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[] | 2016-08-26T13:07:23 | null | 2016-08-26T11:42:00 | Retail sales data for August reverse much of Brexit fall | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fbritish-economy-escapes-brexit-blow-for-now-1.2769350%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769349.1472208176!/image/image.jpg | en | null | British economy escapes Brexit blow, for now | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Britain’s high streets are heaving with shoppers despite June’s shock vote to leave the EU, big companies have reported few signs of distress and some tabloid newspapers are even talking about a post-Brexit economic boom.
The overwhelming view from economists is that it is too early to know how Britain will cope with years of Brexit uncertainty - but there is a growing belief the country can avoid a recession that only weeks ago was regarded as likely.
On the face of it, the early optimism contrasts with the pre-referendum warning from former prime minister David Cameron that a Brexit vote would put a “bomb under the economy”.
Retail sales in August reversed much of an immediate post-Brexit vote fall, with retailers reporting their strongest sales in six months, industry data showed on Thursday, partly due to a weaker pound attracting overseas buyers. Official figures out last week showed the number of people claiming unemployment benefit fell unexpectedly in July.
Before the June 23rd referendum, the British finance ministry had warned a Brexit vote would mean homeowners facing higher borrowing costs, pushing the economy into a “DIY recession”, and that equity prices were likely to fall. However, nearly half of mortgage borrowers look set to gain from the Bank of England’s interest rate cut on August 4th, while British equity markets have risen. Some British newspapers which supported the Leave campaign have hailed such news. “Remainers were WRONG!” the Daily Express declared earlier this month, adding: “Brexit Britain booms”.
But most economists do not share this jubilance and caution these positive signals may have little bearing on the long-term outlook for the economy, which must contend with years of uncertainty as Britain extricates itself from the EU.
New British prime minister Theresa May has said she will not trigger the EU’s Article 50 this year, to begin formal talks with the bloc to negotiate the terms of Britain’s exit from the EU and its future trading relationship with the bloc. “The fact that the UK avoided an immediate crisis does not tell us much about the future,” said Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg Bank, adding he thought Britain would probably avoid a technical recession - defined as two consecutive quarters of falling economic output.
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Business surveys and some forward-looking indicators of inflation already offer reasons for caution. Price pressures in factories - which feed through into consumer prices - shot higher after the pound’s post-referendum plunge, posing a threat to consumers’ future spending power. Market research firm GfK’s gauge of consumer confidence also fell sharply after the vote. The survey often predicts changes in household spending in the following quarters. A YouGov/CEBR gauge of consumer morale, published on Friday, showed consumers have regained some of the confidence they lost after the referendum, but researchers warned this positive trend could easily change next year.
The outlook for the housing market, the bedrock of British consumer wealth, is also unclear: a Reuters poll on Thursday suggested the Brexit vote will have a negative impact on both prices and turnover.
Charles Goodhart, a former BoE interest-rate setter, said so far there had been almost no data on important areas of the economy such as investment, inventory levels and construction. “I think it would be very dangerous to take a position either that it’s all going to be alright and that the fears were massively overdone, or that the fears were justified,” said Goodhart, a professor at the London School of Economics, said. “The answer is, frankly: we don’t know.”
While the mood among economists remains one of concern, it has brightened across financial markets. Investors were braced for a global economic shock after a vote for Brexit, but the FTSE 100 index of UK blue-chip companies is about 8 percent higher since the referendum, helped by overseas earnings that will benefit from the fall in the value of the pound. The more domestically focused FTSE 250 index of mid-sized companies is up by about 5 per cent. Many big companies have reported little immediate impact from the vote in Britain, including retailers John Lewis and Next, the world’s biggest staffing company Adecco and carmaker BMW.
Some major employers - carmaker Nissan, for example - say their plans for investment in Britain will hinge on the trade deals it strikes with other countries. Martin Sorrell, chief executive of the world’s largest advertising group WPP, said there was little clarity on when Britain would even begin negotiating its EU exit and that his company’s clients were increasingly cautious. “Our own position will depend on what gets negotiated,” he told Reuters.
The pound’s fall since the referendum - it was down almost 15 percent at one point versus the dollar - has benefited some companies; it has boosted manufacturers’ exports, for example. But it also reflects the weaker outlook for the economy. “In essence, the currency markets are saying that all UK assets are worth less than they used to be,” Rupert Pennant-Lea, a former BoE deputy governor, wrote in the Financial Times.
“The British have become poorer than they were before the votes were counted on June 23rd, and that reality will become clearer as the months go by.” But investors, responding to the recent upbeat data, have cut their bets against a weaker pound this week, which has helped lift the currency. Sterling has started to edge higher against major currencies, but it remains around 11 percent lower against the dollar than before the referendum, underscoring how investors see the challenge ahead for Britain’s economy.
Reuters | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/british-economy-escapes-brexit-blow-for-now-1.2769350?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/bcfe1f75a8940ece3652aa408d6002cead9925aab0beb7989ebc137a0a89611d.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T10:53:11 | null | 2016-08-31T11:25:00 | Derby County player who impressed during Euro 2016 - is having a medical at Burnley | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fsoccer%2Fenglish-soccer%2Fjeff-hendrick-is-undergoing-a-medical-at-turf-moor-1.2774171%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2774170.1472639182!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Jeff Hendrick is undergoing a medical at Turf Moor | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Republic of Ireland midfielder Jeff Hendrick is on the verge of a club record transfer to Burnley.
The newly promoted side appear to have beaten off competition from Hull City for the Derby County man’s signature - with Hendrick filmed at Turf Moor on Wednesday morning.
There he is reportedly undergoing a medical - and will complete his move before Wednesday night’s transfer deadline.
The transfer fee is expected to surpass the £8 million (€9.4 million) record figure that Burnley spent on Belgium midfielder Steven Defour earlier this summer.
The 24-year-old Dubliner was a star performer during Ireland’s Euro 2016 campaign - and in his five seasons playing with the Derby first team he has managed 27 goals in 214 games. | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/english-soccer/jeff-hendrick-is-undergoing-a-medical-at-turf-moor-1.2774171?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/f3e36bbf3701d699fd4744cda6d8e215181589884d20d49d8175b71d4476b983.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T16:51:35 | null | 2016-08-29T16:15:00 | Lucrative market on the rise again after falling dramatically following 9/11 | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fireland%2Firish-news%2Fnew-website-to-encourage-japanese-tourists-to-visit-ireland-1.2771987%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771988.1472479279!/image/image.jpg | en | null | New website to encourage Japanese tourists to visit Ireland | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | A new Tourism Ireland Japanese language website has been launched to capitalise on a growing market for Irish tourism.
About 20,000 Japanese tourists visit Ireland every year. It is a small fraction of the nearly 18 million trips taken abroad annually by Japanese tourists.
It makes Japanese the 11th language featured on the Tourism Ireland website at ireland.com.
Tourism Ireland chief executive Niall Gibbons said the Japanese market into Europe is on the rise after a dramatic decline following the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001.
“We had a presence in the market a number of years ago, but we pulled back from it,” he said.
“The numbers had declined to 12,000 in 2010, but are on the rise again Ireland.com has been a very strong portal for us and this gets us into another market.”
Mr Gibbons said the Star Wars franchise and Game of Thrones had help increase Ireland’s profile in Japan.
Skellig Michael features on the front page of the Japanese version of the Tourism Ireland website.
The new portral was launched by Minister for the Diaspora and International Development Joe McHugh at the Chester Beatty Library.
Mr McHugh said the website was part of an attempt to strengthen the Irish presence across Asia.
The Japanese language version of the website can be found atireland.com/ja-jp/. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/new-website-to-encourage-japanese-tourists-to-visit-ireland-1.2771987?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/f586128b54822736f057ea22171b41f46a1d524a7eac7b8f4f018f5480b741cc.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T14:50:34 | null | 2016-08-26T13:53:00 | Stephen Bannon’s enrollment is an apparent violation of Florida’s election law | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Fus%2Ftrump-campaign-chief-registered-to-vote-at-empty-house-1.2769444%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769443.1472217364!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Trump campaign chief registered to vote at empty house | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Donald Trump’s new presidential campaign chief is registered to vote in a key swing state at an empty house where he does not live, in an apparent breach of election laws.
Stephen Bannon, the chief executive of Trump’s election campaign, has an active voter registration at the house in Miami-Dade County, Florida, which is vacant and due to be demolished to make way for a new development.
“I have emptied the property,” Luis Guevara, the owner of the house, which is in the Coconut Grove section of the city, said in an interview. “Nobody lives there … we are going to make a construction there.” Neighbours said the property had been abandoned for several months.
Mr Bannon (62) formerly rented the house for use by his ex-wife, Diane Clohesy, but did not live there himself.
Ms Clohesy, a Tea Party activist, moved out of the house earlier this year and has her own irregular voting registration arrangement. According to public records, Mr Bannon and Ms Clohesy divorced seven years ago.
Mr Bannon previously rented another house for Clohesy in Miami from 2013 to 2015 and assigned his voter registration to the property during that period. But a source with direct knowledge of the rental agreement for this house said Bannon did not live there either, and that Bannon and Clohesy were not in a relationship.
Mr Bannon, Ms Clohesy and Mr Trump’s campaign repeatedly declined to answer detailed questions about Mr Bannon’s voting arrangements.
Jason Miller, a Trump campaign spokesman, eventually said in an email: “Mr Bannon moved to another location in Florida.” Miller declined to answer further questions.
Mr Bannon is executive chairman of the rightwing website Breitbart News, which has for years aggressively claimed that voter fraud is rife among minorities and in Democratic-leaning areas. The allegation has been repeated forcefully on the campaign trail by Trump, who has predicted the election will be “rigged” and warned supporters that victory could be fraudulently “taken away from us”.
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But it is not clear that Mr Bannon is actually entitled to vote in Florida, one of the most important prizes for Mr Trump and Hillary Clinton in their quest for the 270 electoral votes they need to secure the White House in November’s general election.
Details of the apparent breach of election laws by Trump’s campaign chief came as it was revealed that Mr Bannon was once charged with misdemeanour domestic violence after a violent argument with his first wife.
Court documents first obtained by Politico describe how, in 1996, his wife was left with red marks on her neck and wrist after the New Year’s Day argument at their home in Santa Monica, California, which began when she woke early to feed their twin daughters and he “got upset at her for making noise”.
The case was closed after Mr Bannon’s ex-wife failed to appear in court to testify to the accusations. Five months later, she filed to dissolve their marriage. In a police report of the 1996 altercation, she described three or four previous arguments that “became physical”.
Fresh scrutiny
Mr Bannon, who only recently came into the Trump camp in a move to reset the ailing campaign, is now under fresh scrutiny over his right to vote.
Under Florida law, voters must be legal residents of the state and of the county where they register to vote. Guidelines from the Florida department of state say that Florida courts and state authorities have defined legal residency as the place “where a person mentally intends to make his or her permanent residence”.
Wilfully submitting false information on a Florida voter registration - or helping someone to do so - is a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
Election officials in Miami-Dade make clear to prospective voters that they are required to actually live in the county and to use their home address in election paperwork.
“You must reside in Miami-Dade County,” their website states. It adds: “When you register to vote, an actual residence address is required by law.” A county spokeswoman did not respond to questions relating to Mr Bannon’s situation.
Three neighbours said the house where Mr Bannon is currently registered to vote had been abandoned for three months. When the Guardian visited the property on Thursday a large window in the front aspect was missing. A soiled curtain was blowing through it. The driveway was a mess of tree branches and mud.
Mr Bannon never appeared at the house, according to the neighbours. One of them, Joseph Plummer Jr, who lives next door, said Ms Clohesy lived at the house until earlier this year. Asked whether a man of Bannon’s description stayed at the house, Mr Plummer said: “No, that was not that individual, not at all.”
The same arrangement was in place at the previous house in Miami. The $5,500 per month rent was paid via Mr Bannon’s accountants in Beverly Hills, but “he was never there,” according to someone with direct involvement in the rental arrangement, who requested anonymity for fear of repercussions from Mr Bannon.
“In my opinion, he was not living there,” said the source. “He maybe came around twice a year for a couple of days at best, but he did not live there.” The source’s account was supported by another neighbour, who declined to be quoted for publication.
Mr Bannon owns no property in his name in Miami-Dade, according to records held by the office of the county property appraiser. As recently as last week he was reported to be a resident of Laguna Beach in Orange County, California, where, according to public records, he owns a house.
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Breitbart News Daily
From October last year until he joined the Trump campaign this month, Mr Bannon was the lead presenter on the Breitbart News Daily talkshow, which airs seven mornings a week on SiriusXM. A Sirius spokeswoman said Mr Bannon hosted the show live from Washington DC or New York.
Records from the Orange County registrar of voters state that Mr Bannon was registered to vote there from the 1980s until 2014, when he cancelled his registration and began registering in Miami. He had voted in most general elections by mail in California but, according to records, did not vote in the 2012 presidential primary, when eventual nominee Mitt Romney beat candidates including Newt Gingrich, Mr Bannon’s fellow rightwinger and Trump ally.
Mr Bannon also co-owns a condominium in Los Angeles and is known to stay at the so-called “Breitbart embassy”, a luxurious $2.4 million townhouse beside the supreme court in Washington DC, where his website’s staff work from basement offices.
A Bloomberg profile of Mr Bannon published last October, with which he co-operated, stated that Mr Bannon “occupies” the townhouse and described it as being “his”.
But according to records at the DC office of tax and revenue, the Breitbart house is actually owned by Mostafa El-Gindy, an Egyptian businessman and former member of parliament. Mr Gindy has received favourable coverage from Breitbart News, which styles him as a “senior statesman”, without an accompanying disclosure that he is the website’s landlord.
Neither Mr Bannon or Ms Clohesy, his ex-wife, responded to requests for comment for this article.
Acquiring Florida residency is often attractive to outsiders to the state due to Florida’s lack of state income tax. This allows people with a residency to legally avoid paying state income tax on so-called “unearned” income, such as dividends, interests and retirement benefits. Attorneys often advise people seeking Florida residency that it helps to assign their voter registration to a property in the state.
The Guardian | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/us/trump-campaign-chief-registered-to-vote-at-empty-house-1.2769444?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/9340a74433fc6a74392d6b7f0a3d624a3fd7da066890f86543574f5e6e569d40.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T06:49:19 | null | 2016-08-31T05:35:00 | Brokerage poaches Canaccord’s head of European equity capital markets, Piers Coombs | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Ffinancial-services%2Fgoodbody-plots-uk-assault-with-new-investment-banking-unit-1.2773417.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773414.1472578608!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Goodbody plots UK assault with new investment banking unit | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Goodbody Stockbrokers is setting up a new investment banking division as it plots to win more business in the UK, where it has poached a senior executive from financial services group Canaccord Genuity.
The Irish brokerage, led by managing director Roy Barrett, set up a London office last year under a plan to move from being a local Irish broker to a sector specialist. The company has expanded its research coverage in recent years to include overseas companies in the gaming and leisure, construction materials, airlines and financial services sectors.
Its rival, Davy, has engaged in a similar strategy to lower its dependence on the Irish market as a series of companies have moved their main stock market listing to London from Dublin.
Under a plan communicated to staff on Tuesday, Goodbody has decided to merge its corporate finance and capital markets divisions into a new unit, called investment banking. This will be run by two co-heads, Stephen Donovan, currently head of capital markets, and Brian O’Kelly, head of corporate finance.
Goodbody has also hired Piers Coombs, currently head of Canaccord’s European equity capital markets, to take up a leading position by the end of the year in its London office as head of corporate business in the UK.
The appointment, together with the creation of an investment banking unit, is designed to position Goodbody to pitch for UK corporate brokerships and equity capital market mandates in future, Mr Barrett said.
A spokesman for Goodbody confirmed the contents of the email.
Recent transactions under Mr Coombs’ role at Canaccord include a £230 million (€270 million) equity raise by UK gambling software development company Playtech and online payments company Paysafe’s £450 million share sale last year.
Subsidiary
Meanwhile, Finbarr Griffin is set to become the new head of corporate finance at Goodbody. It is understood that Goodbody intends to wind up its incorporated subsidiary, Goodbody Corporate Finance, as the business is subsumed into the group.
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Following the overhaul, the group, which is 51 per cent owned by Kerry-based financial services group Fexco, will comprise three divisions: investment banking, wealth management and asset management.
The move comes a month after Mr Barrett told staff that there was no substance to industry speculation that Goodbody could be taken over by Investec.
Fexco acquired control of Goodbody in January 2011 from AIB, as the bank was selling off non-core assets in the wake of its Government bailout. At the time, Fexco took a 75 per cent stake, leaving staff and management at Goodbody with a 25 per cent holding. Staff and executives at the brokerage have since almost doubled their stake, after reaching incentive targets set at the time of the deal. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/financial-services/goodbody-plots-uk-assault-with-new-investment-banking-unit-1.2773417 | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/014152861083b0308db663e28d7696cad7361fa2cad575600be5215641a1516d.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T14:49:57 | null | 2016-08-26T15:13:00 | Fed boss says case for raising rates bolstered by improving labour market conditions | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fyellen-comments-reinforce-expectations-of-us-rate-hike-1.2769500%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769499.1472221361!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Yellen comments reinforce expectations of US rate hike | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The case for raising US interest rates in the US 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 labor 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.
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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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/yellen-comments-reinforce-expectations-of-us-rate-hike-1.2769500?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/4e76017a20a7373cfd6a5a58c02aaf74f0c4161692522eab5997b5bff41aeda8.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T12:48:46 | null | 2016-08-29T13:34:00 | Restaurant run by Laura Peat and backed by founders of private equity firm FL Partners | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fagribusiness-and-food%2Flosses-widen-at-dublin-restaurant-brookwood-1.2771932.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771931.1472474223!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Losses widen at Dublin restaurant Brookwood | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Brookwood, a popular Dublin steak and seafood restaurant set up by Mulberry Gardens owner Laura Peat and backed by the founders of private equity firm FL Partners, saw accumulated losses widen last year.
Newly filed abridged accounts for PNL Restaurants Limited, the owners of Brookwood, show accumulated losses increased from €172,774 to €232,522 for the 12 months ending December 2015.
The company, whose directors are named as accountant turned restaurateur Laura Peat, and FL Partners founders Neill Hughes and Peter Crowley, had cash at hand of €54,286 at the end of the year, up from €44,791.
It also had net assets of €42,478 as compared to assets of €102,226 a year earlier.
The restaurant employed 22 people with related costs, including wages and salaries, totalling €232,425.
Brookwood opened on Baggot Street in Dublin 2 in 2014.
Ms Peat previously set up Eatery 120 in Ranelagh and Mulberry Gardens in Donnybrook. Mr Crowley and Mr Hughes established FL Partners in 2006. Previous investments have included Racing Post, Sunseeker, UTV, Kaymed and ATA Group. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/agribusiness-and-food/losses-widen-at-dublin-restaurant-brookwood-1.2771932 | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/13c1487de2367dab164722f51ba20643a5e7858edb1e548e6567d9a5337c0651.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T10:51:55 | null | 2016-08-29T09:32:00 | Wu Yingjie gets top job in politically sensitive Himalayan region | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Fasia-pacific%2Fchina-names-new-communist-party-chief-in-tibet-1.2771821%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771820.1472459581!/image/image.jpg | en | null | China names new Communist Party chief in Tibet | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The Chinese Communist leadership has reshuffled senior posts in key regions after its annual closed-door meeting in the seaside town of Beidaihe, putting a new cadre in control in the politically sensitive region of Tibet, as well as Yunnan and Hunan.
Wu Yingjie has been named as Tibet’s next Communist Party secretary, the official Xinhua news agency reported, while his predecessor Chen Quanguo is reportedly on his way to the restive region of Xinjiang in the far west.
Both men belong to the majority Han Chinese ethnic group. In both Tibet and Xinjiang, members of local ethnic groups, the Tibetans and the Uighurs respectively, chafe against rule by the Han.
Mr Wu (59) has been deputy party chief in the Himalayan region since 2011, and has been based there since 1974. He worked on farms and at a power plant there before doing his university degree in the provincial capital Lhasa.
His appointment comes ahead of a key party congress next year, which takes place once every five years, during which President Xi Jinping will further cement his hold on power. It marks the end of his first five-year period in office and the retirement of some of his political rivals from the seven-man Standing Committee of the Politburo. Mr Xi is expected to put his allies into key positions on both the 25-person Politburo and the Standing Committee at the meeting.
Beijing has run Tibet with a firm hand since People’s Liberation Army troops marched into the overwhelmingly Buddhist Himalayan region in 1950.
The Chinese say they were liberating the Tibetan serfs from a theocracy until the god-king Dalai Lama fled into exile in India after a failed uprising in 1959, and they accuse the Dalai Lama of agitating for independence from there.
Tibet has seen sporadic outbreaks of violence and nearly 150 people have set themselves on fire since 2009 in acts of self-immolation to protest rule by Beijing and calling for the return of the Dalai Lama.
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Beijing says it is bringing prosperity to a traditionally impoverished area and rejects claims by Tibetan exile groups of widespread repression.
State media has also been giving high profile of late to public appearances by the 11th Panchen Lama, Gyaltsen Norbu, the second most powerful figure in Tibetan Buddhism.
The Dalai Lama chose a six-year-old child, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, to be the 11th Panchen Lama, after the 10th Panchen Lama died in 1989.
However, Gyaltsen Norbu, who was also six years of age, was imposed by Beijing, and the young Gedhun disappeared and has not been seen since.
Xinhua said that Du Jiahao had replaced Xu Shousheng as secretary of the Hunan party, while Chen Hao had replaced Li Jiheng as party secretary in Yunnan, which borders Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/asia-pacific/china-names-new-communist-party-chief-in-tibet-1.2771821?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/2bef413a933fae49b178b7c0225a8ed6aa7287150b4d990364cb1d96089ba7d6.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T00:52:14 | null | 2016-08-30T01:01:00 | First operation involved 15 people on wooden boat, with a further 452 on eight other vessels | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fireland%2Firish-news%2Fl%25C3%25A9-james-joyce-rescues-617-people-off-libyan-coast-1.2772402%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772400.1472508827!/image/image.jpg | en | null | LÉ James Joyce rescues 617 people off Libyan coast | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The LÉ James Joyce has rescued 617 migrants some 40 nautical miles northeast of Tripoli, Libya.
Yesterday morning the Naval vessel located and rescued 165 people from three separate boats. The first operation involved 15 people on a wooden boat.
All were taken on board LÉ James Joyce, where they were given food, water and medical treatment where required.
In another operation in the afternoon – following a request from the Italian Maritime Rescue Co-Ordination Centre – the LÉ James Joyce rescued 452 people from eight separate vessels in the Mediterranean, bringing the total taken on board yesterday to 617. The ship was later tasked with transferring a further 140 migrants to the MV Assrou.
