patient care initiatives on the Beaumont campus. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/patients-return-to-beaumont-hospital-to-praise-hardworking-staff-1.2773297?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/60a14082d11d8e7f709e7169fc4f743c51032192dfa6c37fd694cd26d423e528.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T08:49:16 | null | 2016-08-31T07:19:00 | UK merchanting sales were ‘relatively flat’ in July and August after Brexit vote | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fconstruction%2Fgrafton-shares-slide-most-since-brexit-vote-on-uk-merchanting-woes-1.2774071.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2774070.1472629518!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Grafton shares slide most since Brexit vote on UK merchanting woes | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Shares in Grafton Group dropped in early trading on Wednesday as analysts prepared to cut their earnings forecasts for the group as its key UK building marchanting business faces challenges following the Brexit vote.
Grafton shares lost as much as 9.5 per cent of its their value, to £5.50 (€7.21), within minutes of trading getting underway in London. It marked the biggest sell-off in the stock since the end of June, when UK voters decided to exit the EU.
Earlier, the company said its adjusted operating profits for the first half soared 12 per cent as strengthening Irish and Dutch economies offset weakness in its UK builders merchanting business amid concerns about Brexit.
Adjusted operating profit rose to £68.4 million from £61.2 million for the same period last year, helped by the €91.5 million acquisition late last year of a Dutch took distributor, Isero.
And while thee Dublin-based company said its UK trade-only Selco Builders Warehouse business continued to see its profits grow during the first half, its traditional UK merchanting businesses, which accounts for more than 70 per cent of group sales, faced “more challenging markets”.
“Progressively weaker trading conditions were encountered during the period at a time of increased uncertainty in the lead-up to the UK’s EU referendum,” Grafton said on Wednesday.
The group had previously warned in mid-July that its UK merchanting sales had dipped in June and that Brexit is likely to dampen demand for new housing and home improvements for the remainder of the year in its most important market.
On Thursday, it said: “It is still too early to assess the likely impact on the UK economy of the vote to leave the European Union. Following weak trading in June, demand in the UK merchanting business was relatively flat during July and August with markets remaining very price competitive.”
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“Against a backdrop of a challenging UK merchanting market and the associated start-up costs with a pick-up in Selco branch openings, we see full-year 2016 operating profit forecasts being reduced by circa 10 per cent to £131m,” Robert Eason, an analyst with Goodbody Stockbrokers, said in a note.
“Revisions are likely to be larger for full-year 2017 as we start to incorporate slower growth across our merchanting coverage to factor in the potential impact of Brexit,” Mr Eason said.
Analysts at Investec said they expect consensus forecast for the group to fall by 8 per cent, as the group’s operating martings face pressure.
Meanwhile, Grafton said its Woodie’s DIY retailing business in Ireland performed well in the first half as a result of management actions combined with increased household spending in the sector.
The interim dividend approved by the board has been increased by 6 per cent to 4.75p, in line with its progressive dividend policy. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/construction/grafton-shares-slide-most-since-brexit-vote-on-uk-merchanting-woes-1.2774071 | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/76c5f1332cc093a4a5d86ed7971e994c3b80ff6771bf3909f509fde728750346.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T14:52:15 | null | 2016-08-30T15:31:00 | To make sense of my new home in the woods, I went back to the books. This is why trees form and inform so much of this collection – poems arising out of a beautiful landscape | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fculture%2Fbooks%2Fmary-o-malley-on-playing-the-octopus-an-alien-in-eden-1.2773159%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773158.1472567259!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Mary O’Malley on Playing the Octopus: An alien in Eden | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | I had a childhood free of trees. I liked it that way. I knew three places which had trees, and considered two of them frightening. They were not, for me, natural. When I went to university in Galway, I considered the trees there both pleasant and safe. The same applied to Dublin and the only trees I really took to were the blue flowering jacarandas on Lisbon’s Avenue Dom Carlos.
Of course I liked and even planted the light friendly birch and ash and mountain ash, but trees mostly arrived floating in on the tide as windfall.
After seven collections of poems, a writer tends to know his own obsessions. I had never had any desire to write about trees, nor any poem that seemed to require one in it. Except perhaps one where my son, in a joking reference to my complete lack of interest in what we’ll call the agricultural, told me the first step in building a boat was to “first catch your tree”. The same word crann is used for both tree and mast in Irish.
Then about five years ago we moved to another area, to one of a number of houses built in what had been an old beech plantation. “Like New England in the Fall”, a neighbour said of the lane in autumn. Visitors oohed and ahhed.
Yet the trees made me uneasy, their hulking shapes, their darkening presence. I had never lived close to a wood, much less surrounded on two sides by one. I was on unfamiliar ground, in every sense. I had no idea how big a tree could be. I began to see them as “Na Fathai”, the giants in Sean O’Riordain’s marvellous poem. I couldn’t read them, and couldn’t ignore them either.
In an attempt to make sense of this new element, I went back to the books: Graves’ tree alphabet, the early Irish tree lore, the twisted fantasy of the middle European folk tales and Dürer’s marvellously tortuous illustrations. This is why trees form and inform so much of this collection. They are poems arising out of a beautiful landscape – but I was an alien in Eden.
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Not for the first time, Dante came to the rescue, and I became immersed in the convoluted forest in Canto XIII of The Purgatorio and the powerful hell of Dante’s imagination. At a time in Ireland when the mental health services are useless in the face of so much depression and despair, particularly in the case of young men and women, I considered the trees in the light of a hurt mind’s despair. All I could do was listen to their insistent voices, and write the poems that came.
Dante was my guide through a forested underworld. I wouldn’t have had the courage to go in alone. Sometime during that year, we had to fell a dangerous tree. Young men arrived, like acrobat mountaineers. They did their amazing circus act, chopping and cutting, until finally, with an earth-shaking shudder, the great trunk fell. Light flooded the space where the tree had stood. Next day, I realised my fear had gone and a respect for the great beech had replaced it. I asked the contractor to take a slice out of the timber to season for us. I intend to make it into something useful, a table or worktop.
I went to America in 2013 to take up the Chair of Irish Studies at Villanova University. That period led directly to several poems considering the newness and wildness of William Penn’s land grant, and the strange grip Philadelphia’s shoreline had on me.
There are poems to honour dead friends – Michael Hartnett and Dermot Healy – and poems to the dead, where the dead stand just the other side of the river, asking only to be remembered. Poems where the young rev up their motorbikes and toss their long hair before riding off to leave us.
Several years ago, I heard the poet Carol Ann Duffy tell the story that is central to Playing The Octopus. I have heard versions of the same story from musicians over the years and it stayed with me as a metaphor for how hard it is to play the uilleann pipes, or bagpipes as in the original version. Some musicians have a slightly more earthy description of what the octopus was trying to do, but I stick to the clean one.
Then one Sunday after lunch the painter Brian Bourke told us the story about a baby crying at a session. Brian is very funny and tells a story with an actor’s gestures, and perhaps because of those and the fleeting effort and agony, accompanied by hilarious grimaces that illustrated the telling, the poem I wrote as a result seemed incompete without an octopus. But this time the metaphor wasn’t about a traditional music lesson, but about life’s many tentacled surprises. If Playing The Octopus is “about” anything, it is how life takes hold of us, about the howls and screeches it squeezes out of us, the sweet or grieving music it plays on us and how much we call the tune or how often it is the tune that calls us. So there are poems that consider tunes, and what is worth keeping and celebrating in this republic of Ireland.
Playing the Octopus is published by Carcanet | http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/mary-o-malley-on-playing-the-octopus-an-alien-in-eden-1.2773159?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/c9ba719c16088f34ed59c5041707416ba1513e6a15cc3f991a370e8e42e62b6b.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T06:53:10 | null | 2016-08-31T06:00:00 | The eight-time All-Ireland winner with Kilkenny was forced to retire from hurling | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fgaelic-games%2Fhurling%2Fq-and-a-richie-power-talks-chronic-knee-pain-regrets-and-missing-the-craic-1.2773465%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773464.1472582892!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Q and A: Richie Power talks chronic knee pain, regrets and missing the craic | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | “I’m looking at a knee replacement probably in 10 or 15 years’ time.”
Richie Power discusses Sunday’s All-Ireland final between Kilkenny and Tipperary along with his career being cut short by a chronic knee injury.
Despite winning eight All-Ireland titles and two All Stars in 11 seasons playing for Kilkenny, Power harbours regret about the manner in which he was forced to retire from inter-county hurling (he intends to play for Carrickshock again) at 30 years old.
This must be an unusual week in that you are not preparing for an All-Ireland final?
“Yeah, it has been. I suppose it would be great to be involved but unfortunately it’s not the case so look, a different perspective, a different angle this year for me.
“I suppose going up Sunday it’s going to be a surreal feeling sitting in the stand and having to look at it but I suppose that’s the way it goes. I’d love to be there but unfortunately I can’t be there so you know life goes on, Kilkenny hurling moves on and everything moves on.
“I suppose it’s after taking a while to get used to and I’m gradually getting to it now, it takes probably a year to really get used to it, get Sunday over us hopefully and get the right result and it’ll make the winter a lot easier.”
Have you been able to play hurling since the county retirement?
“No, today is actually the first day I put on a pair of boots in 12 months [to promote Volkswagen St Jude’s All-Ireland Junior Sevens].
I’m back doing a good bit of rehab alright, I’m hoping to get back doing a little bit of running towards the end of this year with the hope of hurling again with Carrickshock next year but the way it is at the moment I’m just not able to unfortunately.”
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Can you get back to high level of hurling or do you have to park that?
“After the operation I kind of parked it and more or less though that was it. I suppose what I was hoping to do is get back and do a good level of exercise to keep your fitness up.
“But as the months progressed and the more rehab I done the knee, the leg started to feel a bit stronger - the knee itself is just a shell, there’s nothing in there - but if I can get the rest of the leg built up strong around it, it should be able to take the impact and take a lot of the hit for the knee.
“Look, I’m definitely hoping to get back with Carrickshock next year, now whether that’s a high level or not I don’t know, but if I could get back it would be a huge achievement and that’s certainly what I’m looking to do.”
Was your career the maximum that can be expected from an inter-county player nowadays given the wear and tear of injuries?
“I suppose I’m a lot different that most players in that I’ve had six operations on my leg. A lot of players won’t go through that.
Obviously at 30 years of age you don’t expect to be told that your playing career, let alone your inter-county career, is finished.
“It was wear and tear but I suppose that probably falls back on me pushing through injuries when I shouldn’t have done and maybe giving it more time when I didn’t.
“At the end of the day I’d a good run, obviously you’d still like to be involved on days like Sunday, there was always the possibility of Kilkenny getting to an All-Ireland when I finished up and that’s one thing that kind of stuck out in the back of my head. But you couldn’t try and stay on because I physically wouldn’t have been able to so the decision was kind of made really.”
You have no cartilage in the knee?
“I’ve no cartilage left in the left knee. Pretty much it’s bone on bone.”
The risk is it will swell up after every session?
“Yeah, I suppose what I’d be looking to do is get it to the point where you can exercise comfortably. I suppose what happens there is the two bones gradually wear into a kind of groove, that’s what I’ve been told. If you can get to that point there’s no reason why I can’t get back playing as long as it’s pain free but realistically you’re looking at the knee being very sore and swelling up after games.”
Partly relieved given what you’ve gone through to play a bit part in 2015?
“Yes and no, I suppose. Look, the year I had last year I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. To get back for 12 minutes of inter-county hurling for the whole year is...
“Sometimes I’ve thought to myself would I have been better off just taking last year completely off? Resting the leg and hopefully getting back at it again this year. Obviously you look at all these different scenarios and things might have worked out differently, things might have been different, but at the end of the day I got back for those 12 minutes. It was a great way to finish. I obviously didn’t think it was going to be my last time wearing a Kilkenny jersey but it turned out to be. A bit of relief I suppose putting your body through that but you’d still love to be involved Sunday.”
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If you could give any advice to the 20, 21 version of yourself to avoid this ending what would it be?
“Ah look, last year I had three operations in the space of 10 months.
If I had been told last January that I needed to give the leg a break for 12 months I would have done it - no matter how hard it would have been.
“I know in my own head it would have prolonged my career at club and county level. If you had to sacrifice 12 months for 12 minutes, to get an extra two or three years you’d do it.”
Feel hard done by the specialist or medical people who advised you?
“Yeh. I spoke about this previously, got a bit of slack for it. No look, you can blame people if you want; personally I don’t. It would have been nice to have been given the option, if I was told: Take 12 months off, that the knee is in a bad way, of course I would have done it.
“Having three operations in 10 months, the deterioration in the knee was a lot worse than what the specialist was expecting. He, I was under the influence myself, as was the surgeon, that he’d get me back hurling going into the operation last October. Unfortunately, after he came out of the knee, it wasn’t the case. What happened between July and October was a lot more severe than we all thought.
“It’s over and done with. I can’t go back. If I can get back with the club, it is something. It would be nice to give something back after missing so many years after being involved with Kilkenny. Time will tell on that front.”
Worry for younger hurlers if you are getting this advice at the elite end of your sport?