Tens of thousands of people have taken the dangerous Mediterranean route to Europe. Libya’s borders have become chaotic and porous since dictator Col Muammar Gadafy was ousted and killed in 2011. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/l%C3%A9-james-joyce-rescues-617-people-off-libyan-coast-1.2772402?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/b9236916a13e247641fa2240970937bb758aeb6d7215d10aa5de6f072950c52b.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T06:52:53 | null | 2016-08-31T06:55:00 | Fully occupied office and retail centre expected to attract range of Irish and overseas buyers | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fcommercial-property%2Fswords-plaza-goes-on-market-at-over-14-5m-1.2772958%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772956.1472554197!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Swords Plaza goes on market at over €14.5m | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | An almost fully occupied office and retail centre known as Swords Plaza along Main Street in Swords, Co Dublin, is expected to attract a range of Irish and overseas buyers when it goes on the market today at over €14.5 million through Cushman & Wakefield, previously known as DTZ Sherry FitzGerald.
The investment will show a net initial return of 10.34 per cent after acquisition costs of 4.46 per cent are taken into account.
The freehold complex extends to over 9,409sq m (101,285sq ft) and is producing an annual net operating income of €1,556,000. Around 69 per cent of the revenue is secured against a host of well known national/multinational occupiers including McDonald’s, Smiles Dental, Axa Insurance, ASL Aviation, DHL Express and Seetec Employment & Skills. ASL Aviation contributes €361,000, McDonald’s pays €160,000 while DHL Express contributes €142,000.
Occupancy levels
Occupancy levels in the high profile development are currently at over 97 per cent, according to the selling agent. The centre has a weighted average unexpired lease term of 7.94 years.
Swords Plaza occupies a pivotal location in the centre of Swords town, adjacent to both the Pavilions and Swords Central shopping centres. The plaza was originally developed in 1998 in conjunction with a residential apartment scheme. All the apartments with the exception of two in Archway House have been sold.
Of the building going for sale, 67 per cent is offices while 26 per cent is in retail use. The remaining 7 per cent comprises a double-level basement car park with 315 car spaces and two apartments.
Ciara Horgan of Cushman & Wakefield said Swords Plaza offered investors an opportunity to acquire a well-secured high-yielding commercial investment in one of Dublin’s most popular commuter towns. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/commercial-property/swords-plaza-goes-on-market-at-over-14-5m-1.2772958?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/f538c1b426be628de0c436f40a337dae16b783522b6f20fff7ec26caca7013ef.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T06:49:11 | null | 2016-08-30T05:45:00 | Mayo Renewable Power’s difficulties are problems that could affect many businesses | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fenergy-and-resources%2Fbanks-lacking-expertise-in-lending-to-utilities-1.2772286.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772353.1472506139!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Banks lacking expertise in lending to utilities | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | In the background to the difficulties that Mayo Renewable Power has encountered with finance are problems that could affect many other Irish businesses.
The projects’s US backer, Weichert Enterprises, has provided €90 million of the €180 million required, €10 million more than it originally committed. However, a number of factors conspired to ensure that its three lenders, AIB, Ulster and British bank, Barclays, did not contribute any of the €118 million that they originally signed up to provide.
Barclays pulled out earlier this summer because of the uncertainty surrounding the UK vote to leave the EU. All three banks had to sign off on the company’s decision to change the supplier of a boiler, a key component for its proposed electricity generator in Mayo, and this delayed funding. A lawsuit in the US further compounded its problems.
Commentators say that one of the consequences of the financial crash and subsequent downsizing of the banks eight years ago was the loss of expertise needed to lend to projects such as the renewable power plant that the company is building.
Lending to utilities is a specialised business, normally done by teams within each bank that have built up expertise over a period. As the Irish lenders effectively shut up shop in the closing months of 2007, those teams left, taking their expertise with them.
The banks are only now rebuilding those teams, meaning that big ticket projects, with the potential to deliver real wealth and jobs to the country, could face delays getting finance here, or will have to look abroad.
The consequence of their having to go abroad is, of course, that some of the wealth they create will end up gracing someone else’s balance sheet, instead of being recycled back into the Irish economy, where it belongs. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/energy-and-resources/banks-lacking-expertise-in-lending-to-utilities-1.2772286 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/c554de8797e972c1afa957803a438d3ca1afaf1990f0a0d634618154ef571f76.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T08:49:06 | null | 2016-08-30T08:54:00 | Company has committed to creating 200 jobs by end of 2017 | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Ftechnology%2Frevenue-at-datalex-rises-as-tech-firm-expands-business-1.2772865.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772864.1472543624!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Revenue at Datalex rises as tech firm expands business | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Software firm Datalex said its revenue and earnings grew in the first half of the year as the company continued to grow its business.
The company, which offers digital commerce and retail solutions for the travel industry, said its revenue rose 17 per cent to $24.4 million in the first six months of 2016, with platform revenue up 11 per cent to $11.8 million. Services revenue meanwhile grew by $2.5 million to $11.5 million as it deployed its products to more new customers and added new features for existing customers.
Profit after tax rose to $1.3 million, from $300,000 a year earlier.
Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose by 22 per cent to $4.6 million.
New deals
The company said the growth was driven by the contribution from US airline Jetblue, which went live last year, and a number of new Chinese carriers. During the six month period, the company extended its relationship with the Lufthansa Group of airlines, and began the deployment of its sixth customer in China. It also signed a deal with IBM to develop products in digital commerce and cognitive computing.
Operating costs rose 12 per cent to $23 million, driven mainly by a rise in costs for staff and contractors. Datalex is currently increasing its staff numbers, with plans to create 200 new positions by the end of next year. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/revenue-at-datalex-rises-as-tech-firm-expands-business-1.2772865 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/4549420a246dd49d872083846e10177531fbaddd1c97d2a0f460c9faedf9cd5c.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T06:51:57 | null | 2016-08-30T06:00:00 | Get ahead for the impending chillier weather with these essential trends, from zebra print to shearling | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Flife-and-style%2Ffashion%2Feight-great-trends-for-autumn-1.2765666%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2765665.1471950343!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Eight great trends for autumn | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | There’s no better time to engage in a little sartorial splurging than September. There’s nothing like a new coat or boots to make you feel better about colder weather.
1 Zebra
If you’re looking for an alternative safari-based accent to update your wardrobe, look to zebra. Leopard is a classic go-to, but zebra is a little more left-field and unexpected. This monochromatic colour scheme looks great teamed with vibrant shades.
2 Hard candy
Designers are inviting you to embrace a fresh, pretty palette for autumn, namely rosy pink. It softens up winter clothes but is not as sweet as you might imagine. Wear splashed on a coat or head-to-toe in tonal shades.
3 Velvet
Fabric designers can’t seem to get enough of velvet, the ultimate in plushness. Incorporating it in an unexpected way will make it look modern. Indulge its innate opulence by wearing louche trousers with a button-down shirt or sweatshirt.
4 Florals
At Givenchy, Erdem and Peter Pilotto, ultra-feminine florals are not just for spring. Opt for rich, romantic blooms printed, embroidered or patchworked.
5 Cat’s miaow
Fashion’s feline fixation continues as cheeky graphics of cats pop up everywhere – on shirts, jewellery, bags and jumpers. It’s officially cool to be a cat lady.
6 Baby bell
While the off-the-shoulder top ruled spring, it’s not so practical when it comes to winter. Taking the sartorial lead in the blouse stakes is the bell-sleeve top. With it’s fluid and elongated sleeves, it will look pretty peeking out from under your coat.
7 Shearling
Okay, we know if you wrapped yourself in shearling now, you would undoubtedly pass out from the heat. Come November – even October – however, you’ll be glad of the woolly covering, so get ahead by investing in the coat of the season now.
8 Sew up
Continuing the homespun vibe from spring, needlework covers everything from silky shawls to leather jackets, right down to footwear. Modern folkloric statement boots are easily paired with rolled-up jeans. | http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/fashion/eight-great-trends-for-autumn-1.2765666?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/895367295918e52dcc10303a69e433cf3d20c4b5e950d10205ea4932c566ba83.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T04:50:33 | null | 2016-08-27T05:00:00 | Irish luthiers have gained a worldwide reputation for the quality of their work and their instruments are played by some of the world’s most famous musicians | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fculture%2Fmusic%2Ffrom-ed-sheeran-to-eric-clapton-the-irish-guitarmakers-behind-the-stars-1.2769324%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769318.1472206600!/image/image.jpg | en | null | From Ed Sheeran to Eric Clapton: The Irish guitarmakers behind the stars | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | A great guitar is all about the wood. And a great guitar maker, or luthier, knows how to choose that wood, how to shape it, how to let it breathe, how to let it sing. George Lowden, who has been designing and creating acoustic guitars in Northern Ireland since 1974, is a true connoisseur of timber. He travels the world in search of the highest-quality specimens, from Alpine spruce and African blackwood to sinker redwood, a rare and expensive kind of wood that has been buried in the silt of Californian rivers.
“I have at my disposal the same tools, the same wood as other guitar-makers, but the key thing for me is, how do I use that wood?” says Lowden. “Every model has different specifications. How thick do I make the soundboards, how high do I make the struts, how do I get the balance between structural integrity and tonal responsiveness?”
Walking into the Lowden workshop in Downpatrick, Co Down, the first thing you notice is the sharp, spicy scent of cut timber. On one shelf, ebony finger-boards are slowly drying out, a process that takes many months. Close by, a stack of mahogany neck-blocks are undergoing a similar evolution. The mood in the workshop, with each craftsperson at their own station, is one of quiet but intense concentration. Building each instrument takes between six and eight weeks, and they sell for thousands of pounds, but such is the global renown of the Lowden name, the company is currently back-ordered for a year.
It all began in 1973, when the young George Lowden decided to teach himself to make a guitar. “I just got stuck in, really. It was foolhardy, I didn’t know what to do. All I had was my own mistakes and a little book by an English guitar-maker called John Bailey. I wasn’t conditioned to follow a certain design route, I wasn’t copying anyone else, and I tried things with little chance of working. I was paddling my own canoe, for better or worse. But that helped me learn how to design guitars from scratch.”
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Since making that first model, which he sold for £60, Lowden has established a series of Irish instruments, distinctive in both sound and appearance, which have influenced generations of guitar-makers in the North and beyond.
“There’s something quite unique about the style of Northern Irish guitars,” says 25-year-old Ciaran McNally, an independent luthier based in Moira, Co Down, who spent two years working for Lowden. “They are almost entirely made of wood, there’s very little plastic, the sound is very natural and they tend to have a satin finish, rather than gloss.”
McNally bought his first guitar, an electric one, from a music shop in Lurgan, Co Armagh. “It used to give me a shock when I played it. I had to solder the earth wire to fix it. After that, I started tinkering with guitar-building kits, and soon I wanted to make an acoustic guitar of my own.”
Truly creative
McNally set up his business because he wanted the independence to be truly creative. “I didn’t want to make someone else’s guitars. I wanted the freedom to change constantly, not to be dictated to, never to produce large volumes of instruments, always to keep it a one-man operation.” Whatever he’s doing, it’s working: McNally has been invited to take part in the prestigious Holy Grail Guitar Show in Berlin in October.
Dermot McIlroy, based in Antrim, is another luthier with a worldwide reputation who emerged through the Lowden stable, where he worked as production manager. Like most master guitar-makers, McIlroy never advertises: all his work comes through word of mouth. He says luthiers are the “heart-transplant doctors of the wood-working world ... You have to have the eyes of an eagle, the patience of a saint, the hands of a surgeon. It’s not like making doors or tables. Instead of rulers, we use digital micrometers. For us, precision is everything, there’s no margin for error, because it affects the sound. Eyes, patience, hand – that’s what it’s all about.”
In a small community with a worldwide reputation, it’s inevitable that tensions exist. Avalon Guitars, in Newtownards, Co Down, was formerly the Lowden Guitar Company, before the link with Lowden was broken and they set up on their own. Steve McIlwrath, Avalon’s owner and managing director, says what makes his company stand out from other makers is a particular design feature, the pin bridge: six holes are drilled into the bridge itself, which creates a firmer connection between string and soundboard, thus modifying the tone of the guitar. “Another distinctive thing about Avalon is that while other brands have one designer, we have a group of luthiers,” says McIlwrath. “We used to have an obligation to follow the Lowden design, but now we have a community of gifted luthiers, developing and sharing their own ideas, rather than one king-pin.”
Avalon is also home to the Lagan Lutherie School, run by Ciaran McNally’s teacher, Sam Irwin, which provides an unofficial talent-spotting service for the main workshop.
While there’s a vibrant cluster of luthiers in the North, they certainly don’t have a monopoly on the industry. Michael O’Leary and his son Alec make beautifully crafted classical guitars in Milford, Co Carlow. “It was when Alec was studying guitar in the 1990s that I first thought I’d have a go at making one,” says Michael O’Leary. He travelled to Spain and studied with José Luis Romanillos, one of the great luthiers of the 20th century, and on his return began to create instruments that took the classical Spanish model in surprising new directions. Now the O’Learys have a full order book and a two-year waiting list.
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Holy Grail
Chris Larkin, who lives and works in Castlegregory in Co Kerry is in his fourth decade of guitar-making. Alongside George Lowden and Ciaran McNally, he has also been invited to exhibit at this year’s Holy Grail Guitar Show. It’s clearly a big deal. “Yes, it is. You cannot buy a space there,” he says. “Every luthier, no matter how famous – or infamous – has exactly the same size table.”
Larkin is characteristically modest about his talents. “I started in 1977 because I was dissatisfied with a well-known make of guitar which I’d saved up to buy, so I thought I should stop moaning and do something better. More than 700 guitars later, I’m still trying to do better.”
An active member of the Leonardo Guitar Research Project, whose aim is to promote the use of non-tropical, non-endangered hardwood in guitar making, Larkin is a self-confessed “wood junkie”, and he practises what he preaches. One of his Leonardo guitars boasts a back of Irish lacewood, a cedar top, a neck of maple and Irish walnut, a binding of Irish fiddleback sycamore, a fingerboard of laburnum and an Irish yew rosette. “Not just no tropical hardwoods but mainly Irish hardwoods – how good is that?”
Back in the workshop in Downpatrick, George Lowden reflects on his lifetime quest to make the ideal guitar. “I look at professional players when they start to play my guitars. I watch them, because I want to see if the guitar is responding to them. One time I watched a Chilean player at a competition in Geneva, and he just said to me, ‘when I ask her, she answers’. That’s it. That’s how you know whether you’ve got it right or not.”
From Eric Clapton to Pierre Bensusan: Well-known players of Irish guitars
– As the grandaddy of Northern Irish guitarmakers George Lowden has a long list of famous customers, including Eric Clapton, Ed Sheeran, Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol, Luka Bloom, Pierre Bensusan and Richard Thompson.
– Lowden developed the “Wee Lowden” after he got a call from Lightbody asking him to make a small-bodied guitar as a present for Sheeran. “I went up to the north coast of Northern Ireland, near Bushmills, in 2013, and hid myself away for a week, to work on the design,” he says. “Then Sheeran came here, and he liked it so much he bought several.”
– Avalon Guitars also has an impressive line-up of clients, Bruce Springsteen (below), Van Morrison, the Corrs, Sinéad O’Connor and Bob Geldof among them. “James Morrison has four Avalon guitars, and he recently had all four on stage with him,” says Steve McIlwrath of Avalon. “It’s like an artist with their paintbrushes: you don’t have just one paintbrush, you have many.”
– Among classical concert musicians such as David Russell and Sharon Isbin, O’Leary guitars inspire some serious devotion. Berta Rojas, from Paraguay, is “very taken with hers”, as Michael O’Leary says modestly. Rojas describes her O’Leary guitar as “a supreme instrument, effortless to play, with outstanding projection, balance and sustain, and capable of the most beautiful tones imaginable”. | http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/from-ed-sheeran-to-eric-clapton-the-irish-guitarmakers-behind-the-stars-1.2769324?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/694e173c27c13d358c3cfe5beaa76f060a0f4704b4f13ec23c3b63905c8024b7.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T00:50:25 | null | 2016-08-27T01:07:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fopinion%2Fletters%2Fremembering-peter-barry-1.2769588%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/assets/images/favicons/irishtimes.png | en | null | Remembering Peter Barry | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Sir, – I was sad to read of the death of former tánaiste Peter Barry. Many years ago, I was with him on a byelection canvass. He was a powerful presence on the doors and got a great reception. His integrity shone through as he engaged with voters, and his empathy, knowledge and dignity were an example I have never forgotten. May this great man rest in peace. – Yours, etc,
GEOFF SCARGILL,
Bray,
Co Wicklow. | http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/remembering-peter-barry-1.2769588?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/c32ce74ca1490f5ffc454d10c86bfd61ecf4ff13439623980fb35a108af8d266.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T06:53:24 | null | 2016-08-31T06:00:00 | I opted for a wheel of Cashel Blue as one of the top tiers of my wedding ‘cake’ | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Flife-and-style%2Ffood-and-drink%2Flilly-higgins-when-it-comes-to-cheese-you-can-t-beat-the-blues-1.2764754%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2764753.1471883097!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Lilly Higgins: When it comes to cheese, you can’t beat the blues | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | When I finished my Leaving Cert I went to New York for the summer to work as a nanny. My sister Maeve was nannying in a neighbours’ house, and we had a fantastic summer going between the two houses.
As a 16-year-old coming from rural Ireland to New York, I decided it was best to spend my wages on the finer things in life. My days off were a blur of museums and art galleries fuelled by frothy hazelnut lattes, lightly toasted bagels smothered in cream cheese, and pizza – the best pizza Little Italy could provide.
I always ordered gorgonzola dressing on my salads, its creamy saltiness covering each inch of iceberg lettuce. Only recently I’ve started to make my own blue-cheese dressing. It can go on anything and everything. It’s fantastic to have at barbecues and will keep in the fridge for up to a week.
For this recipe I simply drizzle it over wedges of fresh baby gem lettuce and some crispy salami. It’s an easy starter or light lunch. I usually make this dressing in the Nutribullet, which leaves it nice and smooth. You can then crumble over some extra blue cheese for texture and taste. It’s the perfect dressing to have as a dip with crunchy vegetables or to serve with steak.
I opted for a wheel of Cashel Blue as one of the top tiers of my wedding “cake”. For a few years now “cheese cakes” have been served at weddings as an alternative to the typical sugar, flour and butter-based confections. I felt that huge wheels of cheese stacked on top of one another was a much more useful thing to have once it struck midnight after the wedding feast.
All that’s needed is a great selection of crackers, some quince paste, preserves such as chutney and some fruit. It really looks the part, too, and is a great talking point. I got my cheeses from On the Pig’s Back in the English Market in Cork.
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Cheesemongers have incredible patience. They choose, unwrap, carefully shave off thin slices of cheese, then wait as the customer decides which one they prefer. When it came to picking cheese myself, I loved each and every one I tried.
It was great to be able to take the time to try some out, as I usually end up buying the same cheeses each week. I finally chose a sturdy base of Gubbeen, topped with organic Oisín Gouda and an Oisín Goat’s Brie, topped with the Cashel Blue round and then a gorgeous little raw sheep’s cheese, Corleggy.
There can never be enough leftovers when it comes to cheese. It’s so versatile. It provided the perfect hassle-free brunch the following day with crusty bread and home-cooked ham. It’s a fantastic way to celebrate and showcase the amazing array of farmhouse cheeses being made in Ireland.
LITTLE GEM WITH BLUE CHEESE DRESSING: SERVES 4
Ingredients
50g Cashel Blue cheese
Juice of ½ lemon
1tbs yogurt
30g salami
2 little gem lettuce
Method
Mash the blue cheese with the lemon juice and yogurt until smooth, adding a few sprigs of chives, finely snipped. You can use a fork to mash, or else a stick blender or Nutribullet. Taste for seasoning. You won’t need salt, as the cheese is salty enough. Add more yogurt or lemon juice to taste.
Thinly slice the salami and fry until crispy. Leave to cool slightly on paper towels. Quarter the lettuce and place two pieces on to each plate. Crumble over the crispy salami. Drizzle with the dressing and serve right away. | http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/food-and-drink/lilly-higgins-when-it-comes-to-cheese-you-can-t-beat-the-blues-1.2764754?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/6327d812104da386c405fbafd4b2f4361aaed7728382888d3f80742fe66058dd.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T16:50:15 | null | 2016-08-26T16:30:00 | South African Richard Sterne sets clubhouse target at Himmerland Golf and Spa Resort | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fgolf%2Fshane-lowry-is-back-in-wild-card-race-after-second-round-65-in-denmark-1.2769599%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769602.1472227552!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Shane Lowry is back in wild card race after second round 65 in Denmark | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Richard Sterne set the clubhouse target as increased winds made scoring more difficult on day two of the Made in Denmark.
Joakim Lagergren, Thomas Pieters and Tom Lewis had all equalled the course record on Thursday with rounds of 62 but they began to move backwards in their second rounds as Sterne moved through the field.
After a disappointing first round of 75 left him in serious danger of failing to make the cut - Shane Lowry bounced back on Friday with a six-under-par 65. Teeing off on the back nine the Irishman hit three birdies on the 13th, 16th and 17th holes - his only blemish being a bogey on the par 4 15th. He then birdied four of his last six holes and will take great confidence heading into Saturday’s third round..
With Europe Ryder Cup captain Darren Clarke set to name his three wildcard picks next Tuesday, Lowry needs to contend this weekend, and Friday’s round puts him back in the race to do exactly that.
Meanwhile the South African, Sterne, fired a 67 to get to the overnight lead of nine under, two shots behind Welshman Bradley Dredge who picked up three shots in his opening six holes.
Dredge finished runner-up here in 2014 and finished sixth last year, and he picked up shots on the second, fifth and sixth.
England’s Lewis shot a one over par 72 to sit at eight under alongside Spaniard Adrian Otaegui and Swede Lagergren, who had a single bogey and seven pars in his first eight holes.
Oliver Wilson shared the low round of the day with a 65 to sit at seven under with local favourites Søren Kjeldsen and Jeff Winther, and South African Thomas Aiken, who all signed for 67s.
Belgian Pieters - playing alongside Ryder Cup captain Darren Clarke as he seeks a pick for Hazeltine - was also at seven under with two bogeys in his first five holes.
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Sterne is a six-time European Tour winner but has been plagued with back problems for spells of his career and is playing this week on a medical exemption.
When fit he is a formidable competitor - having last won in 2013 - and showed plenty of class as he raced up the leaderboard with two birdies and an eagle in his first six holes.
Bogeys came on the seventh and tenth but further gains on the 15th and 16th saw him moving in the right direction again.
Lewis had also made an early move with birdies on the third and sixth but he would go on to record four bogeys with just a single further gain on the 15th.
Otaegui eagled the sixth for the second consecutive day, adding four birdies and a bogey in a 66, and there were plenty of eagles to be had in the morning session.
Winther holed a wedge from 38 yards on the par four 14th and found the green in two on the sixth for two big birds while Kjeldsen, who parred his first 11 holes, went birdie-par-birdie-eagle from the fourth - a wonderful second shot setting up his move on the sixth.
Wilson was blemish-free with six birdies on the fourth, fifth, sixth, tenth, 14th and 16th, while Aiken also had six gains to go with two dropped shots. | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/golf/shane-lowry-is-back-in-wild-card-race-after-second-round-65-in-denmark-1.2769599?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/c7615246bf11af5a1354472748b117a751bc8cbab38c4e66ca72ad40634856c2.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T12:55:27 | null | 2016-08-26T06:25:00 | Employees can be cynical about a ‘day out’ for staff but it can help if done properly | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fwork%2Fhow-playing-games-can-really-help-to-build-teams-1.2765779%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2765774.1471961492!/image/image.jpg | en | null | How playing games can really help to build teams | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The opportunity to pelt an irritating co-worker with paint might seem like the answer to a prayer. But paintball, a military-style game in which participants shoot paint-filled guns at each other for fun, can turn nasty and end up polarising the teams it was supposed to unite.
Opinion is divided between those who say that activity training adds little to the bottom line and those who believe it makes a contribution even if that contribution is difficult to quantify. And there’s the rub. It has proven very difficult to establish if employees make the connection between an activity and their job, if they bring the learning back to their workplace and if they can apply it in different circumstances.
What seems clear from sifting through the arguments on both sides is that activity training is more likely to work when there is clarity around why a company is doing it. There is absolutely nothing wrong with treating employees to a fun day out as a reward for achieving certain targets or to boost morale after a major restructuring, for example, but don’t confuse socialising with team-building.
Assuming there’s an underlying strategic objective to the “day out,” then it is likely to be most successful if the activities are “real” and related to key business areas such as defining strategy or improving process or accountability. Reality matters because adults generally learn best by engaging with relevant tasks.
Groundbreaking theory
In 1984 University of Leicester academic David Kolb published his groundbreaking theory on experiential learning. At the heart of the so-called Kolb cycle is the concept that for an individual or a team to learn effectively they must “do” rather than be passive receptors. Activities such as problem-solving and team games facilitate learning that is far more likely to be used on the job.
Activities must also suit the teams they’re aimed at. The adrenalin rush of whitewater rafting may appeal to the confident, outgoing types typically found on sales teams, but could be highly divisive for more reflective groups.
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“You have to be careful with the exercises chosen as it’s not in anyone’s interest for people to fall flat on their faces or feel diminished by the process,” says Patrick Flood, professor of organisational behaviour at DCU Business School.
“It’s also important to work with an experienced facilitator, ideally someone specialised in team dynamics, to ensure you ‘can bring people back’ during a debrief after the event. There is always the potential for major bust-ups, especially within management teams, as people at senior level are often individualistic, highly motivated and tend towards rivalry. Do you really want this to spill over in front of a general audience?”
Flood, who is also co-director of the Leadership and Talent Institute, has experienced activity-based team-building first hand.
“I’ve been on a high wire between trees where you are totally dependent on the people below. When you get to the other side in safety, the beneficial impact on trust levels is enormous and this can be used to foster alignment – always one of the most difficult things to achieve – within a team,” he says.
Flood says activity teambuilding can also show up strengths in employees that managers were not aware of.
“It’s about recognising the skills and leadership in others and using it,” he says. “You will always get some who are reluctant to participate, but if there is a genuine commitment at the top, most people will row in.”
Pulling together
Sarah Anderson is service coordinator at the Cheshire Ireland facility in Shillelagh, Co Wicklow . Earlier this year she arranged an activity day for the 80-strong staff.
“The facility had been through a lot of upheaval with changes in personnel and the stress of a Hiqa audit so the objective was to break down barriers and say thanks to everyone for pulling together,” she says.
“We included all staff but there was an option not to participate. A small number availed of it, but I think some regretted their decision afterwards, as it was a great day. People are already asking when are we doing it again.
“For us it definitely achieved the objective of people getting to know each other and appreciating that everyone who works here makes an equally important contribution to the quality of the service we provide.”
Joe Hayden set up The Orchard activity centre in 1999 to run conferences and corporate training events for Irish and international clients on a 300-acre site in Co Wicklow. Domestic sales took a hard knock during the recession, but Hayden says local business is now picking up dramatically and The Orchard is on course for a 40 per cent growth in bookings this year.
“What we’re seeing is a big demand from Irish companies that downsized during the recession for help with building new, cohesive teams from those who remained,” he says. “Companies also want help with energising and motivating these teams and we build our activities around achieving these objectives.
“Companies either come here or we travel to them and fit an activity around a conference or other event. What we’re doing is serious in nature, but we also try to inject humour into the programme. Setting teams the challenge of rounding up wild Wicklow sheep on a hillside without the help of a dog is a great ice-breaker.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/work/how-playing-games-can-really-help-to-build-teams-1.2765779?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/71c2ffa0f169c4b7a64cf385765238ec84ece4c6534d2290f97ce45ad597a352.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T18:52:27 | null | 2016-08-30T19:27:00 | Gardaí say they will scrap fees for documents in cases where there has been a fatality | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fireland%2Firish-news%2Fbereaved-families-will-no-longer-have-to-pay-for-crash-reports-1.2773449%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773447.1472581667!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Bereaved families will no longer have to pay for crash reports | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Bereaved families of road crash victims will no longer have to pay for accident reports from the start of next year, gardaí have announced.
Following a review carried out after representations to Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan, all fees will be scrapped from January 1st in cases where there has been a fatality.
The announcement has been welcomed by an organisation campaigning on behalf of families whose relatives have been killed on the roads.
Susan Gray, the chairperson of Promoting Awareness, Responsibility and Care on our Roads (Parc), said she was “absolutely delighted” that their eight-year campaign to end the fees had been successful.
At present, bereaved families have to pay €60 for the Garda abstract report on a crash and €40 for each witness statement.
In the case of the Donegal families who were left bereaved as a result of a crash which killed eight people on July 11th, 2010, there were 250 witness statements.
This would have meant each family would have had to pay €10,000 to procure copies of all of these documents from gardaí.
Ms Gray said the Donegal case was the “best example of just how cruel it was” to charge grieving families for documentation relating to crashes.
“These fees are unjust and insensitive.”
She thanked Ms O’Sullivan for implementing the changes following their lobbying campaign.
“We are grateful to the Garda Commissioner for the opportunity to meet with her and her senior officials recently along with the bereaved to explain the pain and difficulties that families have to journey through,” she said.
“We are grateful for her time and empathy and her decision to remove these fees. Parc is happy that the Commissioner has opted for a compassionate approach to this issue.
”We thank all those individuals who supported our campaign and stayed with us in our efforts through thick and thin over the past eight years.”
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Charges
In 2014, relatives of crash victims were charged €778,000 in total for crash reports, up from €709,000 in 2013.
In a statement, An Garda Síochána said it will be waving all fees where there has been a road fatality.
In cases of collisions resulting in a serious injury, fees will be capped at a maximum cost of €1,000.
In the case of criminal proceedings or prior to an inquest, a form containing “appropriate information” on the crash will be supplied free of charge. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/bereaved-families-will-no-longer-have-to-pay-for-crash-reports-1.2773449?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/cf2a4861f4ae10e4ec2955e26dbcb9c351aa1aded16c4db216f55264f1d0e354.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:03:02 | null | 2016-08-26T12:00:00 | Interim results ahead of expectations, mainly due to strength of US acquisition IPL | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fmanufacturing%2Fplastics-company-one51-first-half-profits-jump-37-to-11-3m-1.2769229.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769228.1472215120!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Plastics company One51 first-half profits jump 37% to €11.3m | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Plastics manufacturer and waste manager One51 has reported a 51 per cent increase in group revenue to €214.6 million for the first-half of the year.
Earnings (Ebitda) grew by 105 per cent to €27.2 million during the six months ended June 30, while pre-tax profit climbed 37 per cent to €11.3 million.
The profit for the period after tax and exceptional items amounted to €8.9 million.
Net debt increased since December 31st 2015 by €26.5 million to €146.8 million at period end.
One51 group chief executive Alan Walsh said the second half of the year started satisfactorily across all divisions with a number of significant capital investment projects undertaken in the first half of the year now coming into production.
He said the interim results were ahead of expectations, in large part due to the strong performance of IPL, the North-American acquisition made in July 2015.
“We have successfully integrated the transformative IPL acquisition into our plastics division. That business, which has performed ahead of expectation since acquisition, delivered very strong results during the first half of the year.”
However, he said UK earnings were adversely affected by the fall in the value of sterling in the wake of Brexit.
“Other potential impacts of Brexit are difficult to assess currently but should become clearer in the second half of the year.”
Revenues increased by 43 per cent to €25.3 million at One 51’s specialist environmental services division, ClearCircle, primarily as a result of an increase in project related work in Ireland and a contribution from the acquisitions in the UK. Ebitda increased by 42 per cent to €2.7 million.
Plastics and waste
One51 makes wheelie bins and other plastic products, manages hazardous waste and holds a number of investments.
One51 revenues jumped 32.4 per cent to €366 million last year, while Ebitda jumped by 67 per cent to €36.1 million.
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In April, One51 was forced to pull plans for a stockmarket flotation after objections from some of its major shareholders. Among those believed to have objected were Dermot Desmond’s IIU, which owns around 23 per cent of the company. Among the contentious issues were believed to have been plans to dilute existing shareholders by bringing in new investors ahead of the float. Other major shareholders include a number of other co-ops, including Kerry, and a company owned by Larry Goodman. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/manufacturing/plastics-company-one51-first-half-profits-jump-37-to-11-3m-1.2769229 | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/bef66045becbba939c4123e5c05acfcff9f29e139d4d3562d4ea692c4a165061.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T06:49:22 | null | 2016-08-31T06:15:00 | Incoming purchaser has option of converting three-storey property into 12 apartments | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fcommercial-property%2Fballsbridge-mixed-use-period-building-and-site-for-4m-1.2772117.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772115.1472485388!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Ballsbridge mixed-use period building and site for €4m | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Knight Frank is guiding €4 million for a period building and site in Ballsbridge with permission for a conversion into 12 apartments.
The property at 19 Pembroke Road in Dublin 4 is three-storey over basement with 853sq m (9,181sq ft) and was constructed circa 1830. Many of its original features are intact.
It is located on a site of 0.34 acres with mature gardens to the rear and off-street car-parking to the front for 15 cars.
At present the property is laid out in 11 apartments and three office units, and is being sold with vacant possession.
There is planning permission, granted in May, to refurbish the main building, demolish the side extension and construct 701sq m (7,545sq ft) of new accommodation. All of this would provide 12 apartments (10 two-beds, one one-bed and one one-bed plus study unit).
The site is zoned Z2 in the Dublin City Development Plan 2011-2017 to “protect and/or improve the amenities of residential conservation areas”. It is situated on the southern side of Pembroke Road between Wellington Road and Waterloo Road.
Ballsbridge village is within 700 metres while St Stephen’s Green is 1km away. Furthermore, Charlemont Luas stop is within 1.2km while the Dart at Lansdowne Road Station is 1km away.
Knight Frank says the property allows an incoming purchaser to either obtain instant rent roll through the letting of the existing accommodation or to enact the planning grant to provide top quality accommodation in this “high-end residential location”. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/commercial-property/ballsbridge-mixed-use-period-building-and-site-for-4m-1.2772117 | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/616ee7d6d0906110c042b5787aa2cae8bf6e224c6dd2b769b3159d69871706ea.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T06:51:40 | null | 2016-08-29T06:36:00 | Belgium on terror alert since Islamic State attack on airport and metro | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Feurope%2Fbomb-reportedly-detonated-at-brussels-institute-of-criminology-1.2771787%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771786.1472448994!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Bomb reportedly detonated at Brussels Institute of Criminology | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | A bomb has reportedly gone off at the Brussels Institute of Criminology.
It happen at about 2.30am loncal time, according to Belgian media.
A car reportedly rammed three fences to get near the institute’s building, where the bomb was detonated. No casualties were reported
Brussels airport and metro were the targets of an Islamic State bomb attack that killed 32 people in March. Belgium remains on a high terror alert. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/bomb-reportedly-detonated-at-brussels-institute-of-criminology-1.2771787?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/1f5aa08982a0fa986fb984aaa2603d1e694ec32cf0716d26ff6d6ee894937b67.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T16:49:12 | null | 2016-08-30T17:00:00 | Company to seek 14 job losses although staff fear even more exits | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fmedia-and-marketing%2Finm-to-outsource-newspaper-layout-to-pa-1.2773277.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773275.1472574975!/image/image.jpg | en | null | INM to outsource newspaper layout to PA | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Independent News & Media (INM), publisher of titles such as the Irish Independent, is to outsource the layout and design of its newspapers to the international media group, the Press Association (PA) and is seeking 14 job losses.
INM said today it intends to “outsource the Dublin editorial production services to PA”, with INM later clarifying this means the non-writing production functions of the newspapers, such as page design and the placement of pictures.
Stephen Rae, editor-in-chief of INM, said that while production would be outsourced to PA, the process would continue to be “be managed by our editorial team at Talbot Street in Dublin”.
“We will continue to invest in good writing and content in our newspapers and online,” he said.
Robert Pitt, INM’s chief executive, said “businesses need to adapt and innovate to survive and working with PA will allow us to maximise synergies and efficiencies”.
INM previously decided to outsource its subediting – the correction of writing style – in 2007, leaving the writing of its articles by journalists as the only core editorial function that will remain in-house, once production is outsourced.
The group, the largest newspaper publisher in Ireland and whose main shareholder is Denis O’Brien, has notified staff of its intention to seek redundancies.
The company says it intends to seek 14 job losses, although rumours swirled among staff that the final number could be double that figure. The employees affected will not transfer to PA, it is understood. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/inm-to-outsource-newspaper-layout-to-pa-1.2773277 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/4acf22ddd5bf8fe517fb221c563e6b236201cfa0e691ceb68d5a475aaf9f794b.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T08:52:19 | null | 2016-08-30T08:51:00 | Judge orders release of former OCI president arrested over Olympics ticket controversy | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fireland%2Firish-news%2Fpat-hickey-due-to-be-released-from-prison-in-rio-de-janeiro-1.2772863%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772862.1472543500!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Pat Hickey due to be released from prison in Rio de Janeiro | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Former Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) president Pat Hickey is due to be released from prison in Rio de Janeiro following an order by an appeal court judge.
Mr Hickey – who recently stepped aside as head of the OCI – has been in prison since his arrest on August 17th over his alleged involvement in ticketing touting at the Olympic Games.
The judge granted Mr Hickey a writ of habeas corpus overturning a previous lower court ruling that blocked efforts by Mr Hickey’s lawyers to secure his release.
However, in allowing him to leave prison, Justice Fernando Antonio de Almeida ordered that Mr Hickey’s passport be retained to prevent him leaving Brazil while the investigation into him continues.
In his ruling the judge wrote that “in the case in question, none of the three crimes ascribed to have as their maximum applied penalty more than four years, therefore, evidently, it is not plausible to maintain him in prison like he finds himself”.
The judge said “it is not verified, in a concrete and objective manner, the necessity of cautionary custody” and that it was not shown that Mr Hickey’s release “would bring whatever obstacle to or rick to public order, criminal investigation or, if necessary, the future application of penal law”.
The ruling follows a decision on Saturday by the federal superior court of justice in Brasília to grant habeas corpus to Irishman Kevin Mallon, Dublin finance director of THG.
It was his arrest on August 5th, ahead of the opening ceremony in possession of 823 tickets for the Olympic Games, that sparked the controversy.
Mr Hickey and Mr Mallon were arrested by the Brazilian authorities investigating the alleged illegal sale of tickets allocated by the OCI to THG.
THG was not authorised to sell tickets or hospitality packages for the event within Brazil or abroad. Both men deny any wrongdoing. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/pat-hickey-due-to-be-released-from-prison-in-rio-de-janeiro-1.2772863?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/350d4c712d10c5bf38fced1b5afab6e7477fb2b5abe939c76ba1892c5115a55f.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T12:53:13 | null | 2016-08-31T12:10:00 | Student Jenny Gray, who lived with eight other students in a three-bedroom house, explains the realities of accommodation while studying | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Flife-and-style%2Fhomes-and-property%2Fcase-study-maynooth-is-a-nightmare-for-accommodation-1.2774235%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2774234.1472641854!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Case Study: “Maynooth is a nightmare for accommodation” | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | NUI Maynooth student, Jenny Gray, found herself living in unsafe, overcrowded and dirty conditions while attending college last year, because there was “no hope” of getting anywhere else.
The third year arts student lived with eight other students in a three-bedroom house a half-hour walk from the campus. “There were two of us in what was the dining room, and two girls in the garage,” said Jenny. “He [THE LANDLORD] had carpet put down in the garage, but the room was absolutely tiny. I was staying in the dining room, and me and my roommate could literally hold hands in the beds - that’s how small it was.”
The lack of space wasn’t the only issue. At the start of the year, they found an infestation of wasps in the house. “We rang the landlord and his solution was to tell us to get wasp spray,” Jenny says. “We just had to spray all the wasps, and there were hundreds of them, in this nest by the back door.”
They soon found that their bins were only being collected every two weeks, and they had several problems with the electricity throughout the year. Again, the landlord was of little help. “One evening all our plugs stopped working. The landlord was a fix-it-himself man who wanted to do everything himself. We literally had to beg him to get someone to look at the electricity. Then when he did, the electrician said our fuse box was wired to suit a family of five and that it wasn’t safe for all of us to stay there using the electricity at the same time.”
The landlord was charging the nine tenants €930 per week – eight students paid €100 per week to share and another paid €130 for a single room.
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Jenny is currently looking for new accommodation for this year, but finding it difficult. “I don’t have the best of luck. Maynooth is a nightmare; it’s so hard to find anything.”
NUI Maynooth Welfare Officer Karen Kane agrees that housing in Maynooth can be scarce, but it is no excuse for landlords to offer sub-standard accommodation. “Like everywhere, there can be low standard accommodation but we would always advise students to view the property before putting down a deposit. It really is about doing your research and looking around.
“Honestly, the students have to stand up for themselves. If they feel the property they are viewing is below standard they should not accept it. Maynooth SU and the accommodation office strive to ensure every student is in proper accommodation. The lack of houses is not that severe that students should be living in low-standard accommodation.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/homes-and-property/case-study-maynooth-is-a-nightmare-for-accommodation-1.2774235?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/e266770e1a8d46f4616851c6102fad1b148bd7ffdfede4a74979ad8b35125c53.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T14:51:46 | null | 2016-08-29T15:08:00 | ‘To go and do this at this stage will stand to me as a player’ | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Frugby%2Finternational%2Fmarty-moore-had-no-second-thoughts-over-wasps-move-1.2771992%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771990.1472479655!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Marty Moore had no second thoughts over Wasps move | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Ireland prop Marty Moore had no second thoughts when he was offered a deal by Wasps and is confident that the experience gained playing in the Aviva Premiership will stand to him in the future at international level.
Moore’s decision to leave Leinster sparked reports of Irish bosses trying to persuade the former Castleknock College man into a change of heart.
But Moore now admits he had already hardened his resolve to seek a new challenge, in a bid to improve himself in what he considers a “baptism of fire”.
“For me it was a pretty clear-cut decision,” said Moore of leaving Leinster.
“There was a lot in the press at the time, will-he? won’t-he?, but the decision had been made long before any of that came to the fore.
“The people that mattered knew what was going to happen.
“So I think it was a pretty clear-cut decision from myself at that stage.
“Yeah I suppose I’m not young any more but I’m not old either in terms of tighthead years.
“So to go and do this at this stage will stand to me as a player, hopefully I’ll have plenty more years ahead of playing.
“The Premiership is a tough place to be as a frontrow forward.
“Every week will be a big challenge up front and I’m looking forward to testing myself and learning a few new gems I suppose.
“I think it’s a baptism of fire. It’s not going to happen looking at video footage, it’s by having good days and bad days.
“And it’s generally the bad days that stand to you more.
“You can think you’re a world-beater for a few weeks and then somebody comes along and turns your world upside down.
“So it’s generally those days that give you a bit of a kick and show you what you need to be better at.
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“It was the same last year with Leinster and previously with Six Nations, when you’re exposed to a new level or a new player it kind of opens your eyes a little bit.”
Moore is confident his move to London will not hinder his Test career with Ireland.
The 25-year-old tighthead is finally fit after six months battling hamstring trouble, and gearing up for the challenge of the season ahead.
Ireland’s performance director David Nucifora has warned the country’s top stars will be at a “disadvantage” for Test selection if plying their trade abroad.
Ian Madigan was overlooked for the summer’s South Africa tour after joining Bordeaux, but Moore hopes Ireland bosses look on his move to England more favourably.
“Ireland selection hasn’t really been spoken of, with the fact I’ve been injured as well,” said Moore.
“So it hasn’t come up, there haven’t been chances where I’ve been playing and there’s been a selection issue. It hasn’t raised its head yet. But I think this is a great club and a great competition.
“And hopefully if I’m in a position where I’m playing for the club I’ll be in just as good a position to put my hand up for selection internationally.
“I’m not a million miles away from Dublin at the moment. But we’ll have to see how the season goes.
“I think I’ve just got to play my rugby week-in week-out here, and the rest is just up to who’s in charge.
“I think England can maybe be viewed a little differently from France in perhaps the control, just what’s expected week-in, week-out from the clubs.
“There’s a little bit of that unknown with the French league at times, which isn’t really there with the Premiership, especially now with the new RFU deal coming in now.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/international/marty-moore-had-no-second-thoughts-over-wasps-move-1.2771992?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/b0c073f8756e0238b556703b25ed63bb5171382b4dd21e9d8037e7cba732eb78.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T14:50:31 | null | 2016-08-27T15:15:00 | Arrests, seized tickets, emails and two very differing accounts of the same meeting | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fcrime-and-law%2Ftimeline-the-olympic-council-of-ireland-ticketing-controversy-1.2770790%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2770789.1472307318!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Timeline: The Olympic Council of Ireland ticketing controversy | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The remarkable Olympic ticketing controversy has seen two Irish men arrested in Rio and convulsed Irish sport. Below is a timeline showing how the controversy unfolded.
August 7th - Brazilian authoritiespublicly announce that Kevin Mallon, of sports hospitality company THG Sports, was arrested on August 5th, along with his interpreter, in his Rio de Janeiro hotel, Next Flat, for alleged ticket touting. They say Mr Mallon was in possession of several tickets for Friday’s opening ceremony, for “irregular sale”. A spokesman for the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) said it has no knowledge of the matter and was not connected to it in any way.
August 9th - The OCI says it has “no knowledge” of the two people arrested and is no longer linked in any way with THG. It says THG was its authorised ticket reseller during the Olympic Games in London, in 2012, but Pro10 Sports Management was appointed for the 2016 games. It says it is launching an investigation into the allegations.
August 10th- Mr Mallon is formally accused, along with three other people. He was “arrested in the act, providing, diverting or facilitating of tickets for cambismo” - the Brazilian term for the illegal resale of tickets. Police say they found 813 tickets in his possession and some, allegedly, originated with the OCI.
August 11th - Minister for Transport, Shane Ross, calls on OCI president Pat Hickey to explain the circumstances that led up to the arrest of Mr Mallon. Member of the Dáil public accounts committee also call for clarification.