“No. My situation was just a lot different. I was pushing hard myself, wanted to get it done. The knee wasn’t coming right at all. Closing in on 30 as well, you’re looking for a quick fix, trying to get as much as you can out of your career.
“At underage, I don’t see it happening. The ways of training are changing as well. You’re not seeing as many injuries which is good.
The programme that’s there for young guys to be physically strong enough, built strong enough to deal with that impact and training is there now, which wouldn’t have been there 10 years ago.
“A knee is not something you can build up. It’s not really a muscle.
You can’t really do much bar build up around it. From a very young age I was prone to knee problems. First operation was when I was 16. Probably then it all started for me. I got 14 years out of it.”
Is it too high a price? Would you give back an All-Ireland or two for a proper career?
“Oh God, of course I would. Obviously you would give it back.
“2014...the day in Tullamore. I tore the PCL, the posterior cruciate.
That helps with the stability in the knee. Straight away there was a huge weakness in my knee. Luckily enough I got back for ‘14, played the club championship with my club in ‘14. It was the start of ‘15…I got the operation in January and then I went out in a club game against James Stephens. Played the game. Went through it pain free.
Whatever happened in that game, that’s when everything started to go downhill.”
Look at Michael Fennelly as well, is it too high a price to pay?
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“I don’t know would you say it’s too high a price. I can look back in years to come and smile and be happy about what I achieved. I suppose the downfall for me is I’m looking at a knee replacement probably in 10 or 15 years’ time.
“Yeah, it’s a high price to pay from that point of view but I suppose then you’re playing at the highest level, you’re going to get these knocks and bruises and bumps. Would I like to have a fully functioning knee? Absolutely. Would I change my career? I don’t think so. The success that we had. I suppose it’s a price I kind of have to pay on a personal level.”
Does the knee hinder you day to day?
“Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t. It can be quite sore waking up in the morning. Other than that, I’m back doing a good bit in the gym, a good bit of rehab. The more I build up the leg, the more pain-free it will be. I suppose, any part of the body where you have two bones grinding off each other, it’s going to be painful. It’s probably going to be particularly sore in the winter when it gets to the cold as well but, look, there’s very little I can do about it now bar do the rehab I’ve been given.”
Last year easier or harder than you imagined?
“Yeah, it has been hard. Personally it’s been very tough to adapt to not being part of an inter-county set up and not being able to train, full stop.
“It really hit home for the first League game down in Waterford, down in Walsh Park. I went down with Rory, my son, and I was standing on the bank and I just kind of realise that this is it. Because I have done it in the past but I’ve known that I’d get back later in the year. Obviously you miss it.
“Your whole life is turned upside down. You’re not involved with the lads. You can’t even go back and be involved with the club team so you’re isolated from two groups of players rather than just one. That has been tough. There’s only so much rehab in a gym that you can do.”
You would miss the craic...
“Absolutely and you try and keep in contact with some of the guys and I would be in contact with a good few of the lads on a weekly basis and whatever but it’s still not the same. Obviously I’d be involved with the Carrickshock Whatsapp group with the hope of getting back.
“It’s the little things really. The nights out, the socialising aspect of it, the craic you have in training, the weekends away and things like that you miss but I suppose, look, it’s like anyone when you retire you have to adapt to it and move on. There’s a lot of players after doing it in front of me and a lot after me so it’s just how you deal with it.”
This is exacerbated by being part of the Kilkenny family since you were young because of your Dad...
“I was involved with Kilkenny for 15 years from minor all the way up and obviously Dad was involved as well and obviously John is still involved so we still have that build up. We still have John involved and the excitement that’s there but it is completely different.
Obviously you’re more relaxed in the build up to it. You’re hoping that things will go well for John and obviously the lads and they’ll get the right result but there’s definitely not as much pressure which is probably one of the advantages of it I suppose.”
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Are you allowed drop off a cliff or is there enough counselling and the like there once you retire?
“Oh yeah, absolutely. Everything is there for you, especially with the GPA. They’ve been great, county board in Kilkenny have been fantastic as well. Look, there’s loads there because they realise as well that it’s a huge change in a person’s life.
“It’s probably a little bit different if you make the decision yourself because it gives you time to come to terms with it. I know the likes of JJ (Delaney), he had his mind made up from the beginning of 2014 that this was going to be his last year so he had a lot of time to get his head around it.
“But when it’s forced upon you, it’s completely different. In my opinion it is anyway.
“I had no intentions of retiring. I definitely think I had two or three years left in me to give something to Kilkenny. That’s what I was aiming for and that’s what I was planning for.
“I suppose the time after the operation was probably the toughest, after being told by the surgeon. I probably knew for three months before I made the announcement that I was finished and I kind of took that time to get my head around it and luckily enough I had my family around me to do that.”
Your last game you started was the (All-Ireland final) Galway replay two years ago, that John was also playing make that the career highlight?
“There are a few highlights but I think definitely 2014 has to be number one. To be able to win an All-Ireland with your brother there beside you on the field, I don’t think it gets much better than that.
“As you said it’s the last time I started a game for Kilkenny. There are unbelievable memories going back since 2005. I’ll always have those. It will be great to look back on them, I can probably look back on them this Christmas whereas last year was completely different.
“I’ll always have them. It’s great to be able to look back but you have to move on. Suppose anything I can do to help John this week I’ll certainly do it. Just hoping things will work out for him.”
How do you see it going?
“It’s definitely the All-Ireland that everyone wanted. I think Tipperary felt that if they got over Galway last year they would have beaten Kilkenny in the final. So there’s probably a lot more pressure on Tipp I’d imagine. They haven’t won one since 2010. Have they the hoodoo of Kilkenny on their back? Trying to get that off.
“I certainly think if Kilkenny can stop Tipp from scoring goals I think they have an unbelievable chance. But how do you do that? They got two goals in the space of 60 seconds against Galway. That’s the ability that they have. The forward line Tipp have, if that hits fire that’s your match winner right there.
“I think the match ups are going to be crucial and Brian has proven in the past that he can get the match ups right. It will be interesting to see where the big players are positioned and who they pick up. I am sure Michael Ryan is going to be doing the same but I do think if Kilkenny can stop Tipp scoring goals they might sneak it.”
The loss of Mick Fennelly?
“Michael Fennelly missing on Sunday is a massive massive blow for Kilkenny. I think it’s a huge lift for Tipperary. We saw the impact of Michael going off against Waterford. For the first 45 minutes he was a colossus for Kilkenny up and down the field. The minute he went off Waterford got a stranglehold of the game. That’s what you are lacking with Mick. He can cover every blade of grass in Croke Park. He can do the defensive side of things, he can score. He can create scores, he can create anything from nothing. And even his presence to be fair.
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“They have Lester (Ryan) maybe to come in or the option of putting Conor (Fogarty) back out to midfield. Whoever wins that area will go a long way to winning the game. To be missing a player of Mick’s calibre is definitely a blow for Kilkenny.”
Will this be Brian Cody’s greatest achievement if they win, given the list of retirements are some of the greatest players ever?
“I wouldn’t say it’s going to be his greatest. It’s certainly going to be an unbelievable achievement. You look at his record, four-in-a-row from ‘06 to ‘09, come back then and win ‘11 and ‘12 and then obviously to be going for another three-in-a-row, it’s unheard of. No manager will come even close to achieving that in the future.
“He just has this knack of finding those two or three players, gelling everyone together. There’s such a spirit built up in that group of players since the time Brian came in and since those players started themselves, it’s unbreakable really.
“I think that’s the one thing about Kilkenny hurling that, you know, that’s what Brian’s philosophy is about. He said that from the very first day he started, he never mentioned winning All-Irelands when he came in first, he said what he wanted to do was just build a spirit within Kilkenny hurling. He’s certainly after doing that and whenever Brian does go, whenever that might be, he’s certainly going to leave Kilkenny hurling in a very, very strong position.”
Hard to imagine that day?
“I think it is yeah and I think Kilkenny people themselves would find it hard to imagine. Personally I don’t see it happening in the distant future. There’s no reason Brian can’t stay going. Who’s going to be the next man to follow him, that’s going to be the question.
“Talk about a poisoned chalice! I certainly wouldn’t want it anyway.
You just don’t know. It’s going to be Brian’s decision at the end of the day. Whenever he decides to walk away he’ll go.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/hurling/q-and-a-richie-power-talks-chronic-knee-pain-regrets-and-missing-the-craic-1.2773465?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/fcef971cb443cddd2acb8e46e21a490ff64b4ca70a9adbe3050f4e2313cca9a2.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T04:49:34 | null | 2016-08-31T04:30:00 | Full-year take-up for office space this year predicted to be 220,000sq m, well ahead of the 10-year average of 180,000sq m | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fcommercial-property%2Freview-shows-strong-demand-for-office-space-in-dublin-1.2772878.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772876.1472546730!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Review shows strong demand for office space in Dublin | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Take-up of space in the Dublin office market for the first half of this year came in at around 100,000sq m – similar to the same period in 2015 – underlining strong levels of occupier demand.
This is according to the latest review from agent HWBC which notes that “real levels of activity on the ground” are not reflected in the take-up figures as over 80,000sq m of space is reserved or at various stages of pre-contract due diligence. As a result HWBC is predicting that full-year take-up for this year will be around 220,000sq m, well ahead of the 10-year average of 180,000sq m.
It says there is 292,000sq m of available office space in the city which gives a vacancy rate of 8 per cent. New completions in 2016 will come in at just 8,100sq m, while 330,000sq m of new office space is currently under construction in the central business district.
HWBC says it is “too early to gauge the effect of Brexit on the Dublin office market” but suggests it is reasonable to assume that Dublin could be one of the few beneficiaries of the vote with potential increased FDI from the UK, Europe and the US.
Implications
“There is no real evidence yet of increased inquiries from the UK,” says HWBC’s Paul Scannell , “but we expect this to become more pronounced by year-end, with interest particularly from the financial and professional sectors.
“Any increased interest from companies relocating to Dublin is likely to play out over the next two years as more clarity emerges on the real implications for British business of leaving the EU.
“We expect a number of large multinationals to run the rule over Dublin and other competing markets, such as Paris and Frankfurt, over the next 12 months, so they are ready to press the buttons on a move if required. Some of the larger occupiers may even consider securing options on space under construction to ensure they can secure the required space in the preferred location.”
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HWBC says the lack of central business district space is still putting upward pressure on prime rents which are now at €620 per square metre. Some smaller lettings are being agreed at €645 per square metre, it says, and this rental level will become “established for prime space by the end of the year”.
Larger occupiers seeking new central business district space are now required to commit for a minimum of 15 years term certain as developers take advantage of market conditions and lack of supply. Tenant incentives, like rent-free periods, are also under pressure and are typically at three months for each five-year term. “But larger tenants can still agree attractive packages particularly for early pre-lets,” says Mr Scannell.
Suburbs
As pressure for central business district space intensifies, HWBC notes that activity in the suburbs is “strong” with take-up in Dublin 18 accounting for 11 per cent of the total so far this year.
Sandyford, Central Park and South County Business Park are the most popular locations, with Ardagh choosing Pelham House in the latter location for its new headquarters.
Further out Cherrywood is seeing renewed occupier interest given its competitive rents and access to the Luas, M50 and N11.
Mr Scannell says there are no signs of the market being oversupplied even with 330,000sq m under construction for completion over the next two years and over a third of this space already pre-committed.
“With 300,000sq m plus of identified market demand, we don’t expect supply and demand levels to reach equilibrium until at least the end of 2018.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/commercial-property/review-shows-strong-demand-for-office-space-in-dublin-1.2772878 | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/b45072c6a02806804e63783d58f81c46ce572465ad91359c2510750460c4c289.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T00:48:34 | null | 2016-08-29T01:00:00 | Pricing in European markets remains positive in the first half despite the ongoing Russian trade embargo on fresh produce | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fagribusiness-and-food%2Frobust-first-half-results-expected-at-total-produce-1.2769525.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769524.1472222312!/image/image.jpg | en | null | ‘Robust’ first-half results expected at Total Produce | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | First-half results are due tomorrow from Total Produce, the fruit distributor spun out of Fyffes.
The company’s initial 2016 EPS guidance range was 10.50 cent to 11.50 cent, but it narrows this to 11 cent to 11.50 cent, after trading for the first four months of the year had been satisfactory.
Davy analyst Declan Morrissey said pricing in Total Produce’s European markets remained positive in the first half despite the ongoing Russian trade embargo on fresh produce.
“We expect a robust performance in the first half, in line with the upbeat trading statement at the end of May,” he said.
Acquisition
For the first-half of 2015, Total Produce reported adjusted pre-tax profit that was up 11.5 per cent to €30.3 million.
Pre-tax profits were unchanged at €24.2 million, while revenue rose 9.2 per cent in the six months to the end of June 2015 to €1.73 billion.
Earlier this year, Total Produce announced it had acquired a 65 per cent stake in US-based Progressive Produce, a grower, packer and distributor of conventional and organic produce with 2015 sales in excess of $200 million.
Davy said last year’s €20 million share buyback, combined with the annual dividend, underpins a focus on shareholder returns. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/agribusiness-and-food/robust-first-half-results-expected-at-total-produce-1.2769525 | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/bced523d64fc90d4ba5e85e1b160abc3d03584a32b7608cb43367fcdc073806a.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:09:25 | null | 2016-08-26T12:26:00 | Northern Irish golfer one clear of group including World No 1 Lydia Ko | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fgolf%2Fstephanie-meadow-takes-clubhouse-lead-after-66-in-canada-1.2769374%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769369.1472210805!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Stephanie Meadow takes clubhouse lead after 66 in Canada | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Northern Ireland’s Stephanie Meadow held the clubhouse lead at the end of the weather-affected first day of the Canadian Women’s Open in Calgary after carding an opening round of six-under 66.
The 24-year-old from Jordanstown carded seven birdies in total, closing with gains on the eighth and ninth holes to take a one-shot clubhouse lead over a group of three golfers that included world number one Lydia Ko.
South Korea’s Chella Choi was on seven under after 14 holes when play was suspended due to darkness, while Karine Icher was six-under through 14. Morning play was delayed nearly three hours due to lightning.
Four days after her silver medal-winning performance at the Rio Olympics, New Zealander Ko wasted no time getting back into the bread-and-butter swing of regular LPGA competition.
She completed her round in style by sinking a tricky five-foot par putt with her assured cross-handed putting stroke at the scenic Priddis Greens Golf & Country Club.
Ko made the Canadian Women’s Open her first LPGA victory when she triumphed in 2012 at the age of 15. She added further wins at the tournament in 2013 and again last year.
“The course and the environment really remind me of New Zealand,” the 19-year-old told Golf Channel after the round that included six birdies and one bogey.
She conceded it was a challenge to stay mentally sharp after the enjoyable but draining experience in Rio, where she finished five strokes behind gold medallist Park In-bee as golf returned to the Olympics for the first time in more than a century.
“The Olympics was surreal, a week like I’ve never experienced before,” Ko said.
“Coming into a big week where I’m also defending, it is tough because you’re coming in with so much adrenaline and because I’ve played well a little bit more added pressure, but I love being here.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/golf/stephanie-meadow-takes-clubhouse-lead-after-66-in-canada-1.2769374?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/cdd207e8818a67e58dbaf53ff89bb748557e9c5c36c31fdd68c4d4bb3b130c42.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T00:52:36 | null | 2016-08-31T01:00:00 | Premier County manager claims it’s the initial bar his charges have to reach in final | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fgaelic-games%2Fhurling%2Fmichael-ryan-says-priority-is-matching-kilkenny-s-intensity-1.2773486%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773482.1472584288!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Michael Ryan says priority is matching Kilkenny’s intensity | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The last thing Michael Ryan needs is any reminder of Tipperary’s championship record against Kilkenny, particularly in this Brian Cody era.
That record is daunting, not what any manager wants to consider in the week of an All-Ireland hurling final.
So here’s a reminder for everyone else: in their nine championship meetings, since 2002, Kilkenny have won all but one, including three All-Ireland finals, and three semi-finals. Tipp’s one and only win over Kilkenny in that period was the 2010 All-Ireland final.
What Ryan may well remind us, however, is that he’s yet to lose to Kilkenny, at least not as Tipp manager. This may be his seventh season on the sideline, having worked three years alongside Eamon O’Shea, and three years before that alongside Liam Sheedy, but everything about Sunday’s final marks year one on his watch.
“This group is doing it for themselves,” says Ryan, straight-faced.
“It is not born out of past losses to Kilkenny. This is a new journey for these players. They are having a fantastic run. We need to concentrate on the here and now, not past results against Kilkenny.
“Kilkenny’s victories are confined to history, a fantastic history for them, a poor history for us, unfortunately.
Initial bar
“I think you can put it simply down to it that they have trumped us each day on intensity. That is the initial bar we have to reach.
“If we can break even on that, and get a bit lucky here and there, who knows? Various little things can change things after that.
“But I think intensity is the great leveller here, and their ability to be relentless on that. They never let that up. I don’t know when I have ever seen recent Kilkenny teams not reaching a high level of intensity.”
It’s the word everyone keeps coming back to: “intensity” is not the issue alone, however, as Ryan also identifies the need to sustain it.
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“There is a consistency Kilkenny reach that the rest of us need to get to. At various stages we all are capable of getting to it, but none of us as yet have been able to sustain it as Kilkenny do. Even if they are only trading blow with you 50/50 they seldom let the intensity down at crucial periods.
“The given here is that Kilkenny are past masters at this. They know the level and they will get to it. The variable is the rest of us. Will we get to the level? Can we sustain the level? Can we break through any perceived glass ceiling that is there?
“In fairness, no one created those glass ceilings only ourselves. Kilkenny have not been a sitting target for anyone. They have evolved. They have had a change in personnel. But the constant is the intensity.”
Tipp’s own evolution under Sheedy, and then O’Shea, did manage to take out Kilkenny once, in 2010, and match them in the drawn 2014 final. Ryan, a 1991 All-Ireland winner with Tipp, sees his own place in that evolution as somewhere in between, given what he took from both previous managers.
Buck stops
“The only difference for me now, and has been all season, is that the buck stops with me. I am the one who needs to make decisions, to tick all the boxes we need to tick.
“And I would say the experience I had working closely with Eamon and Liam previously stands to me. I always felt a sense of responsibility, even when I was a selector. I felt a shared experience, even though Liam was out front. That carried through when I worked through with Eamon. It’s much the same now, only I am pushed out front now.
“But I am very well supported, very strong characters behind the scene. Declan Fanning is a really good coach. John Madden and Conor Stakelum are selectors, my vintage.
“And what you would have seen in 2010 was a really good mix of the intensity, the high work-rate that Liam would have brought to the table, but twinned to the work Eamon did as coach.
“It was with a very talented bunch of players, let’s acknowledge that. We really opened up the minds of the players to play the game, trust their skill and use space. To take chances and express themselves too.
“That is really what we hope to recapture, that sort of blend of hard work and intensity and yet giving guys plenty of freedom to express themselves. We are still striving to get that balance right. It is difficult to achieve. You are always striving for that.”
There was some mild surprise when Ryan was announced as O’Shea’s successor at the end of 2014, when O’Shea still had a year to go on his term, yet the need and desire to retain some continuity has so far paid off.
“Too much change of personnel, in our experience, and I would have experienced it as a player, is not conductive to building a team or laying the foundations for the future. To be fair, and I acknowledged this at the beginning too, I can’t afford to get it wrong.
“And walk down Thurles any day and you will get plenty of opinion. People wouldn’t be long telling you if you are doing things right or wrong.”
Sunday’s latest showdown with Kilkenny will be the next big reminder of all that. | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/hurling/michael-ryan-says-priority-is-matching-kilkenny-s-intensity-1.2773486?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/7ed70d4e6ef1650d5dab7f9c284316674d5c4adc4f8c7f8fbc97114f16e6a41b.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T14:49:13 | null | 2016-08-30T14:07:00 | Issuance of bond type vehicle peaked at €121bn in 2007 but slumped thereafter | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Ffinancial-services%2Finvestors-shunned-irish-private-placements-in-wake-of-financial-crisis-1.2773051.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773050.1472562451!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Investors shunned Irish private placements in wake of financial crisis | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Irish private placement issuance peaked at €121 billion in 2007 but had slumped to €29 billion by 2014, according to new research published by the Central Bank.
A private placement allows debt to be placed directly with investors without recourse to the public markets, and a re a sub-set of total bond issuance.
Back in 2007, on the cusp of the financial crisis, some €121 billion of these bonds by both Irish and IFSC banks were outstanding and were an important source of wholesale funding. However, by end-2014, the scale of the private placement market had diminished to € 29 billion, with a noted decline in holdings by Irish domestic banks by the end of the period surveyed. By 2014, IFSC banks had more private placement activity on balance sheets than domestic banks, the Central Bank found.
“With the onset of the financial crisis, the downgrading of banks credit ratings, and associated fall in investor condence, made it more dicult to roll-over extant funding and dissipated any appetite for new issuance,” the Central Bank said.
Up to 62 per cent of instruments placed privately were held by other financial sector entities at end-2014, with investment funds and money market funds the prevalent holders. German and French residents are estimated to be the largest euro area holders, but non-euro area holders held more than a quarter of the total, the research found. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/financial-services/investors-shunned-irish-private-placements-in-wake-of-financial-crisis-1.2773051 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/8ac12b0771bae03759d038cb92493eac4d0dca53fcf452e3c1419d443e00fda0.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T18:51:40 | null | 2016-08-29T18:33:00 | This breathless drama about the British queen Victoria is a generic fantasy. You’ve only Downton to blame | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fculture%2Ftv-radio-web%2Fvictoria-review-a-coming-of-age-tale-where-the-age-will-be-named-after-her-1.2772214%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772213.1472492018!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Victoria review: a coming-of-age tale where the age will be named after her | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | When the crown is finally placed on Victoria’s head it is meant to be a defining moment, this new drama insists, yet it’s hard to see it as anything more than a visual gag. There it sits, several bejewelled stories high, and roughly twice the size of its wearer, like a layer cake balanced precariously on a bobble-head doll. Most of ITV’s new lavish historical costume drama, Victoria (UTV, Sunday), is occupied with an 18-year-old monarch’s desire of to be taken seriously, but it’s hard to say if the show shares her conviction.
For a start, if Queen Victoria was as sensitive to monarchical and gender politics as the show suggests, she would be understandably miffed to find herself played by Jenna Coleman. It’s not that Coleman, a recent Doctor Who graduate, is weak in the part. For someone so finely featured she could make porcelain weep, she performs the role with compensatory mettle. This Victoria hardly ever blinks – even, as an early shot suggests, while sleeping – which Coleman uses to suggest something like invincibility. The show, however, will dwell on images of her feet dangling high above the floor when sitting on the throne, have her kneeling beneath her dead father’s portrait to say “I’ll do my best, papa”, and generally treat her like a doll.
To ram the point home, the opening episode of Daisy Goodwin’s eight-episode drama is called Doll 123. We first meet Victoria (Alexandrina to her family) fondling a small poppet with its own crown. This, we learn, is the 123rd of her dolls, and, thus named with appropriate sentiment, it will reappears every time Goodwin is in need of an overladen metaphor: the girl who would be queen. Victoria’s homelife at Kensington Palace is otherwise spelled out with brisk efficiency: her German mother’s eccentricity is one step shy of insanity, and her consort, Sir John Conroy, is so outwardly sinister he makes even Rufus Sewell seem cuddly. All the while the servants divide evenly into youthful idolaters or a wizened underclass constantly on the fiddle.
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Goodwin’s theme is the tussle between youth and experience. When Victoria first meets the powdery panjandrums of the cabinet, her voice gathers in volume as she defends her age and gender, but in the ensuing silence she is all at sea. Sewell, as world-weary prime minister lord Melbourne, slips in to tell her who’s who, like a queen whisperer.
The most preposterous parts of the plot are actually historically accurate. Lady Flora Hastings, a lady-in-waiting, was hounded for a suspected illegitimate pregnancy, but whose distended belly instead pointed to a fatal tumour. Director Tom Vaughan intercuts Lady Flora’s humiliating examination with Victoria’s ethereal coronation, and although there’s nothing subtle about the juxtaposition, this was to land the new queen in a damaging scandal.
Likewise, Victoria’s infatuation with Melbourne is almost risibly breathless (“I wish I could dance with you every night!”; “You are very young!”). The real Victoria’s diaries give besotted descriptions of “Lord M”, so to present him as Mr Darcy to her Elizabeth – forever desired, forever demurring – may be an exaggeration but it’s hardly groundless.
Why, then, does the whole thing feel like such a generic fantasy? In part, it’s because of so much restless manoeuvring between the ballroom and the scullery is slavishly in thrall to the period escapism of Downton Abbey and everything after. But it may owe more to the fact that Britain doesn’t quite know how to feel about its monarchs any more. A German governess urging the palace to economise its wasteful traditions may as well be a nod to the euroscepticism behind Brexit. A more timeless dilemma is do Britons want to adore royals with learned deference, or do they want to poke into their lives with the long lens of speculation.
Here, we get both, with poor Victoria lost somewhere between hagiography and pop-psychologising: a proto-feminist firebrand who wears her daddy issues on her sleeve; a fashionably progressive figure whom the camera treats like a wide-eyed dress-up doll. It’s a coming-of-age tale where the age will actually be named after her, yet in this Victorian drama, from politics to miniature dolls, it seems the queen must be cut down to size. | http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/tv-radio-web/victoria-review-a-coming-of-age-tale-where-the-age-will-be-named-after-her-1.2772214?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/e7cd3ebefff8fe58108214ff3586d74ec8dc43e17324e20832bce75b1bb8f73c.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T22:52:18 | null | 2016-08-30T22:06:00 | Outgoing minister delivers resignation speech laced with criticism of Francois Hollande | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Feurope%2Ffrance-s-emmanuel-macron-quits-paving-way-for-presidential-bid-1.2773637%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773634.1472591198!/image/image.jpg | en | null | France’s Emmanuel Macron quits, paving way for presidential bid | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The most popular member of the French government, 38-year-old Emmanuel Macron, on Tuesday resigned as minister for the economy with the unstated but obvious goal of succeeding president Francois Hollande as head of state.