August 11th - Mr Hickey insists theOCI “don’t handle the tickets whatsoever”. “I have never met Kevin Mallon and I don’t know anything about him. When I heard the reports, I thought he was based in the UK. To my knowledge, none of the staff of the OCI have met him,” he says.
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August 12th - Mr Ross says he will meet Mr Hickey in Rio and ask him “if he’ll consider having an independent member sit on his committee or two independent members sit on his committee”, to ensure the OCI investigation is “satisfactory, independent and rigorous”.
August 15th - Mr Hickey refuses to include an independent figure on the council’s inquiry into the ticketing controversy. He describes his meeting with Mr Ross as “excellent”, while the minister says it was “fairly tense, fairly direct and fairly frank”. He says he was “absolutely stunned” at Mr Hickey’s refusal and will consult the Attorney General about his next move.
August 15th - Superior court of justice judge, Ribeiro Dantas, refuses to release Mr Mallon on bail.
August 16th - Attorney General Maire Whelan raises concerns about any independent inquiry into the alleged ticket touting and its potential for interfering with criminal investigations in Brazil. The Government moves to dampen expectations of an independent inquiry.
August 17th - Pat Hickey is arrested in Rio at the Hotel Windsor Marapendi and temporarily steps aside as head of the OCI. Police say they have evidence the 71-year-old was part of the alleged ticket-touting scheme. He is hospitalised after becoming unwell.
August 17th - Brazilian authorities issue arrest warrants for Pro10 directors Michael Glynn, Eamonn Collins and Ken Murray. The company vehemently deny any suggestion of involvement in ticket touting.
August 18th - Mr Hickey is released from hospital into police custody. Mr Ross says he will appoint a senior counsel or judge to lead an independent investigation into the Rio ticket controversy.
August 19th - It emerges the Government inquiry will not have the power to compel witnesses and will be on a non-statutory basis. The OCI says it will co-operate fully with it.
August 19th - The prison in which Mr Hickey is held, the José Frederico Marques public jail, also known as Bangu 10, is described as having had “totally sub-human” conditions in 2015.
August 20th - Mr Hickey is said to be sharing a prison cell with Mr Mallon. Judge Mariana Tavares Shu, who issued warrants for his arrest, and for three directors of Pro 10, declared him a flight risk.
August 21st - Police in Rioseize the passports of three OCI officials; Dermot Henihan, Kevin Kilty and Stephen Martin. A judge has also authorised the seizure of John Delaney’s passport. The Football Association of Ireland chief executive, who is also OCI vice-president, is not in Brazil. Acting OCI president William O’Brien and official Linda O’Reilly are also named on the warrant.
August 22nd - Police in Rio say they will question Dermot Henihan, Kevin Kilty and Stephen Martin. They say they have also seized mobile phones, computers and a significant quantity of tickets from two locations used by the OCI delegation.
August 23rd - Pat Hickey’s lawyers say their client did not seek to evade arrest when he was picked up, in the room next to that of his wife, on the day he was arrested in Hotel Windsor Marapendi. He said he was sleeping in a separate room due to insomnia.
August 23rd - Rio de Janeiro police release emails showing contacts between Mr Hickey and Marcus Evans, the UK owner of THG.
August 24th - Retired judge, Mr Justice Carroll Moran is announced as head of the Government’s ticket inquiry. The ICI also appoints Espion, a data security company, to “secure, copy and seal” all its electronic communications in advance of the inquiry.
August 25th - The OCI says there are no legal curbs on co-operating with the Government inquiry.
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August 25th - No judges have yet been assigned to deal with the cases of Mr Hickey and Mr Mallon.
August 25th - Kevin Kilty and Stephen Martin are questioned by Rio police, who announce afterwards they believe the OCI officials had no role in the alleged ticket touting. Dermot Henihan was questioned on the 23rd.
August 26th - Police in Rio say testimony from Kevin Kilty and Stephen Martin indicated Pat Hickey was in charge of the organisation’s ticketing and was “the big chief of this gang”.
August 26th - Mr Hickey’s family say they are concerned about his health and the way he is being treated. They call on Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan and Minister for Sport Shane Ross to intervene. Mr Flanagan agrees to meet with the family.
August 27th - OCI appoints Grant Thornton to review its ticketing regime and and report on it.
August 27th - Emails seen by The Irish Times appear to show Pat Hickey and Marcus Evans co-ordinated their companies’ responses as the ticketing controversy unfolded.
August 27th - After almost four weeks in jail, Kevin Mallon is granted a temporary writ of habeas corpus meaning he is set to be released from jail. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/timeline-the-olympic-council-of-ireland-ticketing-controversy-1.2770790?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/5e95951c40e89caecc6db97d953849a97e334ff106f59ee7e520f28c41fba869.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T20:47:33 | null | 2016-08-26T20:00:00 | Businesses invested more in second quarter as economy showed few signs of uncertainty | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fretail-and-services%2Fuk-shoppers-upped-their-spending-just-before-brexit-vote-says-survey-1.2769306.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769305.1472236816!/image/image.jpg | en | null | UK shoppers upped their spending just before Brexit vote, says survey | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | UK consumers stepped up their spending in the second quarter and businesses increased investment as the economy showed few signs of reticence before the Brexit referendum in June.
Household spending rose 0.9 per cent from the first quarter, the fastest pace in almost two years, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said on Friday. Business investment was up by 0.5 per cent.
Overall growth overall quickened to 0.6 per cent from 0.4 per cent, unrevised from an initial estimate. “Our survey returns, which include the period leading up to and immediately following the referendum, show no sign so far of uncertainty having significantly affected investment or GDP,” ONS chief economist Joe Grice said in a statement.
The decision to leave the European Union cast an abrupt shadow over the economy, prompting the Bank of England to cut interest rates this month and piling pressure on new prime minister Theresa May to deliver a tax and spending boost.
Tough times ahead
While surveys suggest the June 23rd referendum has done little to dampen the spirits of consumers, tougher times may lie ahead as quickening inflation threatens to erode almost two years of real-wage growth.
The rise in business investment in the last quarter was driven by spending on transport equipment, including cars and planes, the ONS said.
The level of investment was 0.8 per cent lower than a year earlier. Net trade once again dragged on the economy, knocking 0.3 percentage points off growth in the second quarter as exports barely rose.
The 10 per cent fall in the trade-weighted value of the pound since the Brexit vote may aid exports but not by enough to prevent a sharp slowdown.
The economy will contract by 0.1 per cent in the third quarter, according to economists polled by Bloomberg between August 5th and August 12th. The pound showed little response to the figures in early trading on Friday.
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Growth in the second quarter was heavily centred on April.
– Bloomberg | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/retail-and-services/uk-shoppers-upped-their-spending-just-before-brexit-vote-says-survey-1.2769306 | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/224cca7d1db86dba23fd4dca92c2a9b6dc05388b2d367e2b0dd378fc5b50801a.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T16:51:04 | null | 2016-08-28T17:20:00 | Semi-State eyes potential in Limerick-based Electricity Exchange | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fenergy-and-resources%2Fbord-na-m%25C3%25B3na-takes-50-stake-in-smart-grid-technology-firm-1.2771112%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771110.1472401214!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Bord na Móna takes 50% stake in smart-grid technology firm | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Bord na Móna has acquired a 50 per cent stake in smart-grid technology firm Electricity Exchange for an undisclosed sum.
The start-up, co-founded by entrepreneurs Paddy Finn and Duncan O’Toole, operates a virtual 24-hour power station from its base in Castletroy in Limerick.
Their technology allows them to remotely control back-up generators and reduce power consumption in large industries at specific times of power shortages on the grid.
Bord na Móna believes the technology will allow for greater penetration of renewables.
Ireland’s power system faces a challenge in delivering on its 2020 renewable-energy target, which commits the State to sourcing 40 per cent of its energy needs from renewables.
Vigilant management
Bord na Móna said the variable nature of wind, from which the State derives most of its renewable electricity generation, requires vigilant power-system management in order to maintain security of electricity supply.
“Bord na Móna Powergen has a significant development pipeline of renewable projects and we see the Electricity Exchange technology as an enabler to allow greater renewable penetration on to the Irish Electricity grid,” Bord na Móna chief executive Mike Quinn said.
“The power system is evolving at a fast pace and Electricity Exchange has a track record of constant innovation which allows them to stay ahead of the curve.”
He said working together with Electricity Exchange would allow it to deliver exciting new services to the company’s combined customer bases and create new opportunities.
Dr Finn, a University of Limerick engineering graduate, said: “This investment comes at an exciting time for the company and we are looking forward to accelerating our growth, expanding into other markets, and delivering the technologies necessary to make Ireland a smart-grid exemplar in partnership with Bord na Móna”.
He was a recent regional winner of the best start-up business category in the Best Young Entrepreneur competition. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/energy-and-resources/bord-na-m%C3%B3na-takes-50-stake-in-smart-grid-technology-firm-1.2771112?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/67e7ea8c25c0011609bc59b142a3ed2d699b038dca644ab8a7f1c187dfd8b2f2.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T22:50:44 | null | 2016-08-27T23:41:00 | Raffaele Cretaro also on the mark as Galway see lead wiped out late on | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fsoccer%2Fnational-league%2Fachille-campion-s-late-goal-completes-sligo-rovers-fightback-1.2770889%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2770887.1472337668!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Achille Campion’s late goal completes Sligo Rovers fightback | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Sligo Rovers 2 Galway United 1
Late goals from top scorer Raffaele Cretaro, who netted after 79 minutes, and Achille Campion, who scored two minutes into added time, gave Sligo Rovers a merited 2-1 win over Connacht rivals Galway United in a richly-entertaining Connacht derby at The Showgrounds.
Sligo controlled the first half, with John Russell especially impressive, but their sole chance of note was Liam Martin’s 13th-minute shot, which was parried by Galway custodian Conor Winn after Cretaro’s slick footwork inside the Galway penalty area.
The scoreless first half was notable for nine fruitless corners for Sligo and the fact that the home side’s goalkeeper Micheal Schlingermann was kept idle by Galway’s toothless attack.
Galway took a 48th-minute lead through Gary Shanahan’s header after the ball looped to him following Schlingermann’s thwarting of Enda Curran’s goal attempt.
Sligo cranked up the pressure and deservedly levelled matters through Cretaro’s well-struck effort after 79 minutes and the sensational finish, with Campion getting the last touch on a Cretaro shot, earned Sligo their 10th Premier Division win of the campaign.
SLIGO ROVERS: Schlingermann; Adebayo-Rowling, Boylan, Leahy, Keohane; Russell, Roddan, Kearns (Sadlier 70), Martin; Cretaro, Campion
GALWAY UNITED: Winn; Horgan, Aganovic, Cantwell, Walsh; Shanahan, Connolly, Sinnott, Ludden; Melody (Byrne 75), Curran (Faherty 64)
Referee: David McKeon | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/national-league/achille-campion-s-late-goal-completes-sligo-rovers-fightback-1.2770889?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/a2bd99cfec17693ccb80a5e27e3feeeba32982289772a986c5cba14ce7b92282.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T14:49:29 | null | 2016-08-31T12:06:00 | Commission to strongly recommend that money be used to ‘accelerate debt reduction’ | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Feu-says-ireland-not-obligated-to-use-apple-tax-cash-for-debt-1.2774229.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2774226.1472653339!/image/image.jpg | en | null | EU says Ireland not obligated to use Apple tax cash for debt | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The European Commission has said there is no legal obligation for countries to use recovered state aid to pay down national debt.
Speaking in Brussels on Wednesday, in the wake of a record ruling by the commission against Apple, a spokesman for commissioner Margrethe Vestager said that, like all state aid cases, “the amounts that are recovered by a member state in a state aid investigation simply go back to the member state’s budget, and they can then, of course, use it for their own decisions.”
EU sources told The Irish Times that, while the commission could not legally instruct Ireland how to use the recovered aid, it would likely strongly recommend that any windfall gains are used to pay down the national debt.
In its most recent country-specific recommendation for Ireland, which marked Ireland’s exit from the EU’s excessive deficit procedure, the commission said Ireland should “use windfall gains from strong economic and financial conditions, as well as from asset sales, to accelerate debt reduction”.
In addition, the country should “reduce vulnerability to economic fluctuations and shocks, inter alia by broadening the tax base . . . enhance the quality of expenditure, particularly by increasing cost-effectiveness of health care and by prioritising government capital expenditure in R&D and in public infrastructure, in particular transport, water services and housing.”
Policy recommendation
A high-ranking source in the European Commission said there is a “policy recommendation, not a legally binding requirement”, that Ireland should use any windfall cash for debt reduction.
He pointed to the “long-standing policy recommendation” of the commission that Ireland’s high level of debt should be reduced with any windfall, rather than using the cash for current or capital spending. This was reiterated as recently as earlier this year when the commission published its recommendations for Ireland.
They found that Ireland should use “windfall gains from strong economic and financial conditions, as well as from asset sales, to accelerate debt reduction”.
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This is not a legal requirement, although any budget spending would have to conform to EU rules that limit the amount of current spending increases in any given year.
The revelation is likely to strengthen the hand of those arguing for the Government to retain the Apple cash. Government Ministers had previously insisted that even if Ireland kept the money, it would have to be all used for deficit reduction.
While the established procedure in EU state aid cases is that recovered money returns to the national exchequer, officials pointed out that the Apple ruling is unprecedented in size.
The previous record for an EU state aid judgment was a €1.3 billion ruling in 2014 involving Nürburgring racetrack in Germany.
The Apple judgment is also the first finding of its kind since the EU’s two-pack and six-pack rules were introduced at the height of the financial crisis. Like other bailout countries, Ireland is subject to additional layers of fiscal scrutiny because it is continuing to repay bailout loans to other euro zone member states through the ESM fund.
All euro zone countries must submit their budgets to the European Commission by October 15th this year.
Artificial reduction
After more than three years of investigations, the commission ruled on Tuesday that Ireland had helped Apple to artificially reduce its tax burden for more than two decades through two tax rulings it offered the company in 1991 and 2007.
EU politicians widely welcomed the European Commission’s decision. The centre-left Socialist and Democrats group in the European Parliament congratulated the commission on the finding and called on the EU to establish a common corporate consolidated tax base (CCCTB) that would be mandatory across the EU. Ireland has previously opposed such a move. A revised CCCTB proposal is expected from the commission by the end of the year.
The payment of €13 billion, plus interest, demanded by the European Commission covers the years 2003-2014. Ireland will be permitted to keep the payment in an escrow account pending appeal.
An appeal by Ireland and Apple could take up to six years, according to European Commission officials, as it is likely to go through both the General Court and European Court of Justice. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/eu-says-ireland-not-obligated-to-use-apple-tax-cash-for-debt-1.2774229 | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/6278bd3fe836e89391ebb9a221bf133f21708c9f5b2ec76c1626c41e082ce0a2.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T12:50:29 | null | 2016-08-22T10:46:00 | Union president Jack O’Connor expresses concern over mooted new intern scheme | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fwork%2Fsiptu-calls-for-publication-of-critical-jobbridge-audit-1.2764310%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2764309.1471859176!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Siptu calls for publication of critical JobBridge audit | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | SIPTU general president Jack O’Connor has called on the Department of Social Protection to make public an internal audit that raises concerns over the JobBridge internship scheme.
According to RTÉ’s This Week, the department’s auditors expressed concern over a lack of initial validation of the employers’ eligibility and whether their use of interns could lead to the possible displacement of real jobs.
The report noted that under the system of initial self-declaration, “employers make a statement on their application that the intern is not displacing a job vacancy,” going on to add “it is not possible to verify whether or not the internship is displacing a potential job vacancy”.
The report also noted “no checks” are carried out against redundancy payments issued by companies who hire interns, meaning the company may have laid someone off in a position that they are now filling with an intern.
Calling for the report to be published, Mr O’Connor expressed concern that the Minister for Social Protection Leo Varadkar had said he will be announcing plans for a replacement for the JobBridge scheme shortly.
“There is no need for a free labour scheme any more. There was a case when we were in an economic emergency,” said Mr O’Connor.
“We didn’t go through all that to provide free labour for unscrupulous employers.”
It is understood that the internal audit came about following criticism of the scheme by the Minister for State for Skills and Innovation — Independent Alliance TD John Halligan — who said in early May it was time for JobBridge to be scrapped.
The internal audit examined 80 cases. This follows 13,000 random inspections over the five years of the scheme which facilitated more than 48,000 interns with 18,000 participating employers.
According to RTÉ, the auditors questioned the accuracy of data supplied by so-called “host organisations” — specifically in relation to the number of staff that they claimed to be employing.
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“Of 80 cases examined, the number of employees listed when registering compared to the number of employees in the last P35 return on Central Records (CRS) agreed in only 14 cases. No checks are carried out... on this when validating an employer for JobBridge,” the report noted. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/work/siptu-calls-for-publication-of-critical-jobbridge-audit-1.2764310?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-22T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/1ceb7397ce1cfde077b8faa245a69729e495ac030e46cc1053b13cb32a2ebb5b.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T22:51:56 | null | 2016-08-29T23:27:00 | Featured acts include theatre company Footsbarn and fiddler Colm Mac an Iomaire | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fculture%2Fclifden-arts-festival-to-mark-the-months-after-1916-rising-1.2772408%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772406.1472509640!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Clifden Arts Festival to mark the months after 1916 Rising | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Ten days in the life of a Connemara town months after the 1916 Rising will be marked during this year’s Clifden Arts Festival, when a collection of original shop ledgers will be put on display.
The cost of knicker elastic bought by Connemara women in Clifden and the price of suits made by the “Tailor Burke” are recorded in the ledgers, which have been retrieved for an exhibition from September 14th-25th.
The ledgers from surrounding communities of Roundstone and Letterfrack, and on the offshore islands of Inishbofin, Inishturk and Inishark, will also be displayed in original locations, with a particular focus on surviving entries from September 15th-25th, 1916.
Cornish-French theatre company Footsbarn, musician Colm Mac an Iomaire, poet Mary O’Malley and reggae band the Light Runners will feature. The event has been valued at worth more than €1 million to the Connemara capital.
This year’s programme includes a new suite commemorating the 1916 Rising participants, composed by Dr Charlie Lennon. Artists and performers will stage workshops with pupils at Clifden Community School. The festival culminates in a grand parade on September 24th. clifdenartsfestival.ie | http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/clifden-arts-festival-to-mark-the-months-after-1916-rising-1.2772408?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/a79060101cbcb1df4283e20f357cca427f5cb77fed16cf30816ca6ea2af1cb7b.json |
[
"John Boyne"
] | 2016-08-26T18:50:36 | null | 2016-08-26T18:00:00 | John Boyne says this Dutch literary sensation is a joyous read, be it fact or fiction | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fculture%2Fbooks%2Fthe-secret-diary-of-hendrik-groen-83-years-old-review-a-nome-de-geezer-s-life-in-an-old-folks-home-1.2769704%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769694.1472230796!/image/image.jpg | en | null | The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83¼ Years Old review: a nome de geezer’s life in an old folks home | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Hendrik Groen: ‘There is something wonderful about his commitment to his diary which, he says, leaves him feeling more relaxed and less frustrated’.
Book Title:
The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83¼ Years Old ISBN-13:
978-0718183004 Author:
Hendrik Groen Publisher:
Michael Joseph Guideline Price:
£12.99
Everybody wants to live forever, said Jonathan Swift, but nobody wants to grow old. The satirist’s opinion might have been reinforced had he lived to read Hendrik Groen’s account of a year spent in an Amsterdam nursing home, a book that became an instant phenomenon when published in the Netherlands a couple of years ago.
Let’s clear one thing up: Hendrik Groen is not the author of this book. In fact, no one (outside of his Dutch editor) is aware of the author’s identity. Speculation is rife that he or she might in fact be a famous writer working under a pseudonym. It hardly matters, for The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83¼ Years Old is a joy to read, as much concerned with friendship and dignity as it is with the debilitating effects of aging.
Our narrator sets out his mission in the opening pages, to give an “uncensored exposé” of a year in the life of his care home inmates, where the garden always remains locked, the thermostats may not be raised above 23 degrees, and an elderly man in a wheelchair can be pushed down the stairs by his oppressed wife “with no repercussions because the director is afraid of negative publicity”.
Nowhere to run?
The setting itself is an unusual one. It’s not a jail; the old folk are free to come and go as they choose. Still, as with the inmates of insular prisons such as Alcatraz or Robben Island, they are faced with the question of where they might go, should they ever decide to make a run for it.
Rare visits from family are only intended to salve the guilty consciences of those who decline to take them in, and the seniors’ finances are almost entirely extinguished, thanks in part to offspring who have taken their savings from them – “for safekeeping”.
Looming over the residents is the nursing home’s director, Mrs Stelwagen, who adheres like a tube of Pritt Stick to a rule book that no one is allowed to see. And if it seems like a miserable existence, it’s enlivened considerably by Hendrik’s cheerful, cynical and rebellious personality.
Determined not to be a whinger, he forms the Old But Not Dead Club with a few like-minded souls. Together they escape the confines of the home to take trips to cookery classes, Pixar movies and golf clubs, expeditions that ensure the resentment and anger of others who are not allowed to join their exclusive society.
Connections between childhood and old age are well drawn, with moments of bullying and misbehaviour swiftly denied. Indeed, when a hunt begins for a serial killer of the care home’s fish, the culprit, another octogenarian, doesn’t care if he gets caught because “whenever he’s in a tight spot he’ll lie through his teeth, and rant and rave, swearing he had nothing to do with it”.
At the heart of the story lies a sweet and unsentimental relationship between Hendrik and Eefje, an elderly widow who takes up residence on his floor after a previous occupant has died. Eefje is a sparkling presence, as insubordinate as her new friend. Although the relationship remains platonic, a wonderful bond of mutual support and companionship develops between them.
It is not just Eefje who keeps Hendrik going; there is also Evert, a sort of Leslie Phillips, Ding-Dong rascal who keeps having body parts amputated; Grietje, an old woman slowly succumbing to Alzheimer’s; and Ria and Antonie, a pair of superannuated chefs who delight in preparing clandestine and strictly forbidden meals in their rooms.
Refusal to wallow
We learn very little about Hendrik’s past. We never discover what he did for a living and are told only a few details regarding the death of his daughter and his wife’s subsequent slip into depression. Hendrik refuses to wallow in unhappiness, and the book is all the better for that.
What we do know is that Hendrik is a good man (his selfless attitude with his friends is testament to that). There is something wonderful about his commitment to his diary which, he says, leaves him feeling “more relaxed, and less frustrated”.
The growing international success of this book would suggest that there might be further volumes on the way; Hendrik implies as much in the closing pages. But it’s hard not to feel the idea might prove less charming the second time around. Whether or not that comes to pass, this remains an entertaining and uplifting story of a man in the winter of his days, stoic in the face of bureaucratic nonsense and an unabashed need to wear a nappy.
Imagined or not, this is the diary of someone who wants nothing more than to be allowed see out his days with dignity and respect. It’s not too much to ask, really, is it?
John Boyne’s latest work is a short story collection, Beneath the Earth (Doubleday). | http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/the-secret-diary-of-hendrik-groen-83-years-old-review-a-nome-de-geezer-s-life-in-an-old-folks-home-1.2769704?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/46ecc46f88c3b21f8255d6c628e40192c02d96b6dbf3e4587f54575ef2429a5f.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T06:49:21 | null | 2016-08-31T05:50:00 | Property home to Cornucopia restaurant and Louis Copeland has rent roll of €100,000 | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fcommercial-property%2Fprime-wicklow-street-retail-investment-for-1-9m-1.2772175.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772173.1472488012!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Prime Wicklow Street retail investment for €1.9m | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Retail investments in Dublin city centre continue to attract the highest level of inquiries and the least number of sales because of the shortage of available properties.
For that reason alone Lisney is expecting exceptional interest in a prime investment at 19 Wicklow Street which goes on the market today to coincide with the opening of the new property season.
Chris Belton of Lisney is seeking offers of more than €1.9 million for the 1900s building occupied by Cornucopia and Louis Copeland which will show a net initial yield of 5.19 per cent.
Vegetarian restaurant Cornucopia has traded for the past 30 years out of the ground floor of number 19 and also number 20 which are interlinked at street and basement levels.
Number 19 has 68sq m (732sq ft) at street level and an overall floor area of 289 sq m (3,111sq ft) on five levels including basement. The restaurant is paying €80,000 for the ground, basement and an office on the second floor.
Louis Copeland has a separate access to the first floor and also rents part of the second and third floors, paying a total of €23,100. The overall rent roll of €103,100 is considered highly reversionary and with the two rent reviews due next February the expectation is that the the rental figure will move to at least €120,000/€130,000 per annum.
A short distance away, agents JLL are quoting a rent of €90,000 for a smaller ground floor and basement in number 33 Wicklow Street which does not have permission for food use. The leases in number 19 have a weighted average unexpired term of 10.15 years to run.
Cornucopia’s leasehold interest in number 20 is not affected by the sale nor is Louis Copeland’s additional lease of the adjoining building, number 18. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/commercial-property/prime-wicklow-street-retail-investment-for-1-9m-1.2772175 | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/6011cb82f8a5e380761328a037e04070dbeadbc9b50a4683c0da22cb8f160e5e.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T12:50:19 | null | 2016-08-27T12:00:00 | Despite leading Kerry to All-Ireland glory in 2014, defeat could end Fitzmaurice’s reign | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fgaelic-games%2Fgaelic-football%2Fkingdom-careers-are-on-the-line-this-sunday-in-croke-park-1.2770732%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2770731.1472289287!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Kingdom careers are on the line this Sunday in Croke Park | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Only in Kerry. Éamonn Fitzmaurice goes into this All-Ireland semi-final against Dublin knowing that he kind of has to win or else he kind of has to go. The grumbles are still confined to rumbles but if the lens jockeys are semi-circling Jim Gavin instead of the Kerry manager shortly after 5pm tomorrow, we can cock an ear and expect them to be given full cry by nightfall.
Time for a new voice. Taken them as far as he can. Thank you and good night.
Proving once again that Páidí Ó Sé wasn’t overdoing it about Kerry supporters, there is a pronounced strain of doubt within the county over Fitzmaurice. It is under the radar and off the record for the moment, but nobody denies it exists.
While it was always thought probable that this would be his final year in the job regardless, the least he might have earned by now was to call his own way out. Let’s see.
“The doubt is stemming from last year’s All-Ireland final,” says Dara Ó Cinnéide.
“Fitzmaurice would be the first to say he didn’t have his best day. He spreads the credit when they win All-Irelands and they’re very much a unit on the line. He was very uneasy when all the praise was going his way after 2014 and he’s held his hands up when it’s gone against them.
“He’s got a very keen brain. He takes criticism on himself when he gets it wrong – after last year’s drawn Munster final he came out and said he got it wrong on the line. He’d admit that the All-Ireland final last year wasn’t his finest hour either. But I think he should be allowed a bad day.”
Ó Cinnéide prefaces everything with a declaration that he’s “blinded by loyalty” here. He and Fitzmaurice lived together in college, won All-Irelands together, won’t be losing each other’s phone number anytime soon. All the same, he’s a journalist by trade and is objective by instinct.
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Poor performance
“It was a really poor performance in the All-Ireland final last year. Just a really bad day in terms of what they wanted to do and their execution of it. I think the league final this year gave us a false sense of hope going in and a big overreaction coming out. They wanted to win the league, definitely.
“They had their best campaign in yonks. They got to the final. They’d have liked to win it, of course. But it was still their best league campaign under Fitzmaurice. They played some great football to get there, reinvented some players, pushed some new ones along. But as soon as they lost the final, people were giving out.
“Since when has losing a league final been important to people in Kerry? When has that ever mattered?”
Never, particularly. This is different though, because of who they lost to and how. Losing to Dublin matters more now than in Ó Cinnéide’s day, for reasons well-aired throughout the past week. Kerry enjoyed a rivalry with Dublin when they were winning. Now they’re enduring one.
They’ve met seven times in league and championship since Fitzmaurice took over in late 2012. Dublin have much the better of the head-to-head - 5-2 overall, 2-0 in championship. Those two defeats are the only championship games Fitzmaurice has lost as Kerry manager – so far his summer has always ended either losing to Dublin or winning the All-Ireland. They are the shadow on any X-ray of his time in charge.
Serial defeats to Dublin amplify everything. In a world where they were winning these games, Fitzmaurice’s preference for players of experience would be seen as canny management of his resources.
Instead, there has been hand-wringing throughout his time in charge – even in the All-Ireland year of 2014 – at his reluctance to put his trust in youth.
New faces
Looked at one way, the charge is accurate. Fitzmaurice came to the job straight from the under-21 sideline and when he went looking for new faces, he fished extensively in waters he already knew well. In four seasons, he has given championship debuts to 12 players – six of them from his own 2012 under-21 team.
Up until this summer, he hadn’t once fielded a player in a championship game who was eligible for that year’s under-21 competition. That streak ended with Brian Ó Beaglaoich in the Munster championship in June and since then Tony Brosnan came on as a late sub in the quarter-final against Clare.
Going with what he knew fed into a sense that Fitzmaurice was unwilling to throw the dice on the generation coming up behind. But that’s an argument in the eye of the beholder. Maybe Fitzmaurice is an arch-conservative, set in his ways and unbending in his preferences. Or maybe the players just weren’t there.
Ó Cinnéide knows which door he’d pick.
“The test for any manager is this – is he getting the best out of the group of players he has available? Well that’s an absolute tick of the box when it comes to Kerry at the moment. For what’s been available to Fitzmaurice over the past four years, he is absolutely getting the maximum out of them.
“The dynamic has changed now, four years later. We’ve had a couple of All-Ireland minor winning teams that will hopefully provide players over the coming years. But go back and look at what it was like at the end of 2012.
“Jack O’Connor had, by his own admission, taken the group as far as he could. There was a view that there was going to be a heap of retirements and they have certainly lost their share of players over the past four years.
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“In 2013, they surprised us all with the football they played against Dublin. Okay, it was a hammering by the scoreline in the end but we all know that game was very close. That was a team that had been beaten in the quarter-final by Donegal the previous year. He came in at a low ebb. Nobody wanted the job. People forget that.
“Kerry will consistently be there, that’s the hope anyway. And with the underage talent coming through, the future is probably bright. But nobody was saying that four years ago. This has been a period of transition. We all had a good laugh with Joe Brolly in 2014 for saying we were in transition but he was right. The transition was managed so well, Fitzmaurice managed to squeeze an All-Ireland out of it.”
Drew flak
If the Brazilian football team has 200 million bosses, the last census put Kerry’s manager count at around 140,000. Fitzmaurice drew flak from some of them early on for appointing Cian O’Neill – a Kildareman – as team trainer. Losing an early league game to Dublin in Killarney by 1-11 to 0-4 didn’t help matters either.
And then there’s the closed-door training sessions. What might be considered a red herring in other counties has a heightened status in Kerry. What was gained on the swings of being able to do their work in private has been lost on the roundabouts where public leeway was always afforded.
The Kerry team has become closed off from its people which is fine – as long as you win.
“He’s never going to be popular because he closed the gates in Killarney,” says Ó Cinnéide. “That’s always been looming there in the background. He doesn’t court public opinion, he doesn’t court media. He doesn’t try to make himself out to be a genius; there’s absolutely no ego there.
“He’s just a very down to earth, solid guy who has guided Kerry through what could have been a very rough period. It would be a huge shame if Kerry supporters were to be hard on him.
“It’s part of the culture in Kerry that we kind of know that we’re hard on each other when it comes to football and hardest of all on the Kerry manager. But the sense of entitlement that builds up then is wrong. What entitles us? I just don’t get that. It’s bullshit. You’ve to start every year from scratch. Tradition won’t win you a semi-final or a final.
Richer tradition
“There’s this notion that Kerry are entitled to win All-Irelands. But the truth is we’re the same as any other county, just probably with a richer tradition. The way the game is at the moment, Mayo have every bit as much right to expect an All-Ireland on January 1st as Kerry do. So do Dublin, so do a handful of other teams.”
Like plenty of his countymen, Ó Cinnéide started the week pretty much resigned to a Dublin win tomorrow. As the days passed, general Kerryness took over and he heads to Croke Park far from down-hearted. These were supposed to be barren years for Kerry and yet here they are, with Fitzmaurice on the brink of a third All-Ireland final in a row. Underdogs, yes. But Ó Cinnéide is okay with that.
“I just think there’s a group of players there who are getting to an age where they must be thinking, ‘Is that it? Is it just going to be one All-Ireland for me? Is that my lot?’ That’s huge motivation.
“You’d be nearly hiding your face walking down the street in Kerry in 10 years if that was the case. I know that, having three of them. I always preface it with saying, ‘Ah, I’ve only three.’
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“And you get people saying, ‘Is that all? Jeez, I thought you’d more, now.’ I’m 41 now and that’s the nature of the conversation you get in Kerry. These guys are 25 to 28 and if they’re happy enough to live with one All-Ireland, then Dublin will win handy.
“But I think there’s huge motivation in them now. I would never, ever underestimate Eamonn Fitzmaurice or a Kerry team in Croke Park.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/kingdom-careers-are-on-the-line-this-sunday-in-croke-park-1.2770732?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/81fc898c22f2d82369bf82ecc35f8defc6017567ffac2b094d9cdee38becfaf6.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T12:51:01 | null | 2016-08-26T06:52:00 | Rachel Kavanagh’s qualifications did not prepare her for London’s fast-paced beauty retail business | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fwork%2Fwild-geese-glossybox-offered-me-a-new-chapter-and-in-a-new-country-1.2753362%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2753357.1472190733!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Wild Geese: ‘Glossybox offered me a new chapter and in a new country’ | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Rachel Kavanagh is managing director of Glossybox UK and Ireland – an online beauty box business established in 2011, which is now one of the industry’s market leaders. Kavanagh lives in London with her husband and two children.
A native of Terenure in Dublin, Kavanagh originally had her own brand – Rockstar Tan – which she established when she graduated with a business, economics and social studies degree from Trinity College in 2007.
She had been in discussions with Glossybox to distribute her brand which was stocked in leading retailers such as Boots and Debenhams. Glossybox is an online beauty retailer that works by selecting five beauty products a month and sending them out to customers.
“I stayed in touch with the MD at Glossybox who then got in touch with me 10 days before my wedding to ask me to interview for her position.
“It was time for a new challenge and I had learnt everything I needed from my own brand. The market was so saturated and I really wanted a new chapter. The job in Glossybox offered me that and in a new country too. The first year was tough – we had an 18-month-old baby and it was a new job – but we are still here 3½ years later.”
Kavanagh and her husband now have two children and Kavanagh returned to work 5½ months after the birth of her second child.
“It’s more challenging with two children. I have a live-in nanny and a very supportive husband. I couldn’t do my job without them.
“In London you spend so much more time commuting. We moved house earlier this year so that we are right beside the Tube station. It shaves 20 minutes off my commute each day so it’s an extra 40 minutes a day with the children. Your life becomes worked into slots of work- and home-life and in trying to find the balance between the two.”
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The family live in Parsons Green. “In London, I think wherever you land you tend to stay. Your borough becomes your village. You crave that village mentality even though you give out about it when you live in Ireland,” she laughs.
Kavanagh gets to her office by about 8.15am. The creative, editorial, social and digital and sales departments are all under her remit.
“Sales is a major aspect,” she says. “Making sure the beauty boxes are full each month, that we’ve the correct mix of product... we are very editorial in the way we work so we have a product to produce with a very heavy theme each month. You’re only as good as your last issue, so my day is made up of fast decision-making, monitoring sales and customer reaction. As an online business, it is very sales target driven and very fast-paced – you’re never off.”
In an effort to make her schedule more efficient she attends external meetings either on the way to, or the way home, from the office.
“A lot of my meetings are with parent companies, brands such as Estée Lauder, L’Oréal, P&G or new niche brand founders, PR companies, distribution companies and so on. I do a lot of the networking and the brand pitching and story-telling.”
Kavanagh is a member of CEW (Cosmetic Executive Women) – a not-for-profit professional organisation that gives women a voice and a platform in the beauty industry.
“I got to know their president, Caroline Neville, early on and she has been a wonderful support to me since I joined Glossybox. She is such a force of nature in the beauty industry and a great inspiration.”
Kavanagh says that her academic background in no way prepared her for her working life.
“When I look back on it, the things I wish I’d been taught are things like excellent Powerpoint presentations, excellent Excel skills – basic business skills. It’s only when you get into the workforce that you become aware of what you want to develop and polish through your own learning and self-empowerment.”
The UK’s Brexit decision was “devastating”, she says. “Not to be dramatic but it was like time stood still. My children are Irish with Irish passports, they are European and they will be raised as such. Nothing changes in that respect, even if we remain in London.
“But it has massively dampened my love for the UK and the life we have made here. There is a sense the country is in freefall and I have friends whose jobs and businesses have already been dramatically affected by it.”
From a professional perspective, increased currency insecurity is something the brand needs to keep an even closer eye on, she says.
“With our HQ in Berlin we see ourselves as a European brand, so it was a sad day for us all when we got the news, as we are a very close global team. In general, it’s a matter of waiting it out to see the real implications.”
For now though, Kavanagh says that she has no plans to return to Ireland.
“It was a big commitment to move over and we feel settled and still excited by the city,” she says. “I have been with Glossybox for three years and we have matured from an entrepreneurial start-up into the leading beauty box in the industry. There is still so much more to achieve and I want to be part of that story.”
www.glossybox.ie | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/work/wild-geese-glossybox-offered-me-a-new-chapter-and-in-a-new-country-1.2753362?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/4d497aca82314d75039dfef46a8e5679c1a8a3385bcac8f6492ac7dce3a832f5.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:11:25 | null | 2016-08-26T13:29:00 | Civilians and gunmen to be evacuated from region left in ruins by constant shelling | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Fmiddle-east%2Fsyrian-government-ends-four-year-siege-on-rebel-damascus-suburb-1.2769427%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769426.1472214546!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Syrian government ends four-year siege on rebel Damascus suburb | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Buses, ambulances and trucks have lined up at the entrance of a long-blockaded Damascus suburb to evacuate rebels and civilians under a deal struck between Syrian opposition forces and the government of President Bashar Assad.
The surrender of the Daraya suburb, which became an early symbol of the uprising against Mr Assad, marks a success for his government, removing a persistent threat only a few miles from his seat of power.
Daraya’s rebels agreed to evacuate in a deal late on Thursday, after four years of gruelling bombardment and a crippling siege that left the sprawling suburb in ruins.
The suburb has been besieged and blockaded by government forces, with only one food delivery by the United Nations allowed to reach the district during this time.
The development comes as US secretary of state John Kerry arrived in Geneva on Friday for talks with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov.
The talks centre on proposals to share intelligence and co-ordinate militarily with Russia against Islamic State and al-Qaeda in Syria and Iraq. Russia and Iran are strong backers of Mr Assad and have been accused of targeting western-backed rebel forces.
Located just southwest of Damascus, Daraya has been pummelled by government air strikes, barrel bombs and fighting over the years.
The evacuations are to begin later on Friday. At least 48 green and white buses, eight ambulances and several Red Crescent and UN vehicles were lined up at the entrance of Daraya, waiting for the green light.
In a landscape of severely damaged and deserted buildings, some of them charred, black smoke rose on the horizon – caused by the rebels burning their belongings before evacuating, according to Syrian army soldiers.
Safe exit
Under the deal, the government is to allow safe exit to 700 gunmen and let them head to the opposition-held northern province of Idlib . Around 4,000 civilians will be taken to shelters in and around Damascus.
“Idlib will be their graveyard,” said a Syrian army soldier. “This is a precious moment for every Syrian,” he added.
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Daraya, which lies in the western Ghouta region, has suffered thousands of helicopter-dropped, unguided barrel bombs over the years.
It saw some of the first demonstrations against Mr Assad after the uprising against his family rule began in March 2011, during which residents took to the streets, some carrying red and white roses to reflect the peaceful nature of their protests.
It is the latest area to surrender to government troops following years of siege. Opposition activists and human rights groups accuse the government of using siege and starvation tactics to force surrender by the opposition.
The UN’s humanitarian chief Stephen O’Brien told the UN Security Council earlier this year that severe food shortages were forcing some people in Daraya to eat grass. Residents had described burning plastic material to make fuel.
“No one will remain here”, said Hussam Ayash, a Daraya activist.
“We are being forced to leave, but our condition has deteriorated to the point of being unbearable,” he said, ahead of the evacuations. “We withstood for four years but we couldn’t any longer,” he said, choking on his words.
Mr Ayash said the situation became unbearable after the town’s remaining field hospital was bombed and destroyed last week. The government had in recent months also encroached on the town’s agricultural farms – the only source of food for the local population, which he estimated at 8,000 people.
– (AP) | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/middle-east/syrian-government-ends-four-year-siege-on-rebel-damascus-suburb-1.2769427?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/ab672370c89b031eb62769857c78d9bb6013d9e3271f4523683151121085d30e.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T22:51:49 | null | 2016-08-29T23:20:00 | July figures mark first time more than 6,500 people in emergency accommodation | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fireland%2Firish-news%2Fnumbers-in-emergency-accommodation-hits-record-high-1.2772405%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772403.1472509222!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Numbers in emergency accommodation hits record high | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The number of people in emergency accommodation in July was the highest since records began, the Simon Communities in Ireland has said.
Figures for July from the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government show there were 6,525 people in emergency accommodation last month, a year-on-year increase of 40 per cent.
The year-on-year increase for children was 70 per cent, with 2,348 children in emergency accommodation. The number of families was 1,130, an increase of 72 per cent.
The numbers for July mark the first time since figures began to be collected that more than 6,500 people were in emergency accommodation, Simon Communities said in a statement.
“While numbers continue to be highest in Dublin, we are also seeing increasing numbers and the impact of the crisis all around the country.”
Spokeswoman Niamh Randall called on the Government to immediately prioritise the implementation of its action plan for housing and homelessness, Rebuilding Ireland. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/numbers-in-emergency-accommodation-hits-record-high-1.2772405?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/75e77f894d1f21356c435ed0efd2125f9ad36bf51ff34a6c84186f96c5d3e43c.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T12:52:10 | null | 2016-08-30T13:25:00 | iPhone maker says EU’s tax ruling ‘an effort to rewrite Apple’s history in Europe’ | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Ftechnology%2Fapple-says-eu-ruling-will-hit-investment-job-creation-in-europe-1.2772963%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773033.1472559941!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Apple says EU ruling will hit investment, job-creation in Europe | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Apple, the iPhone maker, said the EU’s ruling on Tuesday that it owes Ireland up to €13 billion in unpaid taxes “will have a profound and harmful effect on investment and job-creation in Europe”.
“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 technology giant said in a statement.
The EU’s competition arm said that Apple had been granted selective treatment by Ireland through two tax rulings granted to the company in 1991 and 2007 by the Revenue Commissioners in Dublin.
That treatment allowed Apple to avoid taxation on almost all profits generated by sales of its products in the EU single market because Apple recorded the sales in Ireland rather than where products were sold, the commission said.
However, Apple said the EU’s case was not about how much Apple pays in taxes, it’s about which government collects the money.
“Apple follows the law and pays all of the taxes we owe wherever we operate. We will appeal and we are confident the decision will be overturned,” it said. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/apple-says-eu-ruling-will-hit-investment-job-creation-in-europe-1.2772963?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/f789dd269afc4a3f0116c957b5dbd585942337e96c5e5ef7984608f7af1c9235.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T08:48:39 | null | 2016-08-29T08:03:00 | Insurance group targets return to underwriting profit in fourth quarter | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Ffinancial-services%2Fdavy-hikes-insurer-fbd-s-2017-forecast-by-70-1.2771803.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771802.1472454221!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Davy hikes insurer FBD’s 2017 forecast by 70% | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Davy has hiked its pre-tax profit forecast for FBD by 70 per cent for next year as the insurer continues to turn around its business and raise coverage rates.
The move comes after Ireland’s only publicly-quoted insurer reported earlier this month that its first-half loss narrowed by 96 per cent to €3.65 million as it hiked premiums by an average 7 per cent and avoided having to set aside further reserves for claims from previous years.
The company, which aims to return to underwriting insurance at a profit by the end of this year, having been loss-making since 2014, may post a full-year pretax loss of €157,000 for 2016, according to Davy. FBD reported a €85 million last year.
Davy now sees FBD turning in a pre-tax profit of €16.1 million next year, up 70 per cent from its previous estimate, before earnings almost double the in 2018 to €30.6 million.
Motor claims have soared in recent years as more cars take to the roads in a recovering economy, court awards have been increasing, and insurers have been less able to rely on investment income to cushion the blow, as they grapple with record-low global bond yields.
The Government and various industry initiatives are currently underway to identify and tackle the cause of insurance claims and cost inflation.
FBD chief executive Fiona Muldoon has said that the Personal Injuries Assessment Board legislation needs to be strengthened in the first instance to give PIAB powers to compel co-operation from both sides of a claim “so that every settlement is not adversarial, with two sets of lawyers and two sets of experts”. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/financial-services/davy-hikes-insurer-fbd-s-2017-forecast-by-70-1.2771803 | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/112f4125bfc838c190c505d858e5ec0a098ad65b3e76c490b108e1e5195c3808.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T06:53:24 | null | 2016-08-31T06:00:00 | Blue cheese is the perfect dressing to have with crunchy vegetables or steak | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Flife-and-style%2Ffood-and-drink%2Frecipes%2Flittle-gem-with-blue-cheese-dressing-1.2764747%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2764740.1471882901!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Little gem with blue cheese dressing | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Little gem with blue cheese dressing Blue cheese is the perfect dressing to have with crunchy vegetables or steak
Serves: 4
Cooking Time: 10 mins
Course: Salads
Cuisine: Irish
Ingredients 50g Cashel Blue cheese
Juice of ½ lemon
1tbs yogurt
30g salami
2 little gem lettuce
Method
Mash the blue cheese with the lemon juice and yogurt until smooth, adding a few sprigs of chives, finely snipped. You can use a fork to mash, or else a stick blender or Nutribullet. Taste for seasoning. You won’t need salt, as the cheese is salty enough. Add more yogurt or lemon juice to taste.