A former banker who has never been elected to office, Mr Macron – sometimes called the “French JFK” – launched a political movement bearing his own initials, “En Marche!” (“Forward!”) last April.
At his first rally, held provocatively two days before the president’s televised Bastille Day interview, he promised to lead the movement “all the way to victory”.
The finance minister Michel Sapin will take over his economy, industry and digital technology portfolio.
An indictment of the failings of Mr Hollande and prime minister Manuel Valls ran like a subtext through Mr Macron’s departure speech. He regretted having failed to convince colleagues that a profound transformation of the French economy was needed.
“I touched the limits of our political system, which pushes one to last-minute compromises,” he said. “Explanations are rarely given. It plays to people’s fears because it hasn’t built an ideological consensus. It produces flawed solutions and too often ignores reality.”
These factors created “collective impotence”, Mr Macron continued. The physical danger of terrorist attacks has been added to falling living standards and general decline.
‘Immutable’
“There is obviously a security response to this challenge, but the response is also moral and civilisational,” Mr Macron said. “We simply do not have the right to behave as we always have. To think that our political organisation is immutable is the best way to hand the country over to the extremes. This is the reason why I am starting a new stage in my battle, and building a project which will serve the general interest.”
Mr Macron promised to present his “diagnosis” of what ails France by the end of September, followed by proposals for setting it right.
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Mr Macron owes his short but promising political career to Mr Hollande, whose foreign policy address was upstaged by the resignation.
A graduate of the prestigious École Nationale d’Administration, Mr Macron worked for Banque Rothschild, where he earned a €2 million commission on a €9 billion deal between Nestlé and Pfizer.
Mr Hollande appointed Mr Macron as his economic adviser and deputy secretary general of the Elysée, then promoted him to economy minister.
He was credited with the “pact of responsibility” which refunded €40 billion in social charges to businesses. His “Loi Macron” slightly deregulated Sunday trading and coach transport. It sparked so much controversy that it had to be passed by decree.
Mr Macron has captured the imagination of much of the French electorate with his boyish good looks and unusual romance. At age 16, he fell in love with his lycée French teacher, Brigitte Trogneux, a married woman and mother of three who is 20 years his senior and whom he later married. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/france-s-emmanuel-macron-quits-paving-way-for-presidential-bid-1.2773637?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/944923a3852f408c7281c05b40a883e9966752614b0c466fca8fc5fd82f2b837.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T14:51:42 | null | 2016-08-29T13:50:00 | Demand for automobiles lifts spending, paves way for Fed interest rate rise this year | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fus-consumer-spending-rises-in-july-inflation-remains-tame-1.2771947%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771946.1472478961!/image/image.jpg | en | null | US consumer spending rises in July; inflation remains tame | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | US consumer spending increased for a fourth straight month in July amid strong demand for automobiles, pointing to a pickup in economic growth that could allow the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates this year.
The Commerce Department said on Monday that consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of US economic activity, rose 0.3 per cent last month after an upwardly revised 0.5 per cent gain in June.
July’s increase was in line with economists’ expectations. Spending was previously reported to have risen 0.4 per cent in June. When adjusted for inflation, consumer spending also gained 0.3 per cent in July after advancing 0.4 per cent in June.
Consumer spending appears to have retained some of its momentum from the second quarter, when it grew at a 4.4 per cent annual rate, the fastest in nearly two years. That jump helped to mitigate some of the impact of a sharp inventory drop and prolonged business investment downturn.
The economy grew at a lackluster 1.1 per cent growth rate in the second quarter.
July’s consumer spending data added to reports on the goods trade deficit, industrial production, durable goods orders and residential construction that have pointed to an acceleration in economic growth early in the third quarter.
The Atlanta Fed is currently estimating third-quarter GDP growth rising at a 3.4 per cent annual pace.
Consumer spending is being driven by a tightening labour market, which is steadily lifting wages. Rising home values and stock market prices, which are boosting household wealth, are also supporting consumption.
Fed chair Janet Yellen told a gathering of global central bankers on Friday that she believed the case for raising interest rates had been strengthened in recent months by the “solid performance of the labor market and our outlook for economic activity and inflation.”
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Last month, there was little sign of inflation pressures even as consumer spending firmed.
The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, excluding the volatile food and energy components, edged up 0.1 per cent after a similar gain in June.
In the 12 months through July the core PCE increased 1.6 per cent. It has risen by the same margin every month since March. The core PCE is the Fed’s preferred inflation measure and is running below its 2 per cent target.
Consumer spending last month was lifted by a 1.6 per cent surge in purchases of long-lasting manufactured goods such as automobiles. Spending on services rose 0.4 per cent, but outlays on non-durable goods slipped 0.5 per cent.
Personal income increased 0.4 per cent in July after rising 0.3 per cent in June. Wages and salaries advanced 0.5 per cent. Savings rose to $794.7 billion from $776.2 billion in June.
Reuters | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/us-consumer-spending-rises-in-july-inflation-remains-tame-1.2771947?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/3aa5d76bceafce151538dcbe45927189c0248167c018621946cc03dcd322ba8c.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T02:50:26 | null | 2016-08-27T02:30:00 | Baker Patrick Ryan shares the secret of how to get started as a sourdough breadmaker | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Flife-and-style%2Ffood-and-drink%2Fhow-to-make-a-sourdough-starter-1.2768347%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2768343.1472137604!/image/image.jpg | en | null | How to make a sourdough starter | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Day 1 50g wholemeal flour 50g water Place the flour and water into a clean bowl and stir together until fully combined. Cover and leave at room temperature overnight.
Day 2 75g wholemeal flour 75g water To the sourdough starter add 75g wholemeal flour and 75g water. Stir together until fully combined. Cover and leave at room temperature overnight.
Day 3 100g water 100g wholemeal flour Discard 100g of sourdough starter. To the remainder, add the flour mix in the water. Cover and leave overnight
Day 4 100g water 100g wholemeal flour Discard 150g of sourdough starter and to the remainder add the flour and water. Cover and leave overnight. The starter should start to smell pleastantly sour with small bubbles appearing on the surface.
Day 5 150g water 150g strong white flour Discard 200g of sourdough starter. Add the flour to the remainder of the starter, and mix in the water. Cover and leave overnight. The starter should appear active and full of bubbles.
Day 6 200g water 2000g strong white flour The starter should be quite active now and be full of little bubbles and smell slightly sour. Discard 250g of sourdough starter. Add the flour and mix in the water. Cover and leave overnight
Day 7 The starter should now be very active and full of bubbles and is now ready to use.
Maintaining your starter To refresh or feed the sourdough starter, whatever weight of starter you have, add the same weight of flour and the same weight of water. Stir everything together. If the sourdough starter is stored at room temperature it will require to be refreshed/fed every day. For the home baker who you might only bake once a week having to feed/refresh your sourdough starter every day can become quite expensive. Therefore, your starter can be stored in the fridge for up to 10 days and taken out when needed.
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If using the starter from the fridge, take it out of the fridge the day before you plan to bake. This will allow the starter to come to room temperature. The night before you plan to bake, refresh/feed your starter as per the instructions above. Leave the sourdough starter at room temperature overnight. The next morning the starter should be active and full of bubbles and ready to bake with.
Take what you need to make your dough. Feed the remaining starter and return it to the fridge. | http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/food-and-drink/how-to-make-a-sourdough-starter-1.2768347?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/c6816695e20f2986de4a9fcb2e68b09fb0c7654a428d1aa292bd46784852f819.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T08:52:22 | null | 2016-08-30T08:04:00 | Home buyers prepare for autumn selling season by getting pre-approved in the summer; switchers continue to seek out the best deals to save money | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fmortgage-approvals-jump-17-6-in-year-to-july-1.2772851%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772850.1472540686!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Mortgage approvals jump 17.6% in year to July | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | It may still be summer, but that isn’t stopping putative home buyers from seeking mortgage approvals, new figures from the Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) show. In the year to July 2016, the number mortgage approvals jumped by 17.6 per cent to 3,274 , while the value of mortgages approved rose by 28.5 per cent to €659 million. This was the highest volume of mortgage approvals since the series began in January 2011.
There was strong growth in the number of first-time buyers (FTB) seeking approval (+14.7%) and they now account for 48.7 per cent of the total market. Trader uppers reported a similar growth in approvals, and they account for about a third of the mortgage market. While switchers are still a relatively small component of the market (7.5%), approvals for those looking to switch their mortgage soared by 90 per cent in the year to July, albeit above a low base, with just 245 approvals in total during the year.
The figures point to an uptick in mortgage activity since May 2016, after a slow start. Year-to-date (January to July), based on the three-month moving average, show that activity has changed little since 2015, with volumes down 2.6 per cent year-on-year and values up 1.2 per cent, reflecting the increase in the average FTB mortgage approval value.
However Philip O’Sullivan, economist with Investec, is targeting total mortgage drawdowns of € 5.5 billion for 2016, up by 10 per cent on 2015, and says that based on first half drawdowns (€ 2.3bn) and the aforementioned approvals data, “this target looks achievable”.
Mortgage competition
Competition in the mortgage market continues to heat up, with Bank of Ireland announcing on Monday that it is to give home buyers or switchers up to 3 per cent back on the value of their mortgage, if they also have a current account with the bank. This is more than the 2 per cent offered by both Permanent TSB and EBS, although homeowners should also consider the impact of interest rates when making a mortgage decision. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/mortgage-approvals-jump-17-6-in-year-to-july-1.2772851?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/0c3e34e72eb5e9999337b2c2e2dd542b576b6858d6f2aacba30ab6cd2a544446.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T16:51:01 | null | 2016-08-28T17:00:00 | Q&A: Dominic Coyle | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fpersonal-finance%2Fabuse-of-dwelling-house-relief-may-see-changes-to-inheritance-tax-code-1.2763509%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2763508.1472228500!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Abuse of dwelling house relief may see changes to inheritance tax code | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | I was wondering what you think is coming up in the next budget? At present a house is tax free if you’ve inherited it while living in it for a few years, but I read that this is being reviewed. I’d just like your take on this.
Mr J.McJ, email
Answer:
At this remove, it is hard to have any clear sense of what will be in the budget in October, although there has been some fairly clear signalling of an intention to address/reduce the impact of the universal social charge. Ironic really, as it operates more cleanly and transparently than a lot of our tax system.
In any case, the two driving forces shaping the budget will be, first, the Government’s determination to be seen to share some of the benefits of the recovery – especially after the last election showed the presumption of a rising tide lifting all boats was not shared by the electorate. This might be mitigated somewhat by the second influence – the impact of the UK Brexit vote on the Irish economy and the exchequer.
One of the things that has been brought into the mix is the relief you’re talking about – dwelling house relief. I certainly did see some venting in certain media channels on the subject, much of it very exaggerated.
However, it is true to say that the number of families availing of the relief has jumped sharply, and there are concerns in Revenue circles that it is being abused – which it most likely is.
As usual, eagle-eyed tax specialists have been advising their often wealthy clients of the possibility of providing a home for children without any tax implications on. They have been surprisingly open on the subject of such “tax planning”.
Revenue has been clamping down recently on the practice of wealthy parents financially supporting the lifestyles of their adult children. Most recently in the 2014 Finance Act, it tightened up the rules for such support under section 82 of the Capital Acquisitions Tax Act 2003, covering the “support, maintenance and education” of children. The suspicion is that support no longer available under section 82 is now being redirected to dwelling house relief.
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If they have strong grounds to suspect the tax exemption on dwelling houses is being similarly abused, I would expect them to push hard for reform.
Still, the relief is a valuable element of social policy to ensure that family members living with, and often caring for, elderly parents are not effectively forced into homelessness by inheritance tax charges on the death of those parents which forces them to sell the only home they know.
I think, as with the review of section 82, any reform will look to retain the relief for those people who have been genuinely living in the family home for the three years prior to any inheritance with an aged or infirm parent and who subsequently remain in the home (or replacement accommodation) for six years thereafter.
Please send your queries to Dominic Coyle, Q&A, The Irish Times, 24-28 Tara Street, Dublin 2, or email dcoyle@irishtimes.com. This column is a reader service and is not intended to replace professional advice | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/personal-finance/abuse-of-dwelling-house-relief-may-see-changes-to-inheritance-tax-code-1.2763509?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/24a70da6721cb1939b984a3030cf1936c49db0f4da7f3e3d323e72895a0d114e.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T06:53:14 | null | 2016-08-31T06:00:00 | New to the Parish: A German who ended up in Ireland because it was the cheapest available flight is still here five years on. She loves people's friendliness but the health service is a concern | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Flife-and-style%2Fpeople%2Fseeing-a-doctor-is-so-expensive-in-ireland-1.2764762%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2764761.1471883450!/image/image.jpg | en | null | ‘Seeing a doctor is so expensive in Ireland’ | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Amy Gurlitt’s earliest memories are of a household bustling with children speaking foreign languages. She never questioned why her family in a small community in southern Germany offered refuge to children from socially deprived backgrounds and refugees from abroad. There were always at least five children living with the family on Lake Constance, near the border of Switzerland.
“It was a social community founded after the second World War to help orphaned kids grow up in a family environment instead of an orphanage,” she says. “I wasn’t an orphan; I was one of the lucky ones. But my parents decided to go there and help these children.”
The Kinderdorf Pestalozzi children’s village was established in 1946 to provide accommodation for European war orphans in Switzerland. By the time Gurlitt’s family moved into the community in the early 1990s, children from around the world were living in the village.
“The idea behind it was that these kids needed to be in a safe environment,” Gurlitt says. “I remember kids from African countries living with us, and from Kosovo in the 1990s.”
She distinctly remembers when a newborn baby arrived in the village shortly after Gurlitt’s biological sister was born. “The baby had been taken away from her family shortly after birth because her father had a history of child abuse. She came to our home, and my mother nursed her as she was the same age as my sister. They were brought up like twins.”
Twenty years on, Gurlitt is living in Cork city, working for a technology company dedicated to eliminating internet viruses. It’s far from the waters of Lake Constance and the snow-covered Alpine peaks that surrounded her childhood home.
She first came to Ireland in 2011 after completing her university studies in political science and art history. She was determined to improve her language skills, so decided to spend a year abroad in an English-speaking country.
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“It was a very spontaneous decision,” she says. “Me and my best friend got together and said we have to go somewhere, but I was broke, obviously, as I had just paid for my studies.”
The two made a list of the world’s English-speaking countries, including the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Ireland, and began searching for flights. “We checked the cost of flights, and the cheapest one we could find was from Hamburg to Dublin.”
Shearing sheep
They spent 10 days in Dublin “until we were really broke” and then headed west to Co Kerry, where they signed up as Wwoof (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) volunteers on a farm in Kenmare. As Wwoofers, they worked in exchange for food and accommodation.
“Wwoofing is a different, physical type of work that we didn’t actually consider work,” she says. “We spent the winter on a farm in Kenmare working with 150 sheep and chopping firewood.”
The women moved on to continue their organic farming experience at a farm and yoga centre near the Burren. By the time summer came, Gurlitt was tired of the grey Irish grey skies, and moved to Spain to work in a vineyard. However, she was determined to return to Ireland. “We really wanted to get back to Ireland because I guess we just fell in love with it.”
During her first year in Ireland, she met several people in Cork working for big tech companies, such as Apple and Amazon. “I had always had an interest in IT and tech, but didn’t know all the companies had European headquarters in Ireland.”
She applied for a tech support position with Apple and was offered the job. “It was a great job, but the fact that I spoke German was enough. You just had to be able to speak the language and smile, and then you got the job.”
Her friend also began searching for work, but eventually moved back to Germany to continue her studies.
After a stint working for the tech company EMC and another technology group, Solar Winds, Gurlitt was contacted by a recruiter who tried to convince her to interview for a job at a company called Malwarebytes. “This external recruiter was very sneaky and called up pretending to be a customer and asked for me. I let him speak because he’d gone to all this effort.”
The position on offer fit her area of interest, and she felt the company’s core values reflected the values she considers most important in her own life. “My own personal values include fairness, honesty and transparency, but it’s also about how I want to live as a human being on this planet. I guess I want to be a Jedi – I want to be on the good side of the power.”
Heart condition
When Gurlitt first arrived in Ireland she assumed she would return to Germany after a couple of years. However, five years later she feels very comfortable in her Irish home. Her mother has begun dropping hints about job and study opportunities in Germany in the hope of coaxing her daughter back home. “She tries to be careful not to push me, but says things like ‘Haven’t you thought about looking for jobs here?’ I miss her too, but this company is great.”
Gurlitt suffers from a heart condition and admits that the cost of healthcare in Ireland can be a huge challenge when you need regular health checks. “I have to see the doctor a lot, but it’s so expensive here. Even though I get basic health insurance from work, I still have to pay a lot. My mum keeps saying the health system in Germany is great, and whenever I get really sick I think to myself, I wouldn’t have all this trouble if I was in Germany. But in the end I think it’s worth it. I’m still alive.”
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She finds the nation’s friendly demeanour a welcome change to the frowns she often experienced in shops and restaurants in Germany. “For me, it’s the mentality of the people here, like when you thank the bus driver. How nice is that? It’s a small thing, but it’s such a big gesture.”
We would like to hear from people who have moved to Ireland in the past five years. To get involved, email newtotheparish@irishtimes.com. @newtotheparish | http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/seeing-a-doctor-is-so-expensive-in-ireland-1.2764762?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/e9566f457b850a49b78a7d1f9c692ce9ea7aa4a3f8993fa1185f51e17033bcb3.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T00:52:23 | null | 2016-08-31T01:05:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fopinion%2Fletters%2Fmedia-bias-and-the-eighth-amendment-1.2773382%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/assets/images/favicons/irishtimes.png | en | null | Media bias and the Eighth Amendment | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Sir, – I am certain that if the Sydney Rose had opposed repeal of the Eighth Amendment, it would not have generated anything like the publicity she received. There is no doubt that there are double standards in the media, as referred to in Breda O’Brien’s excellent article (“Rose’s comment on ‘Eighth’ blurs lines of light entertainment”, Opinion & Analysis, August 27th), and it amazes me that it is allowed to continue with very little criticism from the great and good in our society.
Of course, with this bias it is rather difficult to have opposing views aired. Is that what we want in our democracy? Do we want facts presented in a balanced and fair way or are most of us content when this bias reflects our own views? A respected media would surely wish to encourage the former. Otherwise we are on a slippery slope of campaigning for changes to our society without consideration of the common good based on facts and evidence.
This dangerous strategy is becoming apparent in the generous donations from George Soros, and others, to promote abortion legislation here. Our mothers and babies deserve no less than the equal protection afforded them under the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution. – Yours, etc,
MARY STEWART,
Ardeskin, Donegal. | http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/media-bias-and-the-eighth-amendment-1.2773382?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/b8b61970d5de49e4460ea26f01bd0797dc65a5c2fa61e6539dd3b371639fbbd0.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T04:48:53 | null | 2016-08-30T05:35:00 | User data will be shared with Facebook but most of us won’t do anything about it | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fmedia-and-marketing%2Fwhatsapp-changes-the-rules-and-hopes-for-opt-out-inertia-1.2771975.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771962.1472477216!/image/image.jpg | en | null | WhatsApp changes the rules and hopes for opt-out inertia | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | As corporate statements in this digital-first data hungry advertising environment go, WhatsApp’s reassuringly smug media primer, “remember, when advertising is involved, you the user are the end product”, was always likely to come back to bite.
Published by the free messaging app in 2012 in a blog post entitled “Why we don’t sell ads”, its advertising-free “hey we won’t sell out to the man” ambitions were lofty. And then, last Thursday, WhatsApp users learned there is no such thing as a free phone call: the company announced it is to share user data with its parent company, Facebook.
In a change to its terms and conditions WhatsApp quietly told its billion-plus users they have just 30 days to opt out before their phone numbers, online status and other information such as, for example, their software choice, will be handed over to Facebook. The social network with its 1.7 billion users, which has long been trying to winkle phone number and address books out of its own users, will then use WhatsApp numbers to improve its “friend suggestions” – which might sound vaguely friendly but more importantly it’s to offer better targeting to its advertising.
The new terms and conditions invite users to “Share my WhatsApp account information with Facebook to improve my Facebook ads and products experiences”.
WhatsApp, which has been admirably uncluttered in terms of advertising, says the change will not mean that banner ads will be appearing on its platform – so technically it will still not carry advertising – but that the “move will explore ways for you to communicate with businesses that matter to you”, a curious inversion of the dynamic of what happens in the real world of marketing communications where it’s not so much you that sets out to communicate with businesses but vice versa.
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Encrypted
The messages sent by WhatsApp users will still be encrypted end-to-end, meaning neither social media giants will be reading them so there is, so far anyway, no chance that the contents of a message might be data-mined and targeted by advertisers: that WhatsApp message you had with your friend wondering about the best drill to buy won’t result in a bombardment of ads for home improvement gadgets on your Facebook feed.
The new change, though, will permit business accounts who currently communicate through SMS, such as airlines advising of delayed flight or banks notifying of large withdrawals to communicate via WhatsApp – a move that users may fear will herald a slow drip, drip of advertising, or spam, into the app.
That Facebook should seek to leverage the WhatsApp user base for advertising purposes is hardly surprising. The company bought the mobile messaging service for $19 billion (€17 billion) in 2014 and while at the time WhatsApp said there would be no significant changes to its terms and conditions that seemed unlikely given the enormous number of customers and their data it was bringing the table.
While WhatsApp customers can opt out from their information being used for ad targeting by Facebook – by unticking the data sharing box having scrolled down the very many pages of terms and conditions – they will not be able to stop their data being shared by WhatsApp to its owner Facebook.
Bone of contention
The fact that users have to actively opt out (as opposed to the more transparent consumer-friendly opt-in mode) is already a bone of contention as are the obvious data protection issues that arise with such a transfer of personal information – suddenly WhatsApp which publicly prided itself on its emphasis on privacy doesn’t seem so private anymore.
With 25 days to go, it is difficult to gauge how many WhatsApp users will seek to limit the use of their data by Facebook for advertising purposes by opting out, or how many will delete the free app and change over to one of its competitors such as Telegram. Or, as is most likely, will passively accept that as Facebook has so much information on them anyway, it may as well have their numbers.
Last year, media planning agency MediaVest in a survey of 1,000 Irish online users found that while a vast majority said they were concerned about privacy issues in the online space, only 15 per cent could be bothered to even read the terms and conditions. Inertia is the advertiser’s friend. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/whatsapp-changes-the-rules-and-hopes-for-opt-out-inertia-1.2771975 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/76f83c76bbcd8f9a74b871c6e417ed3d2c7368dd4380a036f35796961fb118ae.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T14:50:18 | null | 2016-08-27T14:00:00 | Results of ‘Census of the Heart’ suggests an Irish reluctance to engage in self-love | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Flife-and-style%2Fhealth-family%2Fparenting%2Fwhy-don-t-irish-people-love-themselves-1.2766656%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2766627.1472214558!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Why don’t Irish people love themselves? | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | ‘He is very full of himself,” is one of those Irish phrases that must be quite baffling to everybody else. I had seen it as a relic of a past in which to think too much of yourself was frowned upon.
If you are full of yourself, you have high self-esteem and you know it. Everybody else knows it too. They see you acting out of that high self-esteem and they become wary.
As I said, I thought that was a relic of the past. But a recent survey called “The Census of the Heart” made me wonder.
It was conducted by an organisation called the Trailblazery with the aim of looking at “the intimate values, loves, hopes, regrets, fears and dreams” of Irish people in 2016.
They got 11,708 responses, a respectable number, which makes those responses worth looking at. I should mention that the Trailblazery (thetrailblazery.com) describes itself as “an Irish collective who create social experiences that disrupt and evolve our current narratives”.
Its census was designed by Mari Kennedy and Kathy Scott to coincide with the 2016 national census. I found it interesting that while three-quarters of the respondents were proud to call Ireland home and more than 80 per cent said they felt loved, only 61 per cent said that they loved themselves.
The gap suggests that the Irish reluctance to engage in self-love is still with us. Having thrown off the shackles of the old society, I wonder if we have replaced it with new shackles: namely expectations about ourselves and about what we ought to be able to do that we cannot actually meet because we are, after all, only human.
The cult of celebrity puts before us fake images of people whose private selves are completely unknown to us until something goes terribly and publicly wrong for them. And because we are given to comparing ourselves to others, we can easily fall short in comparison.
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But it’s not just about celebrity. There is also the idea that we should all be able to do great things and to be incredibly productive because of the technology we have at our disposal. When you’re slogging along not getting things done, it’s very easy to judge yourself harshly.
Another interesting aspect of the census was that in almost all of the positive statements about wellbeing, people who answered the questions in the Irish language scored higher than those who answered in English. For instance, 73 per cent of Irish speakers said they loved themselves. I focused on the English responses because they accounted for 11,484 answers as against 224 in Irish.
But you never know. If you want to feel better about life and yourself, maybe you should be signing up for classes in Irish as winter beckons.
[CROSSHEAD]Breastfeeding[/CROSSHEAD] Turning to a completely different topic, a post on Facebook depicted three women sitting in toilets breastfeeding their babies. “If you can’t stand breastfeeding in public,” the caption read, “just look away, like you do with politics, corruption, war, poverty, environmental destruction or homelessness.”
The post originates in the United States, but this business of women hiding in toilets to breastfeed, away from the disapproving gaze of some, is not confined to the US. A short video on Vimeo with Jake Dypka features British poet Hollie McNish on the same topic and, yes, includes women breastfeeding their babies in toilets. Most men and women, I would imagine, don’t care about public breastfeeding. But those who disapprove are enough to drive these mothers out of sight.
In an age in which an image of breasts on television would pass unnoticed by many and would induce a yawn in many others, it is extraordinary that people can get themselves worked up about a woman breastfeeding discreetly in public.