Thinly slice the salami and fry until crispy. Leave to cool slightly on paper towels. Quarter the lettuce and place two pieces on to each plate. Crumble over the crispy salami. Drizzle with the dressing and serve right away. | http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/food-and-drink/recipes/little-gem-with-blue-cheese-dressing-1.2764747?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/3d67f517dae6973d4cb7221a59ad5147b62dd0b6562b715ff08f9f2aa13a1909.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T04:50:34 | null | 2016-08-27T05:00:00 | Tech firm may have to billions of dollars in back taxes to Ireland in light of inquiry | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fbrussels-poised-to-strike-down-apple-state-aid-1.2769852%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769847.1472238796!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Brussels poised to strike down Apple ‘State aid’ | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Brussels is poised to hand down an adverse ruling against Ireland after a three-year inquiry into claims the country granted an illegal tax arrangement to Apple, the world’s biggest tech company.
The long-awaited findings, likely to be released next week, follow an intensive effort by the United States to persuade the European Commission to drop the inquiry.
Apple could be on the hook to pay billions of dollars in back taxes to Ireland in light of the finding that tax rulings conferred illegal State aid to Apple by granting it an advantage not made available to other companies.
The commission made no comment on Friday on the timing or substance of its decision.
There is some uncertainty as to whether a precise penalty will be defined in the ruling, JPMorgan, Apple’s investment banker, has said Apple’s potential liability, in a worst-case scenario, could be up to €19 billion. In other assessments, however, the liability may come in at about $1 billion.
An adverse ruling by competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager would be appealed in the European courts by Ireland and Apple, each of whom have strenuously denied any wrongdoing in the tax arrangement.
Any move to issue negative findings without defining the penalty would also prompt Apple and Irish authorities to campaign to minimise the bill.
The Apple case is the biggest single investigation undertaken by the commission in a clampdown on aggressive tax avoidance in Europe by big global companies.
In previous rulings, Ms Vestager has directed the Netherlands to recover back taxes from Starbucks, and Luxembourg to recover back taxes from Fiat. Both rulings are under court appeal.
The commission issued preliminary findings against Ireland in 2014 before initiating an in-depth investigation into tax rulings Apple received from the Dublin authorities in 1991 and 2007. The company has faced criticism in the US Senate for paying a 2 per cent corporate tax rate in Ireland, far lower than the country’s headline 12.5 per cent rate.
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Expectation of an adverse ruling gathered pace this week after the US Treasury issued a stinging attack on the commission’s investigation, saying the EU executive was becoming a “supranational tax authority” that threatened international agreements on tax reform.
Tim Cook, Apple chief executive, who pressed his company’s case in a private meeting with Ms Vestager in January, has always insisted the business fully complied with tax law.
The commission says there has been no bias against any US company in its investigation.
“Under EU state aid rules, national tax authorities cannot give tax benefits to selected companies that are not available to others. These state aid rules and the relevant legal principles have been in place for a long time,” the commission said on Wednesday.
In recent days, expectation intensified in Brussels, Dublin and corporate circles that an unfavourable ruling was in prospect.
The intervention by the Obama administration this week marked a sharp escalation of tension between Washington and Brussels.
Jack Lew, US Treasury secretary, called on the commission in February to reconsider the inquiries. He has come under pressure from the Senate finance committee to consider imposing a double tax rate on European companies if the commission directs Apple to pay back taxes in Ireland.
– (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016) | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/brussels-poised-to-strike-down-apple-state-aid-1.2769852?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/3beb516ac255acc8eedea1e51c831a2e01aa94b1a7608fc0e3bbedbf5cda32c8.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T04:52:49 | null | 2016-08-31T05:10:00 | Food premises has been trading as a green grocer since 1933, earning a reputation as a specialist in fruit and gourmet products | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fcommercial-property%2Froy-fox-premises-in-donnybrook-for-sale-at-over-400-000-1.2772885%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772883.1472547520!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Roy Fox premises in Donnybrook for sale at over €400,000 | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The well-known Roy Fox gourmet food premises in the heart of Donnybrook village in Dublin 4 is on the market at over €400,000 through Vincent Finnegan Commercial.
Located in a pretty enclave just off Donnybrook Road, the shop has been trading for over 50 years in an area that has long been a destination for gourmet food lovers. It is beside Molloys fish shop and opposite Bective, Wesley and Belvedere rugby clubs, Bective and Donnybrook tennis clubs and Merrion Cricket Club.
The Roy Fox premises is a single retail unit with 57sq m (613sq ft) of retail space. It has been trading as a green grocer since 1933, earning a reputation as a specialist in fruit and gourmet food products.
It comes to the market with vacant possession and has a ratable value of €20,900 which gave a rates bill for 2016 of €5,350.
The shop was run for many years by Des Donnelly, an ebullient greengrocer who died in 2008.
Its colourful display of fresh produce bursting out of its premises was a much-loved sight in Donnybrook.
The property is zoned “Z4 District Centres” with the objective to “provide for and improve mixed-services facilities” in the current Draft Dublin City Development Plan 2016-2022. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/commercial-property/roy-fox-premises-in-donnybrook-for-sale-at-over-400-000-1.2772885?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/e39262e9467a74d99fd8155a6beb88905d0e1b4afd44f9469a9f5c4d4a213221.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T04:51:55 | null | 2016-08-30T05:45:00 | Mayo Renewable Power’s difficulties are problems that could affect many businesses | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fenergy-and-resources%2Fcantillon-banks-lacking-expertise-in-lending-to-utilities-1.2772286%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772353.1472506139!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Cantillon: Banks lacking expertise in lending to utilities | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | In the background to the difficulties that Mayo Renewable Power has encountered with finance are problems that could affect many other Irish businesses.
The projects’s US backer, Weichert Enterprises, has provided €90 million of the €180 million required, €10 million more than it originally committed. However, a number of factors conspired to ensure that its three lenders, AIB, Ulster and British bank, Barclays, did not contribute any of the €118 million that they originally signed up to provide.
Barclays pulled out earlier this summer because of the uncertainty surrounding the UK vote to leave the EU. All three banks had to sign off on the company’s decision to change the supplier of a boiler, a key component for its proposed electricity generator in Mayo, and this delayed funding. A lawsuit in the US further compounded its problems.
Commentators say that one of the consequences of the financial crash and subsequent downsizing of the banks eight years ago was the loss of expertise needed to lend to projects such as the renewable power plant that the company is building.
Lending to utilities is a specialised business, normally done by teams within each bank that have built up expertise over a period. As the Irish lenders effectively shut up shop in the closing months of 2007, those teams left, taking their expertise with them.
The banks are only now rebuilding those teams, meaning that big ticket projects, with the potential to deliver real wealth and jobs to the country, could face delays getting finance here, or will have to look abroad.
The consequence of their having to go abroad is, of course, that some of the wealth they create will end up gracing someone else’s balance sheet, instead of being recycled back into the Irish economy, where it belongs. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/energy-and-resources/cantillon-banks-lacking-expertise-in-lending-to-utilities-1.2772286?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/a160d13cd8c77e9b4315959ad4f9717259e441cf78a8adc0581666551bd54889.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T00:52:17 | null | 2016-08-30T01:07:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fopinion%2Fletters%2Ffrance-and-the-burkini-1.2772147%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/assets/images/favicons/irishtimes.png | en | null | France and the ‘burkini’ | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | A chara, – In her letter of August 27th, Judith Goldberger states, “Women have the right to wear whatever they want”. If only. – Is mise,
MOYA NÍ ÉILÍ,
Baile Átha Cliath 4.
Sir, – Gareth Keeley (August 27th) may wish to note that I made no claims whatsoever on behalf of feminism (August 26th). I simply pointed out the indefensible double standards at work. Even a cursory glance at the behaviour and raison d’être of the monotheistic religions Judaism, Christianity and Islam today and throughout the ages will show incontrovertible evidence that they have always been used as an instrument of oppression of women, sanctimonious protestations to the contrary notwithstanding. The nexus for such oppression is invariably a woman’s body, her sexuality and her bodily integrity. We in Ireland must surely be well aware of that. – Yours, etc,
PATRICIA MULKEEN,
Ballinfull, Co Sligo.
Sir , – Dr Gareth Keeley (August 27th) refers to the “French government’s knee-jerk reaction to recent atrocities”. Surely he will realise, as a resident of France, that the recent spate of rules and regulations imposing this ridiculous ban are local ordinances and as such are largely the work of self-seeking, populist politicians anxious to jump on the anti-Islam bandwagon in an attempt to secure their share of the small-minded and openly racist right-wing vote.
The highest administrative court in France has now declared that the ban is a “serious and manifestly illegal attack on fundamental liberties” and in so doing has reasserted the highest principals of the constitution and the republic. That is the France that I choose to remember and appreciate. – Yours, etc,
DAVID ATCHESON,
Greystones,
Co Wicklow. | http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/france-and-the-burkini-1.2772147?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/71fc6c2f6277d473bd6ef528b2042d5595310b01ebca9eae012574d28f11fc26.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T08:51:26 | null | 2016-08-29T08:07:00 | As usual, it is the poor and young who are suffering the most amid the renting crisis | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fopinion%2Funa-mullally-tiny-flats-and-endless-queues-creating-bunk-bed-generation-1.2771805%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771804.1472454433!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Una Mullally: Tiny flats and endless queues creating bunk bed generation | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | How many times can we write about the renting crisis? How many times can we ask serious questions about the state of dereliction across Dublin in buildings where people could actually live without new homes being built? How many students are going to be panicking and stressed out when they arrive in the capital with nowhere to live?
How many people are standing in lines outside overpriced properties right now with scraped-together deposits in their pockets? How many people are crashing on their friend’s couches and floors? How many are still sleeping in their childhood bedrooms well into their 20s and 30s?
How could anyone rent if they only get €100 a week on the dole? How many housing plans favour developers? How many landlords are seizing the moment with cynicism and greed, packing people in like sardines or upping rents to upsettingly unattainable prices? And why are we still asking these questions when the crisis has been so apparent for so long?
Underclass
As usual, it’s the poor and young who are suffering the most: the unemployed, young families, young couples, single people and students. This is the struggling and largely invisible housing underclass, people whose don’t have the fallback of moving home, and so their options are homelessness, getting on stagnant housing lists or living in poor conditions.
Because tenants’ rights aren’t strong, because this massive group doesn’t lobby, they possess little political power. They take what they can get, and increasingly, what they can get is an absolute rip-off. With rents higher than at the peak of the Celtic Tiger, all the current and last governments’ efforts to solve the problem appear inadequate, slow, and uncaring.
Tiny apartments and endless queues are creating a bunk bed generation, where grown adults are offered the type of sleeping arrangements that most people retired along with their Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles duvet covers. Landlords are turning properties into glorified hostels, stacking beds high to maximise profit.
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Browsing through the appropriately named Daft property website is shocking and depressing. €300 a month for a spot in a bunk bed in a one-bedroom flat with four beds within arm’s reach of each other on Parnell Street; €450 a month for a single bed in a room of two single beds in a flat on Bolton Street; €950 a month for a room on Waterloo Road.
€320 for a single bed in a bedroom shared with two other people in Rathmines; €485 for a single bed in a shared bedroom in Rathmines; €440 a month for a spot in a bunk bed in a house that looks laden down with them in Portobello, which according to the photos seems to have one bedroom with two bunk bed sets, and another with three, which would earn the landlord €4,400 a month; €295 a month for a single bed in a room shared with two other people on Dorset Street.
The problem with “solutions” offered by Government is that they are piecemeal ones. There does not seem to be a cohesive joined-up plan that will genuinely tackle the crisis and fix the problem. As the Central Bank’s rules on mortgage-lending solidified, the reality struck that only rich people can buy houses in Ireland now.
Among non-rich young people, that means unless a parent or two gives you a dig out and a chunk – or all – of your deposit, you’re stuck in an increasingly dystopian private rental sector. Those who do not have a wealthy parent or parents are excluded from buying a home. That is just wrong.
By introducing another half-baked measure, the two-year rent control limit, landlords took the opportunity to increase rents before the rule came into effect. And what do you think will happen when those two years are up? It will offer landlords another window to increase rents again.
Rent has jumped 39 per cent since 2011, according to Ronan Lyons, who authored the most recent Daft report. Sure, some new student accommodation is being built, but it’s not available yet, and construction of student accommodation in Dublin should have begun decades ago.
Massive profits
Instead, developers and landlords were allowed build apartment developments that had nothing to do with people in cities who actually needed housing, and everything to do with making massive profits.
Supply is cited as the greatest problem again and again, but dereliction and vacancy is also a massive issue. The Urban Regeneration and Housing Act 2015 introduced the vacant site levy, but this won’t be payable until 2019 – another horse-has-bolted moment. An audit by Dublin City Council last year found 282 vacant or derelict sites in central Dublin - 61 hectares of land. That is nearly seven times the size of St Stephen’s Green park.
While renters struggle and queue, and get served notice so landlords can increase rent, while people desperately scroll through Daft and borrow money from friends and family, while housing lists creak and working people crawl into bunk beds, the reality is our government has never cared about renters, and the disjointed slow-motion scramble to address the crisis is too little too late. | http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/una-mullally-tiny-flats-and-endless-queues-creating-bunk-bed-generation-1.2771805?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/898b4b0da253379a4334c7bba2ecee95d504b32c899e4eeb6c5b085e8a5362b0.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T06:49:01 | 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.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 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/a97c6ea716073a574686352cfe7a759c12701cc6233931af84d0ef4af20bfad7.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T18:51:06 | null | 2016-08-28T18:30:00 | Mother launches annual charity run in daughter’s memory and say is writing a book | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fcrime-and-law%2Ffiona-pender-appeal-for-information-20-years-after-disappearance-1.2771182%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771180.1472405388!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Fiona Pender: Appeal for information 20 years after disappearance | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The mother of missing Offaly woman Fiona Pender launched the third annual charity run and walk in her daughter’s memory on Sunday, and revealed she also is writing a book on the disappearance.
Scores of people attended the event, which takes place annually along the 4.5km Fiona’s Way walk along the Grand Canal in Tullamore.
Lone piper Catriona Lloyd played a tune she had composed for Fiona as the walk got under way.
Fiona Pender was seven months pregnant when she disappeared 20 years ago in August 1996. The 25-year-old hairdresser and part-time model was last seen at the flat she shared with her boyfriend on Church Street in Tullamore.
Addressing the crowd from her wheelchair, Fiona’s mother Josephine, who has been in ill-health in recent years, thanked those who had attended.
“It is lovely to see you all and see all the same old faces. You never let us down. We are very glad to be in Tullamore, you are all supporting us very well and we couldn’t ask for better,” she told the gathering.
Speaking after the walk began, Josephine said: “I think Fiona was murdered, because she wouldn’t stay away from me this long and she wouldn’t have left me and not tell me where she was. The only thing then is that she was murdered.”
Appeal for information
She again appealed for information in relation to Fiona’s disappearance. “My message as always, it’s to the chief suspect. I doubt if he’ll ever tell me where Fiona is but there is people in the town who would have known things as well and if they come forward and say something it would help an awful lot,” she said.
Josephine and Fiona’s younger brother John have endured multiple tragedies and have had their hopes dashed on a number of occasions, most recently during a major search of woodland in Co Laois in December 2014.
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Just over a year before Fiona disappeared, her brother Mark was killed in a road traffic incident. Then four years after she vanished, Fiona’s father Sean took his own life - a death Josephine attributes to the impact of Fiona’s disappearance.
Despite the family’s anguish and the as yet fruitless searches for Fiona, Josephine remains hopeful she will one day be able to provide her daughter and unborn grandchild with a Christian burial.
She said she is not interested in justice and only wants to bury her child and grandchild. “It will never be at an end but if I could find Fiona and lay her to rest with a bit of dignity, that is what I would love, for John and myself,” she said.
‘I can’t give up’
“I still keep hoping. I can’t give up, it would be like giving up on Fiona, which I would never ever do,” Josephine added.
Regarding a book she said she is writing, she said: “It starts from me meeting my husband in the rugby club 45 years ago and it sort of goes on from there.
“We always made sure to do family things with them so that they would have these things to remember, but it’s us that has them to remember now, but it’s great to have them. Then it goes into what happened to Fiona,” she remarked.
Josephine has been working on the book for some time. She had hoped to have the book out before Christmas, but now believes it might not be out until sometime afterwards.
The proceeds from the annual walk and run along Fiona’s Way in Tullamore are be donated to homeless charities. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/fiona-pender-appeal-for-information-20-years-after-disappearance-1.2771182?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/b8675d4f6f392a72ee373db7e3800eb6520c0a3882739a90885972716e23496d.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T00:52:33 | null | 2016-08-31T01:04:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fopinion%2Fletters%2Fschool-patronage-1.2773376%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/assets/images/favicons/irishtimes.png | en | null | School patronage | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | A chara, – The “ambitious” announcement of a programme of divestment of patronage of schools from the Catholic Church is a bit like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic (“State to treble rate of school divestment”, August 29th). Can nobody see the iceberg?
Replacing one dominant patron with another is hardly visionary. The use of a subsidiarity model where the State devolves the delivery of services (especially health and education) to non-statutory bodies to avoid responsibility has been seen for what it is by the European courts, which judged that responsibility for what happens in schools lies with the State.
Replacing one patron with a plethora of disparate patrons allows for the possibility of a more segregated system rather than a more integrated one. It has the potential to allow parents opt out based on a range of considerations.
Having the State responsible for schools would eliminate the duplication of information to schools by numerous bodies, including patrons, their agents, interest groups and the Department of Education and Skills. This duplication results in a lack of clarity, which is often compounded by the spin applied by unions and professional bodies.
The local education and training boards are well placed to facilitate a smooth transition from the patronage model. – Is mise,
SEÁN Ó DÍOMASAIGH,
Dunsany,
Co Meath. | http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/school-patronage-1.2773376?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/14ce4be99346c3baf27293308448441300d4cfd1f46a43a48287ee054990afed.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T10:52:09 | 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%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.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?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/562231b9eca39025a1c83399f9fe855f2e150b95a29b34b006d31a67d3392093.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T06:49:10 | null | 2016-08-30T05:45:00 | State company believes it should not be stuck with cost of uneconomic rural phone lines | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Feir-launches-legal-challenge-against-rural-phone-services-duty-1.2772301.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772299.1472501231!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Eir launches legal challenge against rural phone services duty | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Eir is challenging the law requiring it to provide rural phone services under the universal social obligation (USO).
The State’s largest telco believes it should no longer be saddled with cost of connecting uneconomic rural lines with the advent of broadband and mobile phone services.
The company plans to take regulator ComReg to court to have part of USO designation relating to access at a fixed location overturned.
It is due to file a statement of claim with the High Court in the coming days, which will outline its arguments in more detail.
If successful, a major plank of universal service, designed to ensure every person can receive basic telecommunications services, no matter where they live, may become a thing of the past.
“Eir has lodged an appeal in the High Court as we believe Ireland no longer needs a universal service provider for voice services given the commercial rollout of fibre already delivered, future plans for fibre rollout and mobile services in place,” the company said in a statement to The Irish Times.
ComReg declined to comment other than to say that it planned to publish an information note on the issue later in the week.
Under its USO, Eir is obliged to connect homes and businesses in rural areas up to a cost threshold of €7,000 after which the customer must cover part of the connection cost.
The USO also obliges Eir to provide phone boxes in remote locations, publish telephone directories and provide certain disability services, but these services are not thought to part of Eir’s legal challenge.
In July, the regulator re-designated Eir as the State’s universal social provider (USP) for another five years, a move that appears to have prompted the company’s legal challenge.
Ronan Lupton of Alto, the umbrella group for non-Eir firms, disputed Eir’s assertion that the availability of broadband warranted the move away from USO and the company’s specific USP designation, citing the 920,000 homes and businesses, which have been earmarked for state intervention under the National Broadband Plan.
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He also highlighted that Eir’s obligations under the USO mandated the upkeep and repair of the existing telecoms network, claiming that Eir’s performance has been substandard.
Non-Eir companies – Sky, Vodafone, BT and Magnet which use Eir’s network to deliver their own bundles – are in a separate dispute with the former semi-State over fault repair times, which they claims are too long and fall below European industry norms, a claim the company rejects.
Eir has been lobbying ComReg to have the cost of providing rural phone services, which it estimates to be about €10 million a year, shared among providers.
To this end, it lodged a series of retrospective funding claims, dating back to 2010 and totalling €45 million, with the regulator.
Eir reclaims part of the connection costs via line rental charges but argues the overall costs should be shared among operators as customers can choose different service providers when connected.
ComReg has ruled against the first of these claims , while judgments on the others are still pending.
The European Commission is considering introducing a USO for broadband across member states as part of wider plans to revamp its digital agenda.
Minister for Communications Denis Naughten has already signalled his intention to consider introducing such a legal imperative here once the NBP is in place. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/eir-launches-legal-challenge-against-rural-phone-services-duty-1.2772301 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/e4b8be9fd62ffe22a2d5e3abc8da238b7335601f49d13faa1349b1772b00fb1e.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T12:52:16 | null | 2016-08-30T11:59:00 | His agent Jonathan Barnett told Tuttosport: ‘Yes, Joe Hart will play at Torino. It’s done’ | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fsoccer%2Fenglish-soccer%2Fjoe-hart-joins-torino-on-season-long-loan-deal-1.2772967%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772966.1472554751!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Joe Hart joins Torino on season-long loan deal | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart has joined Serie A side Torino on loan until the end of the season, the player’s agent confirmed on Tuesday.
The 29-year-old has been out of favour at Manchester City since the arrival of new manager Pep Guardiola and dropped to number three in the pecking order behind new signing Claudio Bravo and Willy Caballero.
Hart’s agent Jonathan Barnett told Tuttosport: “Yes, Joe Hart will play at Torino. It’s done.
“He has said ‘yes’ to the club and now Manchester City have given the OK. It’s all true, it’s certain.”
Hart is on international duty with England this week but has been given permission to fly to Italy to resolve his future with the British media reporting that he was due to arrive in Turin later on Tuesday.
A loan move to Premier League Sunderland was also listed among his options in the media but Hart has opted for a new start in Italy, where he will become the first English goalkeeper to play in Serie A since the league began in 1929.
Torino thrashed Bologna 5-1 on Sunday in their latest Serie A start and are seventh in the standings on three points after two matches. | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/english-soccer/joe-hart-joins-torino-on-season-long-loan-deal-1.2772967?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/0af6cd0925143313fd36a55636adfda520cb1c968fa1d16435342a7754cf6d23.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:07:03 | null | 2016-08-26T13:00:00 | Fatboy Slim, Boys Noize, Roy Harper, Tunes In The Church, Marcel Dettmann, Family Comedy Weekend and more | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fculture%2Fgoing-out-the-best-of-what-s-on-this-weekend-1.2768202%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2768201.1472132344!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Going out: the best of what’s on this weekend | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Friday
Roy Harper
DeBarras, Clonakilty, Cork, 8.30pm, €25
debarra.ie
At 75 years of age, Manchester- born songwriter Roy Harper shows little sign of retreating. He has lived in Co Cork for some years and so this venue is well known to him; expect, then, a familiar atmosphere, and a traipse through some of the most original baroque-folk songs of the past 40 years.