What an odd attitude for members of an actual species to take to the nurturing of its young. But it is so. Part of the idiocy of human nature. The Hollie McNish video is at bit.ly/mcnishvideo
Padraig O’Morain is accredited by the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. His latest book is Mindfulness for Worriers. His daily mindfulness reminder is free by email.
pomorain@yahoo.com | http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/health-family/parenting/why-don-t-irish-people-love-themselves-1.2766656?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/3718abf1f34f8dc1dad8f172bae3e63e45cbdb364094a2dc1313a598c2f8ed29.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T00:48:52 | null | 2016-08-30T01:00:00 | Probability of September rate hike at 42% with odds for a December move at 65% | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fmarkets%2Fmarkets-fall-on-increased-speculation-of-us-rate-rise-1.2772308.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772303.1472500592!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Markets fall on increased speculation of US rate rise | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | European stocks fell amid growing speculation that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates as soon as next month.The Stoxx Europe 600 Index retreated 0.2 per cent to 343.2 at the close of trading, after slowly paring earlier declines of as much as 0.7 per cent. London was closed due to a bank holiday.
A gauge of carmakers posted the biggest drop, while sliding oil prices dragged energy producers lower. The volume of shares changing hands was 72 per cent lower than the 30-day average as UK markets were closed for a holiday.
Fed vice chairman Stanley Fischer indicated that a tightening is possible at the next review, sending US equities lower.
The probability of a September rate hike has jumped to 42 per cent, with odds for a December move now at 65 per cent. European equities have oscillated between weekly gains and losses all month, with the Stoxx 600 trading in a tight range and struggling to find a direction after a rebound of as much as 12 per cent following the aftermath of Britain’s secession vote.
DUBLIN
The Iseq was up marginally at 6,214, bucking downward trends elsewhere.
Bank of Ireland was down 1 per cent at 18.9 cents on thin trading volumes. Paddy Power Betfair had a tough afternoon, down more than 2 per cent at €110, after results last week highlighted the costs associated with the recent merger.
Dalata, the hotel group run by former Jurys boss Pat McCann, was flat at €4.30.
Insulation maker Kingspan was up 0.5 per cent at €25.51.
Food companies Kerry and Glanbia both enjoyed a good day trading up 1 per cent and 0.5 per cent at €78.83 and €17.40 respectively.
Ryanair was up 1 per cent at €12.11 tracking the general shift in airline stocks.
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CRH was up 1.2 per cent at €30.20 on steady volumes while Smurfit Kappa was down marginally at €22.61.
EUROPE
Germany’s Dax was 0.7 per cent lower, while the blue-chip Euro Stoxx 50 was down 0.4 per cent. Among stocks moving on corporate news today, Alstom climbed 2.9 per cent after winning a contract to design and build new high-speed trains for Amtrak. Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena rose 1.3 per cent after a person with knowledge of the matter said the Italian lender is considering using a debt-for-equity offer as a way to reduce the size of its planned €5 billion rights issue.
NEW YORK
Wall Street snapped a three-day losing streak on Monday as financial stocks rose after Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen said the case for an interest rate hike had strengthened.
Ms Yellen, addressing a gathering of global central bankers on Friday, said the central bank was close to meeting its goals of maximum employment and stable prices, while describing consumer spending as “solid”.
The S&P 500 financial index was trading at its highest level since December 17th, a day after the US central bank raised interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade.
Gains in the sector outperformed the other nine major S&P 500 indexes that were also trading higher. Wells Fargo rose 2.5 per cent and provided the biggest boost to the S&P, while JPMorgan and Bank of America rose about 1.1 per cent. Goldman Sachs’ 1.1 per cent gain made it the top influence and the biggest gainer on the Dow.
Investors will turn their focus to a slew of US data this week before the all-important jobs report on Friday. Among the releases to be scrutinised will be US consumer confidence for August, due on Tuesday, while productivity, manufacturing and construction figures are due on Thursday.
Global factory activity surveys will also be released on Thursday. In commodities, crude prices fell on the back of a rally in the dollar and concerns about growing output after exports from Iraq in August exceeded July levels.
– (Reuters/Bloomberg) | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/markets/markets-fall-on-increased-speculation-of-us-rate-rise-1.2772308 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/345c751a179cd463e558326691747204c310043fd0d9705cff75bb36b5c42766.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T10:53:05 | null | 2016-08-31T10:50:00 | Houston-London flight experienced ‘severe and unexpected turbulence’ | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Ftransport-and-tourism%2F16-in-hospital-after-jet-makes-emergency-landing-at-shannon-1.2774126%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2774125.1472637030!/image/image.jpg | en | null | 16 in hospital after jet makes emergency landing at Shannon | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Fourteen passengers and two crew members were taken to hospital after a transatlantic jet encountered turbulence over the Atlantic on Wednesday morning.
United Airlines flight UA-880 made an emergency landing at Shannon shortly before 6am.
The Boeing 767-300 jet, with 207 passengers and crew of 13 on board, was flying from Houston in the US to London Heathrow.
The jet diverted and landed safely and was met at the terminal by ambulance paramedics.
A total of 14 passengers and two cabin crew were taken to University Hospital Limerick with minor injuries.
The airline has confirmed that it is providing care and support to customers and crew. A spokesman confirmed that the aircraft “experienced severe and unexpected turbulence. We wish these passengers and crew a quick recovery from their injuries.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/transport-and-tourism/16-in-hospital-after-jet-makes-emergency-landing-at-shannon-1.2774126?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/f3469d7b8fa6111ca069a005bc4c2589c281b9a6d3fe385a7e6cabb7f983c996.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T04:52:27 | null | 2016-08-31T04:30:00 | Full-year take-up for office space this year predicted to be 220,000sq m, well ahead of the 10-year average of 180,000sq m | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fcommercial-property%2Freview-shows-strong-demand-for-office-space-in-dublin-1.2772878%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772876.1472546730!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Review shows strong demand for office space in Dublin | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Take-up of space in the Dublin office market for the first half of this year came in at around 100,000sq m – similar to the same period in 2015 – underlining strong levels of occupier demand.
This is according to the latest review from agent HWBC which notes that “real levels of activity on the ground” are not reflected in the take-up figures as over 80,000sq m of space is reserved or at various stages of pre-contract due diligence. As a result HWBC is predicting that full-year take-up for this year will be around 220,000sq m, well ahead of the 10-year average of 180,000sq m.
It says there is 292,000sq m of available office space in the city which gives a vacancy rate of 8 per cent. New completions in 2016 will come in at just 8,100sq m, while 330,000sq m of new office space is currently under construction in the central business district.
HWBC says it is “too early to gauge the effect of Brexit on the Dublin office market” but suggests it is reasonable to assume that Dublin could be one of the few beneficiaries of the vote with potential increased FDI from the UK, Europe and the US.
Implications
“There is no real evidence yet of increased inquiries from the UK,” says HWBC’s Paul Scannell , “but we expect this to become more pronounced by year-end, with interest particularly from the financial and professional sectors.
“Any increased interest from companies relocating to Dublin is likely to play out over the next two years as more clarity emerges on the real implications for British business of leaving the EU.
“We expect a number of large multinationals to run the rule over Dublin and other competing markets, such as Paris and Frankfurt, over the next 12 months, so they are ready to press the buttons on a move if required. Some of the larger occupiers may even consider securing options on space under construction to ensure they can secure the required space in the preferred location.”
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HWBC says the lack of central business district space is still putting upward pressure on prime rents which are now at €620 per square metre. Some smaller lettings are being agreed at €645 per square metre, it says, and this rental level will become “established for prime space by the end of the year”.
Larger occupiers seeking new central business district space are now required to commit for a minimum of 15 years term certain as developers take advantage of market conditions and lack of supply. Tenant incentives, like rent-free periods, are also under pressure and are typically at three months for each five-year term. “But larger tenants can still agree attractive packages particularly for early pre-lets,” says Mr Scannell.
Suburbs
As pressure for central business district space intensifies, HWBC notes that activity in the suburbs is “strong” with take-up in Dublin 18 accounting for 11 per cent of the total so far this year.
Sandyford, Central Park and South County Business Park are the most popular locations, with Ardagh choosing Pelham House in the latter location for its new headquarters.
Further out Cherrywood is seeing renewed occupier interest given its competitive rents and access to the Luas, M50 and N11.
Mr Scannell says there are no signs of the market being oversupplied even with 330,000sq m under construction for completion over the next two years and over a third of this space already pre-committed.
“With 300,000sq m plus of identified market demand, we don’t expect supply and demand levels to reach equilibrium until at least the end of 2018.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/commercial-property/review-shows-strong-demand-for-office-space-in-dublin-1.2772878?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/75cfb71d62fc8c91711799851320e797e685154d1866164295cf13cd0528b40a.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T08:52:40 | null | 2016-08-31T08:46:00 | Dubs prove they are a team for the ages - Darragh Ó Sé, Joe Schmidt defers his decision and what to watch out for | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fthe-morning-sports-briefing-1.2774079%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2774078.1472629610!/image/image.jpg | en | null | The Morning Sports Briefing | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Soccer
Ireland play their first game tonight since their Euro 2016 exit - ahead of Monday night’s first World Cup qualifier - but all the focus ahead of this match is on Robbie Keane.
The record Irish goalscorer will bid farewell to international football after the game (against Oman at the Aviva) - and Emmet Malone is concerned about the absence of talent coming through to replace him. “Very, very few of the generation now looking to make that breakthrough have anything like their predecessors’ talent.”
Tennis
Serena Williams has cruised to a 6-3 6-3 victory in her US Open first round match against Ekaterina Makarova. Sixth-seeded Venus had provided the opening act for sister Serena when she outlasted Ukraine’s Kateryna Kozlova 6-2 5-7 6-4. While Andy Murray made it five British players into the US Open second round for the first time since 1987 by cruising past Lukas Rosol in straight sets.
Rugby
Joe Schmidt has deferred his decision on his Ireland future, the Irish head coach will tell the IRFU in two weeks’ time whether he will extend his four-year tenure or return to New Zealand.
GAA
Dublin’s semi-final win over Kerry last Sunday has convinced Darragh Ó Sé that Jim Gavin’s side are a team for the ages -
“I wouldn’t be human if I was able to watch that last 10 minutes of the first half with a cool head. I had a brother down there, I had some of my best friends on the sideline and on the pitch. For them to come up to Croke Park and do what we all hoped and prayed they could do, that was blood-pumping stuff. But in the end, Dublin are a team for the ages.”
Golf
For first time since 1997, there’s only one Irish player on European Ryder Cup team. Yesterday captain Darren Clarke overlooked both Graeme McDowell and Shane Lowry as he named his three captain’s “wild cards” as Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer and Thomas Pieters.
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What to watch out for
Novak Djokovic and Rafa Nadal are both out in their second round matches this afternoon, on day three of the US Open in New York.
Eurosport, 3.30pm-8am
Ireland versus Oman kicks off at the Aviva at 7.45pm.
eir Sport 1 from 7pm | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/the-morning-sports-briefing-1.2774079?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/c8a3c9c2e6c83b11eab271e35f7863a0142bdd495fe15a157b34b00ba0e53b85.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T00:47:44 | null | 2016-08-27T01:00:00 | Iran says it will co-operate with other producers to stabilise markets ahead of energy forum | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fenergy-and-resources%2Foil-rises-on-reports-of-yemen-missiles-hit-saudi-oil-facilities-1.2769629.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769623.1472226998!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Oil rises on reports of Yemen missiles hit Saudi oil facilities | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Oil prices rose about 2 per cent on Friday after reports of Yemeni missiles hitting Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities.
Yemeni forces have fired ballistic missiles at the facilities belonging to the Saudi state oil giant Aramco in the kingdom’s southwest, according to traders citing reports by Iran Press TV and Yemen TV.
Brent crude futures rose 66 cents to $50.33 a barrel in Friday trading, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 72 cents to $48.05 per barrel, a 1.5 percent gain.
Prices were pressured early in the session after Saudi energy minister watered down expectations that the world’s largest producers might agree next month to limit their output.
“We don’t believe any significant intervention in the market is necessary other than to allow the forces of supply and demand to do the work for us,” Saudi Arabian energy minister Khalid Al-Falih told Reuters late on Thursday.
Members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will meet on the sidelines of the International Energy Forum, which groups producers and consumers, in Algeria from September 26th-28th.
Iran said on Friday that it would co-operate with other producers to stabilise oil markets, but added that it expected others to respect its individual rights.
Many observers interpreted that as Tehran saying it would continue to try to regain market share by raising output after the lifting of sanctions against it last January.
“I do not expect the OPEC meeting in September to agree any freeze or affect the oil market in any significant way. This is because it appears key OPEC members remain more concerned about market share,” said Oystein Berentsen, managing director for crude at oil trading firm Strong Petroleum in Singapore.
– (Reuters) | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/energy-and-resources/oil-rises-on-reports-of-yemen-missiles-hit-saudi-oil-facilities-1.2769629 | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/df2f05097a806a5b2411dd85eb1e0a1a2dfabad48c70a33e6f270ed0f751ff03.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:04:53 | null | 2016-08-26T07:34:00 | The Cahills have been farming since in 1902 and exporting cheese for more than 20 years | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fagribusiness-and-food%2Finside-track-helen-cahill-of-cahill-s-farmhouse-cheese-1.2755997.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2755988.1471188603!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Inside Track: Helen Cahill of Cahill’s Farmhouse Cheese | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | What sets your business apart from the competition?
About 70 per cent of our business is export; it’s quite a significant amount. And it’s not just a brand, it’s part of who we are. We are a quality producer and the recipes my mother had, we still use today. There is no cutting corners.
The cornerstone of our business is our provenance. We are farming here since 1902, making a wonderful, quality Irish product with locally-sourced ingredients and it’s that quality which has set us apart.
We came up with the idea of porter cheese which was simply mixing stout into the cheese and also with whiskey. We weren’t just regurgitating ideas, we were innovative.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Working in a small business is a challenge in itself. For me, when I finished my job as a solicitor, which was a very structured office-based job, and came home to work, I had to create my own working day and figure out that path myself. I started attending various food shows. I started to showcase the cheese and meet buyers and build relationships and that was a challenge. I was literally one girl and her cheese.
What has been your biggest success to date?
Exporting as a small Irish business is a wonderful success because you are competing against so many products out there on the market. We have been exporting to the United States now for more than 20 years. This year we will be exporting to more than eight countries as a result of our relationship with Lidl Ireland. We make a number of products for them. But Cahill’s cheese will now be in Austria, Switzerland, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Finland and Spain.
What piece of advice would you give to someone starting a business?
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I met Feargal Quinn one day and he said I will give you three pieces of advice. The first was to crown your customer; keep them at the centre of your thoughts. The second – and every day you do this – you appreciate your staff. We have a team of 20 here and I can’t tell you how hard-working and loyal they are. And third, be innovative. We are small and we can make decisions quickly. Innovation has kept us going. It’s advice he gave me and it’s the best advice.
Who do you admire most in business and why?
Feargal Quinn! He was a pioneer in Irish food. I am like a flag flyer for him but I really always admired him. He just treated everyone with such respect and in business had such simple ideas for success. I can see why he has been so successful.
In your experience are banks lending to SMEs?
I think so. But the recession has affected everyone no doubt. We were lucky; we had longstanding relationships with businesses that really stuck by us and we worked through the recession. I think banks are taking more due diligence now and they are more mindful. I would hope that they are more mindful but they are lending money.
What is the biggest mistake you have made in business?
It can be hard for a small business because you are juggling a number of things and sometimes you can drop the ball and miss opportunities. For example, I could go up to a show and meet lots of people and someone will ask you to send samples out to them and follow up, and you will have met 20 people and mightn’t follow up. That has happened to me, I dropped the ball and could have had an opportunity with a buyer that I didn’t follow up on.
What is the most frustrating part of running a small business?
My husband would say the most frustrating thing about being married to someone who runs a small business is that you never ever leave it at work. I am constantly talking about cheese; I am going home and talking about it at the weekends, I am planning things. It’s all-consuming but for people around me I am sure I get quite tiresome. It’s cheese morning, noon and night in my house.
What is your business worth and would you sell it?
We are the second generation running the cheese business. Cheese put me through college. Like a good field, it doesn’t matter what it’s worth because we aren’t going to sell it. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/agribusiness-and-food/inside-track-helen-cahill-of-cahill-s-farmhouse-cheese-1.2755997 | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/3558eab9e6d9d45222f0465c1ef57a82b3a062dc8d705c9982992d8eddfc6da1.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T08:50:28 | null | 2016-08-27T09:30:00 | League of Ireland round-up: Kurtis Byrne gives Bohemians upper hand, Rovers roll on | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fsoccer%2Fnational-league%2Fin-form-karl-sheppard-scores-two-as-cork-ease-past-longford-1.2770722%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2770721.1472286619!/image/image.jpg | en | null | In-form Karl Sheppard scores two as Cork ease past Longford | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Cork City 5 Longford 2
A good start ensured that Cork City achieved their first league win since July 10th as they beat Longford Town for the second time in a week.
Having been comfortable in last week’s FAI Cup tie in Longford, the Rebel Army picked up where they left off as Alan Bennett headed home Kevin O’Connor’s corner in the sixth minute.
Stephen Dooley went close immediately after, Yann Mvita Nkelu with a good block, but City didn’t have to wait long as Dooley played in Seán Maguire, who slotted home.
While home goalkeeper Mark McNulty had to tip over Kealan Dillon’s shot on 18, it was brief respite from the flow of pressure and it was 3-0 just before the half-hour, Maguire with his second from the penalty spot after Bennett was fouled.
Coming up to half-time, Dooley had another chance, showing good pace only to be denied by Ryan Coulter, and Longford gave themselves a glimmer of hope then as Peter McGlynn fired home after good work by Eddie Dsane.
Four minutes after the restart, though, the three-goal lead was restored. Maguire was the creator this time, threading a through-ball for Karl Sheppard, who finished well.
Sheppard could have added more and sub Chiedozie Ogbene went close too. McGlynn did strike for a late Longford consolation, but Sheppard had the final say with his second after Ogbene set him up.
St Patricks’s Athletic 0 Bohemians 1
Kurtis Byrne’s free-kick on 57 minutes gave Bohemians all three points and their second league win of 2016 over Dublin rivals St Patrick’s Athletic.
A crowd of 1,486 saw Bohemians start well and they had a chance to opening the scoring on five minutes. Lorcan Fitzgerald’s free-kick came to Byrne about 10 yards out. He turned and fired but his predatory strike went inches wide.
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St Patrick’s began to see more of the ball after that though it was Byrne for Bohs who had the next chance. That came on 17 minutes when he tested St Patrick’s goalkeeper Conor O’Malley from distance with a neat shot.
St Patrick’s put together a great move on 26 minutes that started promisingly but eventually came to nothing. Mark Timlin and Christy Fagan were involved in the build-up before the ball was played out to Stephen Kinsella who saw his shot pushed away by Bohs goalkeeper Shane Supple.
Bohs’ Paddy Kavanagh had the first chance of the second half on 49 minutes when he took advantage of a Darren Dennehy mistake but fired his shot wide.
Bohs pushed on and looked the more likely of the two teams to score. And that’s what they did on 57 minutes when Byrne’s free-kick zipped past the St Patrick’s wall and into the far bottom corner.
Finn Harps 0 Shamrock Rovers 2
Shamrock Rovers came good in the second half to secure the points against Finn Harps in Ballybofey. Goal-shy Harps have now gone five games without a goal and the demands of life in the top flight are now beginning to bite.
Rovers, though, are still keeping their hopes of European soccer next season alive.
Harps were always playing second fiddle after Rovers went ahead through Sean Boyd in the 53rd minute.
Rovers had rarely threatened before the break but they improved in the second half and broke the deadlock when Boyd blasted past Richard Brush after a good move involving Simon Madden and Brandon Miele.
Harps battled hard to lift their game but in pushing up they invariably left gaps at the back and Rovers looked increasingly menacing on the occasional counter attack.
Rovers goalkeeper Craig Hyland was never under any serious pressure. Boyd then set up Dean Clarke, who added the second from close range on 80 minutes. Rovers could well have got a third as they finished strongly.
Among the spectators in the small crowd was Irish Olympian Chloe Magee, the Irish number one badminton player who hails from Raphoe in Co Donegal. | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/national-league/in-form-karl-sheppard-scores-two-as-cork-ease-past-longford-1.2770722?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/ec36c0643dcd52252283746286bdce5c371c5b87c9ddfcfbef64908abf86e2de.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T12:49:06 | null | 2016-08-30T12:16:00 | Acquisitions and expansion in north America boosts fresh food group | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fagribusiness-and-food%2Frevenues-soar-10-4-at-total-produce-1.2772847.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772978.1472555770!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Revenues soar 10.4% at Total Produce | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Revenues at Total Produce rose 10.4 per cent to €1.9 billion in the first half of the year as the fresh food group got a boost from acquisitions and higher average prices.
In the six months to June 30th, total revenues rose 10.4 per cent, while adjusted EBITA was up 13.2 per cent and adjusted fully diluted earnings per share grew 11.6 per cent. Profit before tax rose 5.8 per cent to €25.6 million.
The fruit distributor spun out of Fyffes said it benefited from acquisitions completed in the period and a circa 5 per cent like-for-like growth in revenue on the back of both volume growth and higher average prices.
A strong operational performance was offset in part by a small negative impact on translation to euro of the results of foreign currency denominated operations.
Expansion
Chairman Carl McCann said the group delivered “a very strong performance” in the first six months of the year as the group continued its expansion in north America in 2016, acquiring 65 per cent of Progressive Produce, a company headquartered in Los Angeles, as well as a number of other investments.
“The group continues to actively pursue further investment opportunities,” Mr McCann said, adding that the interim dividend was up 10 per cent to 0.8096 cent per share.
“The group is now targeting increased full-year earnings at the top end of the previously announced range of 10.50 to 11.50 cent per share.”
On the UK’s decision to leave the EU, Total Produce said while it has “created some macroeconomic uncertainties, it is not expected to have a material impact on the group”.
In a note Davy Stockbrokers said it was a “strong” set of results, adding that the international segment represented “a significant growth opportunity” for the group. It reiterated its “outperform” rating. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/agribusiness-and-food/revenues-soar-10-4-at-total-produce-1.2772847 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/c0f3533c2e98d04563d5a361bd6e4595412eddb777006cbd0718b295c20b69ae.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T18:50:32 | null | 2016-08-26T18:17:00 | Can familiar faces rejuvenate the ageing pop format? | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fculture%2Ftv-radio-web%2Fx-factor-goes-back-to-its-base-instincts-as-louis-walsh-and-sharon-osbourne-return-1.2769717%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769716.1472231765!/image/image.jpg | en | null | X Factor goes back to its base instincts as Louis Walsh and Sharon Osbourne return | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | It turns out that rumours of its death were greatly exaggerated. The X Factor returns to a screen near you on Saturday.
Last year, chesty guru Simon Cowell tried to add pep to the programme’s step and staunch the ratings haemorrhage by booting off the old (sorry Louis Walsh) and bringing in the new (BBC Radio 1’s Nick Grimshaw and pop star Rita Ora).
They joined dark lord Cowell and former girl-bander and serial matrimonialist Cheryl Fernandez-Versini (now just plain Cheryl, which is cheaper at the tattooist) on the panel.
“I was sacked and it was fine,” 64-year-old Mayo man Walsh told the Telegraph this week. Walsh took it like a man, as he had done in 2007 when Cowell had decided to make the show “edgier” and first jettisoned him. It is the Kiltimagh way.
Assuming that Walsh is a Beatles fan, he seems determined that X Factor viewers will discover they still need him now he’s 64. Maybe Cowell has finally accepted that no one watches the X Factor for “edge”. Not when they can get edge by the bucket load as people hurl sponges at the tent wall in the Great British Bake Off.
With the edge-mythology dead and buried, it is high time to ask: what has the X Factor ever done for us? Apart from give us JLS, Alexandra Burke, Leona, One Direction, Little Mix and the dreamy Rylan Clark of course?
Last year, winner Louisa Johnson’s debut single entered the charts at number nine, the lowest-ever winner’s placing. Yes, a worse placing even first X Factor winner, housewife’s choice Steve Brookstein – “a pub singer”, as Walsh described him.
Last year’s edgy make-over went all pear-shaped anyway. Average ratings hit an all-time low of 7.85 million, compared with 14.83 million in 2010.
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So this year, all semblances of getting down and dirty have been abandoned in favour of good old-fashioned family entertainment. After all, no one wants their teenage son knee deep in bump and grind at 8 o’clock on a Saturday evening (unless he’s not sitting next to you on the sofa, of course).
Ironically, Cowell has taken flack from all-comers. From the “she’s hardly wearing anything” brigade to holier-than-thou music aficionados still hooked on vinyl.
Walsh is still defending his master, though. Asked whether Cowell is guilty as charged of destroying music and churning out bland McSingers. Walsh said: “It sells. Simon always knows what will sell.”
He sure does. That is probably why he has done us all a favour by rehiring the imperious Sharon Osbourne and our favourite yoghurt-seller and “hot” former Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger. Now there are two women we can all get behind.
And you can prepare for vitriol. Not just from Queen of Darkness Osbourne but also from Prince Charming Walsh.
Walsh said this week that “Katy Perry, Britney, Kylie don’t have “a lot of talent” and that “J.Lo cannot sing, but she’s still selling out Vegas”. Saucer of X Factor milk for Mr Walsh.
He went on to say ... and write this down, prospective pop stars... that X Factor winners “don’t realise they’re only at the start of their careers. They think: ‘Ooh, I’ve all these Twitter followers, job done’. But it’s not about that, it’s about where you’ll be in two years. Are you prepared to put in the hours?
“You can always spot the professionals,” he told the Telegraph. “Taylor Swift, she knows what she’s doing. Gary Barlow [of Take That] used to say to me: ’They don’t realise it’s hard work, it’s hard to be Gary Barlow’.”
It may also be hard to be Louis Walsh or Sharon Osbourne or Nicole Scherzinger or even Simon Cowell, but they will probably make the X Factor look easy.
After all, this year the pretence has been ended. It really is all about the base instincts of the judges. We always knew it was. Let the games begin.