Prosumer
Pyg, Dublin, 9pm, €10 (also Twitch, Belfast, Sat)
soundcloud.com/prosumer
As a long-time resident at Berlin’s Panorama Bar, Achim “Prosumer” Brandenburg soundtracked the top floor of the fabled Berghain club with warm house and tech grooves. Originally from Saarbruecken and now based in Edinburgh, his adventures as a DJ began when he worked behind the counter at Hard Wax in Berlin before moving on to spin tunes at clubs worldwide. Support in Dublin from Colin Perkins, with Chug and the Twitch DJs in Belfast.
Boys Noize
Opium Rooms, Dublin, 10.30pm, €27.50/€25
boysnoize.com
Alex Ridha is the dude behind Boys Noize, someone who has proven to be a very successful operator when it comes to tough, infectious, dancefloor-friendly electro, house and techno. As a DJ, producer, remixer and artist (check his Mayday album from a few months back for a sample of his smarts), Ridha’s releases for International Deejay Gigolo, Kitsune, Turbo and his own Boys Noize have established his credentials as someone who knows how to tweak and turn a cut to rock a club. Support from DeFeKT.
Trouble Pilgrims/The Drays
Whelan’s, Dublin, 8pm, €15
whelanslive.com
There is an argument to be made for fuller appreciation of musicians of once critically acclaimed rock bands, and here are two of the strongest ones – Trouble Pilgrim features former members of The Radiators, and The Drays former members of Stars of Heaven. Each current band continues to deliver, respectively, gnarly garage punk (Trouble Pilgrim) and graceful Americana-hued rock (The Drays).
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Tunes In The Church
St Nicholas’ Collegiate Church, Galway, Fri-Mon, 8pm, €15
tunesinthechurch.com
Solo harper Kathleen Loughnane kicks off the final weekend of concerts curated by Cormac Begley throughout the summer in this fine venue. It’s a place where well known and emerging musicians share equal billing, and this weekend is no different. Tomorrow night, Yvonne Casey and Terry Bingham celebrate the natural companionship that unites fiddle and accordion, and on Sunday, harpist Úna Ní Fhlannagáin sheds another light on our national instrument: fittingly, given the raft of commemorations happening throughout this centenary year. The final session on Monday will see Japanese duo, Junji Shirota and Mareka wrap these summer tunes in the church up with guitar and fiddle. A suitably lateral thinking end to an eclectic programme of concerts.
Caitlín and Ciarán
Park Hotel, Glengarriff, 8pm, €14/€12
caitlin.ie
A duo who have been steeped in the tradition from the cradle, Caitlín Nic Gabhann is a concertina player and sean nós dancer with a lightness of touch that stretches from her fingers to her feet. Ciarán Ó Maonaigh, a former TG4 Young Traditional Musician of the Year, is a fiddle player with a richly diverse repertoire. Their eponymous album from last year, set the bar high, so no surprise that they’re touring extensively to celebrate it.
Saturday
Jika Jika!
Ebrington Square, Derry, 2pm, £20,
facebook.com/JikaJika
It’s a big night for the Jika Jika! team as they oversee the Cocoon takeover in the heart of Derry. Label boss Sven Vath is the big draw on the bill, the German producer who has been overseeing quality techno releases since back in his Harthouse and Eye Q days. He’ll be joined in the northwest by Josh “Higher State of Consciousness” Wink, Christian Burkhardt, Dana Ruh and the Jika Jika! DJs.
Marcel Dettmann
Limelight, Belfast, 9.30pm, £17
marceldettmannrecords.de
Anyone who’s ever gone to – or even tried to go to – Berlin’s Berghain will know its long-standing resident Marcel Dettmann. One of the current bigwigs on the worldwide club circuit, Dettmann always draws a crowd with his tough, minimal, melodic style of techno. As a producer, he’s also highly regarded, with releases on Berghain’s in-house label Ostgut Ton and his own MDR. Support from Belfast tech don Phil Kieran and the excellent Schmutz.
Fatboy Slim
Titanic, Belfast, 6pm, £35
belsonic.com
Belfast’s Belsonic series comes to a close for 2016 with some Saturday night fever courtesy of the DJ who has been successfully bringing the rave to clubs, arenas and beaches and stages for yonks. It’s 20 years since Norman Cook introduced Fatboy Slim to the world. Cook is a man with many different alter-egos – see Freak Power, Beats International and Pizzaman, for instance – but Fatboy Slim’s fondness for good times and clubtastic highs have seen him prosper. Support from Sydney house-pop wizards Hugo Gruzman and James Lyell aka Flight Facilities.
Sunday
Family Comedy Weekend
Farmleigh house, Phoenix Park, Dublin Also Sat
punchlion.ie 087-6442991
A free weekend of family comedy shows and workshops, with the likes of Joe Rooney (Father Ted), Paul Tylak (The Secret of Kells), Reuben (RTEjr), Sharon Mannion (Dublin Comedy Improv), Marcus O’Laoire (Republic of Telly) and Kevin Gildea (Father Ted), along with Guido Fanzini’s Impossible Circus. Workshops are for children aged 5-7 and 8-12 on a first come, first served basis. | http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/going-out-the-best-of-what-s-on-this-weekend-1.2768202?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/e5aca3616d260b9920ca3a0b33934eb19205ad0f1da0d9a80d71df2eb21f3fae.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T12:52:23 | null | 2016-08-30T12:23:00 | Activists protest against treatment of former Assembly member Daithí McKay | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fireland%2Firish-news%2F18-sinn-f%25C3%25A9in-members-resign-from-party-in-north-antrim-1.2772982%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772981.1472556227!/image/image.jpg | en | null | 18 Sinn Féin members resign from party in North Antrim | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Sinn Féin has expressed disappointment after 18 party activists resigned from the party in what they said was the unfair treatment of former Assembly member Daithí McKay.
The former North Antrim MLA was forced to resign over allegations that he helped “coach” loyalist blogger and flags protester Jamie Bryson to try to damage former DUP leader and First Minister Peter Robinson.
Sinn Féin also suspended Mr McKay, who was accused of colluding with Mr Bryson. It is alleged that last September, when he was chairman of the Assembly finance committee, Mr McKay “coached” and facilitated Mr Bryson to claim Mr Robinson was to financially gain from the £1.2 billion sale of Nama’s Northern Ireland property portfolio to US investment company Cerberus. Mr Robinson said this claim was “scurrilous and unfounded”.
Now 18 Sinn Féin members in North Antrim have quit the party in protest at the manner in which Mr McKay was compelled to resign as an Assembly member. They also protested against the impending co-option of his successor to the Assembly, Philip McGuigan.
The Sinn Féin members said it was “inconceivable” that they would remain in the party after the way Mr McKay was treated. They also deplored what they called the “anointing” of Causeway Coast and Glens Borough councillor Mr McGuigan as his successor.
Among those who left the party are Monica Digney, a former councillor who was the first Sinn Féin member elected to Ballymena Council, and Paul Maguire, a member of Mid and East Antrim council. Mr Maguire said he would continue to sit as an independent and added that other resignations may follow.
A Sinn Féin spokesman said the party was disappointed at the resignations. “Daithí McKay acknowledged that his contact with loyalist Jamie Bryson was inappropriate and wrong,” he said.
“Sinn Féin’s Cuige Uladh consulted with party activists in the North Antrim area and, following approval by the party’s ardchomhairle, Philip McGuigan was co-opted as an MLA for the constituency,” added the spokesman.
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“Sinn Féin will continue to provide first-class representation for the people of North Antrim,” he said. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/18-sinn-f%C3%A9in-members-resign-from-party-in-north-antrim-1.2772982?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/e09f1b617884b435161eb2930973481390aebec402bd165a586a6b055127a776.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T18:50:31 | null | 2016-08-27T17:26:00 | Shkodran Mustafi and Lucas Perez set to be unveiled early next week | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fsoccer%2Fenglish-soccer%2Farsene-wenger-confirms-new-recruits-after-impressive-win-over-watford-1.2770842%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2770840.1472321478!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Arsene Wenger confirms new recruits after impressive win over Watford | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Watford 1 Arsenal 3
Arsene Wenger saw his Arsenal side win their first Premier League game of the season with a comfortable 3-1 victory at Watford before insisting there is more to come from his players as they close in on two new recruits.
An early Santi Cazorla penalty was added to by Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Özil as the Gunners raced into a commanding first-half lead at Vicarage Road.
They visibly tired after the interval and Watford pulled a goal back as club-record signing Roberto Pereyra scored a debut goal, but the hosts could not find a way to set up a grandstand finish.
The victory follows an opening-day defeat at home to Liverpool and a goalless draw at champions Leicester and, with the double signing of Valencia defender Shkodran Mustafi and Deportivo’s Lucas Perez all-but secured, Wenger is expecting his side to keep improving following a slow start.
“I think overall the performance was a strong one,” he said.
“Very fluent and a massive first half. We were 3-0 up at half-time and in the second half we still created many chances but we missed something in the final ball, like we did at Leicester.
“We are not capable in the end to maintain completely for 90 minutes exactly the same intensity physically, but overall it’s a very encouraging performance and a good win.”
Wenger, who confirmed it is merely a case of completing the paperwork to bring in Mustafi and Perez after both passed medicals on Friday, singled out Özil for praise and will feel vindicated for easing the Germany international back into action following his Euro 2016 exertions.
Asked about how good Özil’s performance was, Wenger replied: “Especially in the first half.
“In the second half he dropped physically, but of course, we need him. I think what we’ve seen from him today is what we want from him, to give assists, but he is going to score goals.
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“So I am very happy that he scored today because that is what he is trying to add to his game.”
The Frenchman then revealed how close the club are to sealing deals for Mustafi and Perez.
“I think they should go through, both of them,” he said.
“They had medicals. We have to finish the paperwork and I don’t know exactly when we will announce it but look, I think it could be announced at the beginning of the week.”
Walter Mazzarri is still waiting for his first win as Watford boss having lost three out of four games in all competitions since his summer appointment.
But the Italian was pleased with his side’s second-half response and praised his quartet of debutants.
“The first half was all Arsenal but the second half was all for us. We played a good game,” he said.
“There were a few things that went against us. We lost two main players today so the rest of the team was not quite ready for that situation.
“We are working and the results will come. In the second half we played good football and we should have scored more.
“Cech was amazing and made some great saves. Pereyra, (Daryl) Janmaat, (Younes) Kaboul and (Isaac) Success all came in and did very well.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/english-soccer/arsene-wenger-confirms-new-recruits-after-impressive-win-over-watford-1.2770842?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/eb6f9a7de847d1add5afa54dc63c6f1946fee074d3e2b2fb7877e8952743daf8.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T18:51:20 | null | 2016-08-28T19:32:00 | Trends for US employment and inflation are in right direction, says rate setter | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fus-interest-rate-increase-case-compelling-says-fed-figure-1.2771218%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771216.1472409141!/image/image.jpg | en | null | US interest rate increase case compelling, says Fed figure | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | One of the United States Federal Reserve’s rate-setters has described the case for a further increase in short-term interest rates as “compelling”, arguing that the trends for employment and inflation are in the right direction.
Loretta Mester, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, said the US economy had “proven itself to be resilient through a number of shocks” which was why a gradual upward path for the federal funds target range was appropriate.
Upside risks
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) member acknowledged there still might be negative risks looming overseas – for example, the slower Chinese growth rate and the aftermath of the Brexit vote – but she argued that the central bank also needed to recognise “upside” risks.
“If you inappropriately keep interest rates too low for too long then you put yourself in a position of perhaps having to raise interest rates more strongly in the future,” said Ms Mester, who votes on rates this year as part of the regular rotation between regional Fed presidents. “Those are the kind of risks we have to weigh . . . We have to be very deft about it.”
Her words follow a speech from Janet Yellen, the Fed chair, who signalled a rate increase was on the cards in the coming months.
Ms Yellen’s intervention at the Kansas City Fed’s symposium at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, came after a number of other Fed colleagues including Stanley Fischer, the vice-chair of the Federal Reserve board, and Bill Dudley, the president of the New York Fed, signalled they were open to a move. However, the minutes to the Fed’s July meeting suggested there were deep divisions among policymakers over how quickly to move.
Ms Mester was also attending the symposium at Jackson Lake Lodge. While second-quarter gross domestic product figures were soft at 1.1 per cent annualised growth, she argued that the consumer part of the economy was still quite strong, and employment was making progress.
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Inflation goal
In terms of what monetary policy can do with respect to maximising employment, “we are about there”, she argued. “I think that basically we are at the point where we have met that goal, and I think we are very close to meeting the inflation goal in terms of the path being up to 2 per cent over the next couple of years.”
Ms Mester declined to say what her decision would be at the Fed’s September meeting, saying she wanted to review all the economic data at that time and listen to her colleagues. But she added: “Making another gradual step – there is a compelling case for that.”
In a separate interview, fellow FOMC voter James Bullard of the St Louis Fed sounded ambivalent over whether a move should come as soon as September. Earlier this summer Mr Bullard switched to a dovish stance after his bank’s economists adopted a new approach to analysing the US. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016) | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/us-interest-rate-increase-case-compelling-says-fed-figure-1.2771218?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/c5480a6e040c75545faabef99e7722f1d105c405462285bc3af215078ba6c34e.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T12:51:48 | null | 2016-08-29T12:04:00 | Cliff Taylor answers the big questions ahead of the European Commission’s decision | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fq-a-what-exactly-is-at-stake-in-the-apple-tax-issue-1.2771902%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771896.1472471378!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Q&A: What exactly is at stake in the Apple tax issue? | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The European Commission is expected to shortly issue its final decision on the way Apple paid tax in Ireland.
How did it start?
In 2013 a key subcommittee of the US Senate held hearings into the tax affairs of various big US companies, amid a growing controversy about how little tax they paid on profits earned outside the US.
The hearings were chaired by high-profile senators John McCain and Carl Levin, and Apple chief executive Tim Cook was among those called for questioning. The hearings highlighted how two significant Apple subsidiaries in Ireland had paid tax of 2 per cent or less on profits over many years, well below the headline Irish corporation tax rate of 12.5 per cent.
The senators dubbed Ireland a “tax haven”, a point hotly disputed by the Irish government. Apple said it had got a tax incentive deal when it came to Ireland in the 1980s, but that it had not received any special treatment – and had established huge operations here that were central to its European operations.
Where did the European Commission come in?
In 2014, the European Commission announced that it was opening an investigation into the tax arrangement of Apple in Ireland, Starbucks in the Netherlands and Fiat and Amazon in Luxembourg.
It is important to understand the basis for these investigations. The EU Commission is claiming that EU member states – including Ireland – offered illegal state aid to the US companies involved. In other words, it is saying Ireland offered Apple a deal that was overly generous and not on offer to other companies.
The commission’s decision will thus be against Ireland – though obviously it has implications for Apple.
So what exactly is the commission looking at?
As with all such investigations, this comes down to specifics. The commission is looking at two so-called “tax rulings” issued by the Revenue Commissioners to Apple in 1911 and 2007.
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These rulings are common and give companies some certainty about how the Revenue will impose taxes. However, in the case of Apple, the European Commission argues that a proper basis was not used for agreeing how Apple would be taxed – and that the Irish Revenue effectively gave the US giant a good deal, in recognition of it providing jobs and investment here.
The details relate to the way Apple accounted for costs and revenues across Europe – and how this led to significant profits for its Irish operations – and the way the profits of its two key subsidiaries here were calculated.
What do we expect the commission to conclude?
The commission already issued a preliminary decision in 2014 saying it believed Ireland offered Apple illegal state aid. It looks certain to confirm this in its final ruling. It will then tell Ireland it must collect tax from Apple that the US company should have paid over the years.
The big uncertainty is the figure. Earlier estimates,largely based on a report by investment bankers JP Morgan, were that the commission could tell Ireland to recoup up to €19 billion – an enormous sum. Expectations are that the final figure will be much lower.
In Dublin the hope is that it can be kept under €1 billion, though nobody knows for sure.
What happens when the decision gets issued?
There will be a storm of international publicity, given the huge international interest in the issue. Rightly or wrongly, other European countries and the US will all feel that some of this tax revenue rightly belongs to them, rather than Ireland.
Ireland and Apple are seen as certain to appeal the decision to the European courts. However the Government may be obliged to issue a tax demand to Apple in the coming months in any case. The legal appeal process could go on for years.
So is this more cash for the exchequer?
It is a potential windfall –but one that the Government does not want. Ironically, the Government will be appealing a decision that a big company must pay it money. The Government will argue that it has no option, given the impact of the negative decision on Ireland’s long-term drive to attract inward investment and the fears it could create among other companies here.
The greater the amount of cash involved, the bigger will be the political controversy over this.
Ministers have been told that if the money is paid to the State at some stage , EU rules would mean that – as it is a once-off payment – it would have to be used to pay down debt, rather than used to fund extra Government spending.
Much will depend on how much cash is involved.
The Government will appeal the decision – no matter what political flak this involved.
But the bigger the amount, the trickier the politics of this will be,both at home and abroad. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/q-a-what-exactly-is-at-stake-in-the-apple-tax-issue-1.2771902?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/6da66d741a53b8e1450df30745a077019efbd26345cad4afb0d45b223a49e9b7.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T16:51:05 | 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%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.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?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/3509e0711f65a2f50942ffb351f66c970ee13fcf97d7dd2ee13b93d82f69239f.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T18:52:26 | null | 2016-08-30T18:22:00 | Ireland seen as attractive alternative post Brexit vote given similarities with UK structures | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fmore-than-35-london-financial-firms-eye-dublin-switch-1.2773412%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773164.1472577702!/image/image.jpg | en | null | More than 35 London financial firms eye Dublin switch | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Irish officials say they have had more than 35 concrete enquiries from London-based financial groups looking at setting up a base or expanding in Ireland following the Brexit vote.
Dublin is one of a handful of European cities trying to draw business away from Britain’s financial centre.
“Post-Brexit, it’s meant a lot more meetings, more phone calls and a lot more travel,” said Eoghan Murphy, Minister of State for Financial Services. “I’m in daily contact with different players in the industry.”
Ireland is trying to woo companies with the offer of a contracting entity, a legal toehold on the island that could be expanded when Britain leaves the EU, allowing them to keep the same access to the European market.
Businesses are being courted by other financial centres including Frankfurt and Paris as executives consider alternatives to London while British prime minister Theresa May weighs when to trigger two-year-long exit negotiations.
Some, particularly in fund management and insurance, say they are warming to Dublin.
Insurers Admiral and Beazley have said they are considering moving more business to Ireland while the funds arm of insurer Prudential is looking at expanding Dublin operations.
Mark Hemsley, the European head of pan-European stock exchange Bats, said that Ireland was “attractive because it’s the most similar to the UK structure”.
Two lawyers who advise financial services firms told Reuters that a group of fewer than a dozen executives would be enough to open an arm for an insurer or fund manager in Ireland. Moving part of a bank, however, would typically be a bigger task, requiring more capital and staff to be relocated.
‘Historic opportunity’
“Brexit represents a historic opportunity,” said Kieran Donoghue of IDA Ireland. “Over the next few weeks, our approach will be dialled up.”
Jim Stewart, an academic with Trinity College Dublin, said Ireland’s financial centre had hosted many of the vehicles involved in the financial crash and that it used “smoke and mirrors” to “camouflage” some activity.
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“It is not just the tax concession,” he said. “It’s regulatory as well. The concession is that there is sometimes no regulation.”
Stewart points to the extensive use of special purpose vehicles, including section 110 companies, allowing deductions to cut tax on profits to as little as zero.
Reliance on tax breaks may have spawned a financial sector with little real activity with Stewart saying investment funds are largely administrated rather than run from Dublin’s International Financial Services Centre.
‘Low skilled’
“A lot of the jobs in the IFSC are fairly low skilled,” he said. “The thinking is always done in a major financial centre.”
Such criticism is rejected by Irish authorities, including the Central Bank, which said licensing procedures are rigorous.
“It’s the opposite to a brass plate financial centre,” said Padraic White, a former head of the IDA agency. “Ireland has a transparent tax system. There is no such thing as a tax deal. There is an aspect of sheer jealousy and envy.”
After years of cutbacks, Ireland also has other problems. As construction of new homes lagged, rents in Dublin have risen above the peak at the height of the property boom.
Many in London are still biding their time, listening carefully to the campaigns from Ireland, Paris and Frankfurt as well as keeping an eye on Brexit progress in Britain.
“Most thought this would never happen,” said Simon Tilford of the Centre for European Reform, a London-based think tank. “The test will come when they realise that there’s no going back. Then the real reaction will kick in.”
– Reuters | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/more-than-35-london-financial-firms-eye-dublin-switch-1.2773412?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/f30a6d5bf68c78dfbcd8f5cb88ebc6ea99a87a30d1d5082ba3307b0e7f4e4e43.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T20:52:28 | null | 2016-08-30T21:08:00 | Development ends incident that began when a woman called police from outside property | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Fus%2Fus-singer-chris-brown-leaves-house-after-standoff-say-police-1.2773536%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773529.1472590240!/image/image.jpg | en | null | US singer Chris Brown leaves house after standoff, say police | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | US police say singer Chris Brown has emerged from his Los Angeles home after officers responding to a woman’s call for help served a search warrant.
The development ended a stand-off that began hours earlier when the woman called from outside the home.
Police said she was not inside the home in the San Fernando Valley.
Lt Chris Ramirez said about half a dozen people were escorted out of the residence and will be interviewed later.
Nobody has been arrested in the wake of the incident, and everyone has been co-operative, police added.
Innocence declared
Brown posted videos to social media declaring his innocence before his lawyer Mark Geragos arrived.
The singer has been in repeated legal trouble since his felony conviction in the 2009 assault of his then-girlfriend, singer Rihanna.
Lt Ramirez said the LAPD’s robbery-homicide division would lead the investigation and interview any potential witnesses.
TMZ.com earlier said the apparent stand-off outside Brown’s home was triggered by an unnamed woman who had been a guest at the house on Monday night, and who told police the singer had pulled a gun on her.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the woman alleged Brown had pointed a gun at her in a violent rage and that she had run outside to call police.
Term of probation
In 2015 Brown finished a lengthy term of probation, community service and domestic violence classes in relation to the assault conviction. Brown has also been involved in several other incidents involving violence.
“I don’t sleep half the damn night I just wake up to all these ... helicopters, choppers is around, police out there at the gate,” Brown said on an Instagram video.
“What I do care about is you are defacing my name and my character and integrity,” he added, saying he had done nothing wrong and criticising police actions.
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“I don’t care y’all going to stay playing with me like I’m the villain out here, like I’m going crazy ... good luck 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,” he added.