The X Factor is on TV3 on Saturday at 8pm | http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/tv-radio-web/x-factor-goes-back-to-its-base-instincts-as-louis-walsh-and-sharon-osbourne-return-1.2769717?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/32994ee5a225b9c8fd4a8fe362c5e49addf2da08f9c81efaa389ebb626e5518e.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T00:50:46 | null | 2016-08-28T00:46:00 | World number two Ariya Jutanugarn leads on 17 under | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fgolf%2Fstephanie-meadow-five-shots-off-the-lead-in-canada-1.2770897%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2770895.1472341588!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Stephanie Meadow five shots off the lead in Canada | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Stephanie Meadow is five shots off the lead going into the final round of the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open.
The Jordanstown golfer, who represented Ireland at the Rio Olympics fired, a third-round 69 to leave herself on 12 under.
After starting with two birdies in the first three holes she then bogeyed either side of the turn, before rescuing her round by reeling off three successive boundaries on holes 15, 16 and 17 and keeping her in contention.
World number two Ariya Jutanugarn is the women to beat as she sunk seven birdies and two bogeys in a 67 which leaves her at the summit on 17 under, two strokes ahead of South Korean In Gee Chun.
Sei Young Kim is tied with Meadow on 12 under, with world number one Lydia Ko two shots further back. | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/golf/stephanie-meadow-five-shots-off-the-lead-in-canada-1.2770897?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/d60fb1e86be50240cb55c3aef7c83cb73f9a1d4b535c7f87fa6db347543711d8.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T10:51:57 | null | 2016-08-29T09:48:00 | Manuscripts, photographs, paintings and personal items among the displays in honour of playwright who died in city | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fculture%2Fbooks%2Foscar-wilde-to-be-celebrated-in-paris-at-last-with-major-exhibition-1.2771823%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771822.1472460343!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Oscar Wilde to be celebrated in Paris at last with major exhibition | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Paris will hold its first major exhibition on the life and work of Oscar Wilde next month, co-curated by his grandson.
Wilde, who spoke fluent French, was an ardent Francophile who regularly visited the city, eventually dying there in 1900, having been hounded out of England after his conviction for homosexuality. His tomb, in Paris’s Père Lachaise cemetery, is now a place of pilgrimage.
Yet the centenary of Wilde’s death – aged just 46 – was not celebrated in France, even though London honoured him with two exhibitions in 2000, at the British Library and the Barbican Centre. The Irish novelist, playwright and poet has only now been given full cultural recognition.
Wilde’s grandson Merlin Holland, who lives in France, said: “There has never been a major Paris exhibition on Oscar. Everybody is now saying, ‘well, why not?’ Oscar is going to be plastered all over the Metro and the buses. I think the French are quite surprised that they never thought of doing this before.”
Manuscripts, photographs, paintings and personal effects are among almost 200 exhibits coming from public and private collections worldwide for the exhibition at the Petit Palais. Together they will tell the story of the creator of masterpieces such as The Importance of Being Earnest and The Picture of Dorian Gray.
The exhibition will feature a manuscript of the former and the published copy of that play dedicated to his loyal friend Robert Ross with the words “the mirror of perfect friendship: Robbie”.
There will also be portraits of Constance, Wilde’s wife and the mother of their two sons, and his lover, Lord Alfred “Bosie” Douglas, whose father’s outrage over their affair led to Wilde’s conviction for gross indecency.
An imposing portrait of Wilde – dated to about 1883 – by the American painter Harper Pennington is among the first-ever loans from the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, UCLA, Los Angeles, which boasts one of the world’s greatest Wilde collections.
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Among personal effects is an envelope with a lock of hair from Wilde’s adored younger sister Isola, who died in childhood. Holland, who is lending it, said: “Oscar decorated it himself, aged 13. It finished up in my father’s possession. It must have been with Oscar until his death.”
Wilde was devastated by Isola’s death, later dedicating his poem Requeiscat to her. It includes the lines: “All her bright golden hair/ Tarnished with rust/ She that was young and fair/ Fallen to dust.”
A further coup is a loan from the Palazzo Rosso in Genoa, Italy, of Guido Reni’s San Sebastiano, the Roman soldier martyred for his Christian faith and depicted by the Italian master around 1615 as a beautiful young man whose body is pierced by arrows. It was on a visit to Genoa that Wilde saw the painting, writing of “a lovely brown boy, with crisp clustering hair and red lips, bound by his evil enemies to a tree, and, though pierced by arrows, raising his eyes with divine, impassioned gaze towards the Eternal Beauty of the opening heavens”.
Holland said that its significance lies in that “Sebastian” became part of Wilde’s assumed name in exile – Sebastian Melmoth: “He undoubtedly saw himself by then as the martyred Saint. It will be the first time that this picture – many times copied – has been shown in an exhibition on Wilde.”
The Petit Palais exhibition, titled Oscar Wilde: Insolence Incarnate, runs from September 28th to January 15th. – (Guardian service) | http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/oscar-wilde-to-be-celebrated-in-paris-at-last-with-major-exhibition-1.2771823?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/6f5ea678fece17c99bf414b47cb4a7d811dc3110155e9d4379fc454e09c28c87.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T20:52:14 | null | 2016-08-30T20:27:00 | Merger of world’s biggest potash supplier with rival would result in $30bn business | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fenergy-and-resources%2Fpotashcorp-and-agrium-in-talks-to-combine-and-create-fertiliser-giant-1.2773500%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773497.1472585243!/image/image.jpg | en | null | PotashCorp and Agrium in talks to combine and create fertiliser giant | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | PotashCorp of Saskatchewan, the world’s largest potash supplier, and its rival Agrium are in talks to combine in a deal that could create a near-$30 billion (€27bn) fertiliser giant.
The move comes a year after PotashCorp failed to acquire Germany’s K+S and as the Canadian company continues its efforts to consolidate an industry marred by falling commodity and equity prices.
Although the structure and terms of the deal were unknown, those briefed about the deal said the transaction would be a merger of equals, which suggests that the combination is likely to be all in stock.
‘No decision’
In a short statement PotashCorp warned that “no decision has been made as to whether to proceed with such a combination, no agreement has been reached, and there can be no assurance that any transaction will result from these discussions”.
Shares in PotashCorp, dual-listed in New York and Toronto, were up more than 13 per cent after Bloomberg reported the talks, giving the company a market capitalisation of about $15 billion. Agrium’s stock rose 7 per cent, giving the group an equity value of about $13 billion.
News about a possible deal also lifted the share prices of rival fertiliser producers, such as Mosaic and Intrepid Potash, as a deal might lead to further consolidation in the sector.
Fertiliser companies including PotashCorp and Agrium are struggling with industry overcapacity, although some producers hope a series of mine closures and suspensions over recent years will stabilise the industry.
– (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016) | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/energy-and-resources/potashcorp-and-agrium-in-talks-to-combine-and-create-fertiliser-giant-1.2773500?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/5d7e9fd2826ebdf53d6992cc324f4e2ff14e7acf547ecb3761f0f98f3a80e70a.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T06:51:33 | null | 2016-08-29T06:00:00 | Champions show remarkable composure to overhaul Kerry’s lead in gripping endgame | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fgaelic-games%2Fgaelic-football%2Fdublin-somehow-find-a-way-to-keep-defiant-kingdom-at-bay-1.2771347%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771330.1472416922!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Dublin somehow find a way to keep defiant Kingdom at bay | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Another one for the pantheon. Many more games like this and the Dublin/Kerry nostalgia industry will go out of business, to the disappointment of precisely nobody.
We can wax forever about games of the past but it’s hard to imagine many of them – any of them -– matching this for skill, drama and intensity. Gaelic football’s doom mongers will have to find another dog to kick around for a while.
Dublin are through to their third All-Ireland final in four years on the back of a 0-22 to 2-14 win over a Kerry side who couldn’t have done much more to block their passage.
Éamonn Fitzmaurice has had four years in charge of Kerry and though the 2014 All-Ireland will endure as his finest achievement, arguably the two best displays of his reign have come in defeat to Dublin in All-Ireland semi-finals. We can take it he’d be suitably unimpressed with the compliment.
It’s no faint praise, however, to declare that Kerry have drawn Dublin’s best out of them again here. They blitzed Gavin’s side in the five minutes before half-time and went in to their tea five points ahead.
For context, when Donegal handed Dublin the single championship defeat of the Gavin era in 2014, they only trailed by one at the break. This is not something they’re used to.
Under pressure
Yet time and again, their outstanding characteristic has been the ability to find a response when under pressure.
This makes it 17 league and championship games under Gavin that have been decided by a goal or less – they’ve only lost four of them. For Kerry 2013 and Mayo 2015, see Kerry 2016. Dublin stared into the abyss. The abyss got jumpy and looked the other way.
“I mentioned resolve,” said Gavin afterwards. “It is something they have shown time and time again for me. Any time you are with them, in a game like that when there are so many questions – they were five up and we brought it back. They were up three again, but still, we kept at it.
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“From a Dublin football game plan perspective, we kept doing what we wanted to do. And in particular the players who came on, we were very satisfied with that. There was a lot of emotion obviously in the crowd behind me, and they are in the middle of it. But to be so present when they come into the pitch is very impressive and they are the guys who really saw the game off.”
Further ahead
Dublin led 0-9 to 0-4 after 25 minutes and the only mystery was why they weren’t further ahead. Brian Kelly made a terrific save from Philly McMahon and the normally reliable duo of Bernard Brogan and Diarmuid Connolly had a couple of wayward swings apiece. On a different day, they could have been on hammocks by half-time.
But Kerry came with a plan. They got it back to 0-9 to 0-6 and sprang on Stephen Cluxton’s kick-out after Colm Cooper kicked the sixth point from a free. They pushed up en masse and codded Cluxton into a loose ball out to Davy Byrne before pouncing on the young corner-back for a Darran O’Sullivan goal.
“We’d rehearsed some of the kick-out scenarios alright,” said Fitzmaurice, “and it came off for us alright. That gave us the bit of life and belief that we needed at the time, because we started poorly. Our work-rate was excellent but our skill-set was off. We were taking wrong options, our decision taking wasn’t right. To be fair there was no panic, no one getting too worried. When we got the goal it gave us great lift and we kicked on from there.
“In a game like that, when it’s so frantic, you’re not going to bring everything to the table.
“Our subs made great impact, maybe we could have got a bit more out of them. But look, it was a frantic game, and as I said to the lads inside there, I couldn’t be more proud of them. They’re an incredible bunch, so honest.
“We’re very proud of our football in Kerry, very proud of our jersey, and those fellas really filled us with pride today.”
Dublin were shook, no question. A second Kerry goal came courtesy of a second Cluxton mistake – this time under a high ball that Paul Geaney got a touch on. The interval couldn’t come quick enough.
Bit by bit, they took the game back in the second half, drawing level by the 50th minute.
And then Kerry took it back, twice going three points ahead, the second time in the 62nd. The teams were level in stoppage time and when Dublin went one up, Kerry should have had a free to level it when Peter Crowley got blindsided by Kevin McManamon.
It was a crucial call and one for which replays suggested referee David Gough may have been unsighted. Fitzmaurice pointedly bit his lip afterwards, although when as normally placid a soul as Mikey Sheehy was moved to go after Gough and give him a flea in his ear at the end, you knew what Kerry’s true feelings were. Expect Gough to take his seat alongside Joe McQuillan in the Kerry bogeyman ranks.
It’s all dust now though. Dublin endure, Kerry go home. The rest of us get to yak about it.
And we will. | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/dublin-somehow-find-a-way-to-keep-defiant-kingdom-at-bay-1.2771347?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/d040a9fcc2bc27cab6364f49301298d21109e2fbe47ab369d1dbf99e1e958e3e.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T10:49:11 | null | 2016-08-30T11:18:00 | Latest monthly figures reflect revisions made in recent Quarterly National Household Survey | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Funemployment-remains-unchanged-at-8-3-1.2772932.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772931.1472553219!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Unemployment remains unchanged at 8.3% | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Unemployment was unchanged at 8.3 per cent in August, according to the latest official figures.
The State’s headline rate of unemployment was recently revised up from 7.8 per cent to 8.3 per cent to take account of changes to the labour force.
Nonetheles, the August figures show the number of workers classified as unemployed fell by 1,700 to 181,600 on a monthly basis.
This equated to an annual decrease of 15,400 or 0.8 per cent.
The figures also showed that youth unemployment stood at 17.1 per cent. At the height of the financial crisis in 2012, the jobless rate among 15-24 year olds in the Republic reached 31.3 per cent.
A breakdown of the numbers shows the unemployment for men was 9.5 per cent in August, down from 10.6 per cent a year, while the jobless rate for women was 6.8 per cent, down from 7.4 per cent 12 months ago.
The seasonally adjusted number of males unemployed in August was 113,600, a decrease of 600 on the previous month.
The seasonally adjusted number of females unemployed was 68,000, a decrease of 1,100 when compared to July. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/unemployment-remains-unchanged-at-8-3-1.2772932 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/614866c8ce139649001e5460efe2384c28f67c780d24345c65c5ba5133585070.json |
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