Reuters/PA | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/us/us-singer-chris-brown-leaves-house-after-standoff-say-police-1.2773536?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/da2f4b4c684dafff15c57f7cf98dd705288e80c36ddd1516756d660fd3be7b84.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T16:49:13 | null | 2016-08-30T16:41:00 | Move on Apple is new front in EU’s war on tax avoidance | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fhow-the-european-commission-calculated-13bn-tax-bill-1.2773254.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773252.1472571689!/image/image.jpg | en | null | How the European Commission calculated €13bn tax bill | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | As EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager took to the stage at the European Commission in Brussels just after midday it quickly became apparent that the final figure in the Apple case was well in excess of what even the most pessimistic Irish officials had expected.
While an adverse finding against Ireland had never really been in doubt, the figure of € 13 billion took even seasoned competition experts by surprise.
The ruling marks a new front in the EU’s battle against tax avoidance and presents a challenge to transatlantic relations. It is also a potential watershed moment for EU competition law.
The recent probes into Fiat, Amazon, Starbucks and Apple have seen the Commission’s competition division move away from its traditional territory of mergers, acquisitions and state aid to tackle the fiendishly complex world of corporate tax.
While technically the commission did look at the state aid implications of tax regimes when it took Belgium to task in the early 1990s, the recent cases against mostly US multinationals are on a much larger scale.
Appeals
The Irish government and Apple are set to launch legal appeals. The cases are likely to go before both the General Court and European Court of Justice, a process that could take five to six years. Competition experts and corporate lawyers will be closely watching the outcome of the case to ascertain its impact on the future of corporate taxation.
As well as the sheer size of the figure unveiled by Vestgaer, officials were caught offguard on the substance of the case.
While the initial preliminary finding two years ago focused on the specific tax agreements revealed in minutes from meetings between Apple and Revenue officials in 1990 and1991 – including a suggestion that Ireland promised a good deal for Apple in exchange for employment guarantees – this did not form the basis of Tuesday’s finding. While the Commission has not rowed back from this analysis, it does not form part of its investigation.
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The European Commission’s case set out on Tuesday is built around the activity of two companies – Apple Operations Europe (AOE) and Apple Sales International (ASI), subsidiaries of the US-based Apple Inc.
Both companies were incorporated in Ireland and were permitted to record profits in Ireland – in essence they were examples of the ‘Double Irish’ structures.
Crucially, both companies were constituted of two parts - a Head Office and an Irish branch. While the Irish branch had employees, the Head Office was a corporate entity with “no employees, no premises and no real activities,” to quote Ms Vestager.
Issues
Its sole activity, according to the commission, was board meetings which took place up to five or six times a year, usually over the phone, during which cash management, dividends and other financial issues were discussed. It was a so-called ‘stateless’ company.
The crux of the European Commission’s case against Ireland is that the vast majority of Apple’s profits were allocated to the Head Office part of the companies rather than the Irish branch, thereby avoiding tax.
They have cited the example of 2011 - the year discussed during the US senate hearings that prompted the EU’s investigation. During that year, ASI made a profit of €16 billion, but only €50 million of this was allocated to the Irish branch. The remainder was allocated to the so-called ‘Head Office’ where it remained untaxed. According to Ms Vestager, Apple’s effective tax rate in 2011 was 0.05 per cent.
“To put that in perspective, it means that for every million euros in profit, it paid just €500 in tax,” she declared on Tuesday.
Profit
By multiplying the commission’s estimate of the proper taxable profit – ie, the liability that would have been applicable if the profits had been allocated to the Irish branch of both companies - by Ireland’s corporate tax rate, the Commission has alighted on the figure of € 13 billion plus interest. This estimate also takes into account the not insignificant contributions both AOE and ASI made to Apple Inc for research and development (R & D) activity.
There are two ways Apple’s € 13 billion-plus repayment bill could be reduced according to the commission. The IRS, the US tax agency, could rule that the amount of R & D contributions Apple received from both subsidiaries should have been higher.
This would reduce the amount payable to Ireland and increase US tax revenue.Alternatively, other EU countries could conclude that Apple should have recorded its sales in their countries instead of Ireland, and insist that Apple paid more tax locally, again reducing the company’s exposure to Ireland. Neither outcome appears likely.
Answer
Ms Vestager said on Tuesday that the commission had concluded that the splitting of Apple’s profits between the two parts of the AOE and ASI companies “did not have any factual or economic justification.”
In short, the commission has concluded that Ireland gave illegal state aid to Apple, in breach of EU law.
It will now fall to lawyers for the accused to contest this.
The refrain from Government circles has long been that the EU may not have liked the tax structures that were in place at the time when the Apple deal was struck but that does not mean that they were illegal.
It may be some years before a definitive answer on this question will be reached. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/how-the-european-commission-calculated-13bn-tax-bill-1.2773254 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/db09ef5b60fd8c7889907070aea15ef2e27771785a0b4e6b63d74415c498d9d0.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T00:52:34 | null | 2016-08-31T01:00:00 | SF calls for public inquiry into ‘tax avoidance scheme’ while FF backs decision to appeal | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fpolitics%2Fparties-divided-in-their-response-to-brussels-ruling-on-apple-1.2773621%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773660.1472596215!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Parties divided in their response to Brussels ruling on Apple | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | There were sharp divisions between the two main Opposition parties over the European Commission’s ruling that Apple had an illegal arrangement with authorities here and must pay €13 billion in back taxes.
Sinn Féin called for a public inquiry into what its finance spokesman Pearse Doherty portrayed as the “greatest tax avoidance scheme in Irish history”.
In contrast, Fianna Fáil accepted the €13 billion figure was a “bombshell” but indicated a degree of support for the Government’s decision to appeal the ruling.
Mr Doherty argued the Government should “reach out” and collect the €13 billion as soon as possible.
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
“There is also an irony when we see an Irish Government challenging the EU Commission over this while we have memories of how they bowed down to the same commission during the period of austerity,” he said.
He said the net effect was that Apple paid an effective tax rate of 0.05 per cent on its global profits.
Fianna Fáil finance spokesman Michael McGrath said the commission’s ruling did leave “some fundamental questions unanswered” and also confirmed Fianna Fáil will engage with the Government on this issue.
Criticism
In comments indicating tacit and conditional support for the Government, Mr McGrath echoed the criticism of Minister for Finance Michael Noonan on an aspect of the ruling which seemed to suggest other member states and the US could claim some of the €13 billion in outstanding tax.
He also said another major question surrounded the European Commission’s view that Ireland was solely responsible for collecting tax on 60 per cent of Apple’s world-wide profits for a decade.
Out of reach
“Public representatives clamouring to accept the decision and its implications would be well advised to pause and consider the wider implications beyond the headline of a €13 billion tax windfall that will remain out of reach for the foreseeable future at least until various legal challenges are played out,” he said.
Labour leader Brendan Howlin, pictured, also supported a Government appeal. He said that with €13 billion of corporate revenue at stake, his party would support it so that this matter could be determined by the European Court of Justice.
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People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett said the entire political establishment colluded with Apple in an act of “economic treason”. He said it had robbed the public of billions of “desperately needed cash for public housing”.
Catherine Murphy of the Social Democrats said the ruling highlighted the “double standards” where small firms struggled while a giant multinational paid the bare minimum of tax. She said it would be “intolerable” for the State to challenge the ruling.
The Green Party also said the “incredibly thorough” ruling should not be appealed. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/parties-divided-in-their-response-to-brussels-ruling-on-apple-1.2773621?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/aeb057059882f8c7aa02886f405cd9497446fa00c7f7b7d534db6dedd883d4d0.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T10:52:32 | null | 2016-08-30T10:48:00 | “It’s a pop-up town of 55,000 people for the weekend” - Electric Picnic site manager Pearse Doherty talks to Niall Byrne | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fculture%2Fmusic%2Felectric-picnic-site-boss-pearse-doherty-we-are-like-a-rock-n-roll-county-council-1.2772918%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772917.1472550512!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Electric Picnic site boss Pearse Doherty: “We are like a rock’n’roll county council” | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | When 55,000 people arrive at Stradbally this weekend, they’ll spend their time on land that’s been classed as a construction site for the past four weeks, as a team prepared the site for Electric Picnic. There are car parks to build, traffic flow to consider, electricity to repair, stages to build, trees to be checked for potential falls and drainage to consider.
“We are like a rock’n’roll county council”
Most of this work falls under the remit of the site manager. For Electric Picnic for the past four years, that man is Pearse Doherty, who is generally the first person to arrive on-site to meet the landowner Thomas Cosby to hand over the land to Festival Republic, which currently runsthe festival. That meeting is the start of 40 days of work with a core team of 10 people on the site build.
“We are like a rock’n’roll county council,” says Doherty. “It’s a pop-up town of 55,000 people for the weekend who’ve got to eat, use sanitary facilities, have drinking water, showers, a place to camp. We’ve got to deliver all those services.”
With 5,000 extra people coming for the festival this year, Doherty’s main focus was improving the traffic flow in order to relieve the traffic coming into Stradbally town which have included new cark parks and bus parking.
“We had to rethink the whole idea of how traffic comes in and out of the festival. That started in February planning that with the Garda and the local community. We’ve been acquiring the fields, then we build temporary bridges to get cars in and out, a bus park, electricity was all off today in Stradbally as repair work was going on under pylons in conjunction with the ESB.”
From the Saw Doctors to Stradbally
Traffic management, gardaí consultations, electricity pylons? How did Doherty, who played with the Saw Doctors for 15 years, end up in this world?
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It was simply a case of knowing lots of people, says Doherty. “I’m one of these lads who meets people and talks.”
After looking after a Bob Dylan concert in Galway and tour managing Tommy Tiernan, it was suggested to Doherty that he was well up for the job. He came down to the Picnic to work as crew boss when Aiken was involved with POD concerts. When Festival Republic took over, Doherty was made site manager.
“I had known Melvin [Benn, Festival Republic promoter] back since the Fleadh days, so they asked me to manage it, which I’ve been doing for the last four years.”
Having played with the Saw Doctors at the Fleadhs, and festivals such as Glastonbury, Doherty is uniquely placed to understand what the artists will appreciate and need from a festival.
“You have all these people with huge expectations, whether they’re coming to play the Picnic or for fun, like aerial acrobats and we’ve got to be sure we deliver their show in a way that ticks all their boxes. Troubleshooting is a big part of the job.”
A week out
When we speak, Doherty is a week out from the festival starting and there is temporary track around the festival to build, roads to connect stages and concessions and the ring road around the site that enables the likes of emergency services to react to incidents as quickly as possible.
“You can get to any place in five minutes here,” Doherty says, before referencing the recent incident at Boomtown Festival in the UK where 80 cars burned out in the car park.
“I have a 24-year-old daughter and if she can’t come with her three friends and feel safe, then we’ve failed.”
The mobile phone masts, now essential to any festival must go up. There are five on site this year.
“It’s a huge investment for mobile phone companies to offer that service, he says. “It’s kind of strange being from rural Ireland fighting to get broadband into a small village, and here I can set it up in two days.”
Doherty stays in an apartment nearby while the build is happening. Days usually start at 7:30am and finish at 10pm at night, but it’s really a 24-hour job as crew are arriving at all times.
“A lot of people arrive off the ferry late and the last thing they want to hear is you have to sleep in your car tonight. Funfair people can come at any time,” he laughs.
The scheduling of the large tents which house most of the stages are vital to this pre-planning operation.
“A lot of the tents are leap-frogging from festival to festival, so when a tent arrives, we have to be ready. There’s a stage to go in it, there’s the emergency exits, there’s the viewing platforms, the front-of-house, the PA and lights.
Babysitting the site
When it comes to the festival days themselves, Doherty describes his work and as “babysitting the site”.
“We have a maintenance team so if a shower block goes down, if there’s toilets that need seeing to, if there’s generators going down, if fences come undone. We have two or three teams working 24 hours a day maintaining that.”
It is tradition that the team all get one night off during the festival. Doherty is planning on catching some of Lynched, visiting the Red Bull Tropical Garden (“it looks pretty tropical alright”) and seeing Rubberbandits’ Blindboy act as the Ceann Comhairle for the The Twenty One Sixteen Parliament in Mindfield.
For seasoned Picnic veterans, Doherty says the addition of the Anachronica stage in the woods is “going to be quite a spectacle” and the lake-swimming is expected to get big numbers.
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I ask Doherty if he ever gets stressed with so much to look after.
“I’ve been on blood pressure tablets for the last two years. I used to get stressed but I don’t anymore. We’ve a great team here. A site manager is like a stress manager, helping people through their job.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/electric-picnic-site-boss-pearse-doherty-we-are-like-a-rock-n-roll-county-council-1.2772918?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/05d2e6b2e038b275d8d04d7e711d813543593eefa45128bc003b644a1a9dc9cd.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T08:52:14 | null | 2016-08-30T06:40:00 | China condemns ‘extreme’ attack after car laden with explosives rams compound gates | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Fasia-pacific%2Fsuicide-bomber-targets-chinese-embassy-in-kyrgyzstan-1.2772842%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772874.1472544811!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Suicide bomber targets Chinese embassy in Kyrgyzstan | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | A suspected suicide bomber rammed the gates of the Chinese embassy in the Kyrgyz capital Bishek on Tuesday, killing himself and wounding three others, officials said.
An interior ministry spokesman said the car exploded inside the compound and quoted deputy prime minister Janysh Razakov as describing the blast as “a terrorist act”.
Police, who cordoned off the building and the adjacent area, and the GKNB state security service said they were investigating the incident, which occurred around 10am local time (5am Irish time).
China’s foreign ministry on Tuesday condemned the bombing, calling it an “extreme and violent attack”.
China also urged Kyrgyz authorities to “get to the bottom of the incident”, spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters at a regular press briefing in Beijing.
The three staff suffered minor injuries and have been taken to hospital, Hua said. No organisation has claimed responsibility for the incident, she added.
Authorities in Kyrgyzstan, a mostly Muslim former Soviet republic of 6 million people, routinely detain suspected Islamist militants accused of being linked to Islamic State, which actively recruits from central Asia.
An anti-Chinese militant group made up of ethnic Uighurs is also active in the region.
Reuters | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/asia-pacific/suicide-bomber-targets-chinese-embassy-in-kyrgyzstan-1.2772842?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/d1d0458ea02fcb13f55dd04241de6a5faadf040e5649bcc979a782bf067a6bf6.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T18:50:34 | null | 2016-08-27T18:57:00 | Everton midfielder may require surgery on a groin injury says manager Ronald Koeman | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fsoccer%2Fenglish-soccer%2Fjames-mccarthy-set-to-miss-ireland-s-trip-to-serbia-1.2770862%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2770860.1472320616!/image/image.jpg | en | null | James McCarthy set to miss Ireland’s trip to Serbia | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Everton midfielder James McCarthy looks set to miss the Republic of Ireland’s opening World Cup qualifier away to Serbia due to a groin injury that may require surgery.
The 25-year-old missed Everton’s 1-0 win over Stoke City at Goodison Park on Saturday , a result that was decided by an unfortunate own goal from Shay Given when Leighton Baines’s penalty came back off the base of the post, only to hit off the goalkeeper and rebound into the net.
After the game Everton manager Ronald Koeman admitted that McCarthy may have to have surgery, but regardless he will not be sold in the transfer window.
“We need to decide if it is operation, yes or no,” said Koeman.
“There is more interest in players of Everton and we like to keep everybody and players like McCarthy need to stay.”
The full nature of the injury has not been revealed but an operation could keep McCarthy out of up to four World Cup qualifiers which Martin O’Neill’s side will play this side of Christmas, three of which are away from home.
After next Wednesday’s friendly against Oman, Ireland then travel to Belgrade and a tough opening match against Serbia on Monday week.
Georgia visit the Aviva Stadium on October 6th before Ireland make the 2,000 mile trip to Chisinau to play Moldova three days later.
Ireland’s final qualifier before Christmas is the key trip to Vienna to take on Austria. | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/english-soccer/james-mccarthy-set-to-miss-ireland-s-trip-to-serbia-1.2770862?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/36c07c51118ba9fdce6dd3a665de13a713fdf50a040b906a76c52b3e1408f530.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T08:49:07 | null | 2016-08-30T08:19:00 | Company confirms event will be held next week | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Ftechnology%2Fapple-readies-september-launch-of-new-iphone-1.2772855.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772854.1472541564!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Apple readies September launch of new iPhone | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | It’s confirmed: Apple is holding an event on September 7th.
Invites for the product launch, presumed to be that of the company’s latest iPhone, went out yesterday evening, telling attendees “See you on the 7th”, on a background of out of focus multicoloured lights.
Although it hasn’t confirmed the details, Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 7 at the San Francisco launch. A new version of the Apple Watch, with GPS location tracking, and updated MacBook Pro machines may also feature at the product showcase.
Although the design of the new phones are expected to remain largely the same - a move that would push Apple out of its tick/tock product upgrade cycle - a number of new features are expected, including the removal of the headphone jack in favour of using the lightning connection, dual cameras and potentially ditching the Home button.
Those analysing the invitation for hints about Apple’s plans seem to think it implies a dual camera for the new phone and better low light photography.
“The real point to make is how little chance of a surprise there is,” said Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Partners LP, adding that two white spots of light in the invitation were indicative of the dual lens, while the event’s date hints at the likely iPhone 7 name. “The company doesn’t seem to be able to generate surprises anymore.”
The new handset will be an important addition for Apple, with the iPhone generating about two-thirds of the company’s sales. However, as people upgrade their handsets less frequently, Apple is facing a revenue decline this year.
Additional reporting: Bloomberg | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/apple-readies-september-launch-of-new-iphone-1.2772855 | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/38c5e76658090c3d4a5df487e35d6d1a51e7f01282a86cd2a1b080803ecad24f.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T12:52:24 | null | 2016-08-30T12:24:00 | Technology company faces interest bill of as much as €6 billion, Grant Thornton says | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Ftechnology%2Fapple-s-irish-tax-bill-may-hit-19bn-including-interest-experts-say-1.2772984%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772983.1472560235!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Apple’s Irish tax bill may hit €19bn, including interest, experts say | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | JOE BRENNAN
Apple may ultimately be hit by a €19 billion bill in Ireland on foot of a landmark EU ruling that the US technology giant received selective tax treatment in the Republic, according to Grant Thornton.
The European Commission ordered Ireland on Tuesday to recover unpaid taxes in this country from Apple for the years 2003 to 2014 of up to €13 billion, plus interest.
Grant Thornton tax partner Peter Vale estimates that the interest costs could come to a further €6 billion. However, Apple’s chief financial officerLuca Maestri told reporters on a conference call on Tuesday afternoon that the company believes the interest bill will be “a significantly lower number”.
“Given the nature of the Commission’s ruling, it is difficult to see Ireland having any option other than to defend its position. To do otherwise would result in Ireland bearing the brunt of negative coverage for a period of time, significantly impacting on our reputation,” said Mr Vale.
Both the Government and Apple said they intend to appeal the decision in court.
The EU’s decision, which found that Ireland’s “selective treatment” of Apple allowed the company pay an effective corporate tax rate of 1 per cent on its European profits in 2003, falling to 0.005 per cent in 2014.
The finding comes as Ireland finds itself at a “critical juncture” in terms of attractive foreign direct investment, following the UK’s decision to exit the EU, according to Mr Vale.
While the Revenue Commissioners are obliged, following the EU’s decision, to issue a tax bill to Apple, any monies collected will be held in escrow as the Government appeals the ruling.
“While assessing the likelihood of success at ECJ (European Court of Justice) level is difficult, there would appear to be a strong case supporting an appeal,” said Mr Vale. “In the meantime, while the tax to be collected is hugely significant, this is unlikely to be made available for public expenditure purposes pending the appeal result. “ | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/apple-s-irish-tax-bill-may-hit-19bn-including-interest-experts-say-1.2772984?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/b08f90125d00269255be51caa47262b082d1205acfc9a44a3292093cd015ed9e.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T12:52:54 | null | 2016-08-31T13:14:00 | Outspoken airline boss weighs into row between firm and Brussels | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Ftransport-and-tourism%2Fapple-tax-government-should-tell-eu-to-f-k-off-says-ryanair-s-o-leary-1.2774314%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2774332.1472647332!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Apple tax: Government should tell EU to ‘f**k off’, says Ryanair’s O’Leary | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has weighed into the tax dispute between Apple and the EU, saying the Government should write a letter to the EU telling them to “f**k off”.
Dubbing the EU’s ruling “bizarre”, the outspoken airline chief said: “One of the fundamental principles of the European Union is that each country has its autonomy to make its own tax decisions.
“Frankly the Irish Government should turn around - they shouldn’t even appeal the decision - they should just write a letter to Europe and tell them politely to f**k off.
“The idea that you have the state aid mob - who’ve had more court verdicts overturned than any other department in Europe in the last 20 years - come along 10 years after the fact and say, ‘no we didn’t like that, we think you should have done something else’, is frankly bizarre.”
On Tuesday, Europe’s antitrust commissioner Margrethe Vestager slapped the maker of iPads and iPhones with a €13 billion tax bill.
She claimed Apple paid just 1 per cent tax on its European profits in 2003 and 0.005 per cent in 2014, and said its arrangement with the Irish government is illegal under state aid rules.
Apple is set to challenge the decision, and Mr O’ Leary added: “I think there’s no chance of this surviving a court ruling in Europe. There’s certain things that Europe has no competence in.”
Mr O’Leary went on to claim that Ryanair was “one of the most compliant taxpayers in Ireland”, having paid a tax rate of about 11.9 per cent on profits last year.
On Brexit, the chief executive, who backed the Remain campaign during the EU referendum, expects the UK to suffer “significant economic damage” as a result of its decision to quit the single-bloc. However, he added that it is too soon to revise the company’s financial guidance.
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In July, Ryanair said it would “pivot” growth away from UK airports and instead focus on hubs in the European Union following the Brexit referendum result. The firm said its growth rate in the UK is expected to slow from about 15 per cent to 6 per cent next year.
However, with long-term growth in mind, Mr O’Leary is now calling on the UK Government to approve three new runways in a bid to end Britain’s airport capacity conundrum for “the next 50 years”.
He urged Theresa May’s government in Britain to be “radical in its decision making” and rubber-stamp new runways at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports. The proposal would mean ending the battle between Gatwick and Heathrow for a new runway.
“Ryanair calls on the new UK Government to be radical in its decision making on new runways for London instead of picking just one (Heathrow or Gatwick) and calls on prime minister Theresa May to approve three new runways — one each at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, which will finally resolve the runway capacity issue for the next 50 years, while ensuring competition between airports delivers efficient facilities and prevents airlines and passengers being ripped off by gold-plated monopoly runways,” he said.
Last year, the Government’s Airports Commission said a third runway at Heathrow is the best route to expanding airport capacity. David Cameron stalled on backing the recommendation, saying the Government required more time to assess the environmental impact.
A decision is now expected before the end of the year. Mr O’Leary said that expanding only one airport would allow airlines to justify raising prices for customers, who might subsequently help foot the bill.
But competition between three airports would be a boon for travellers and benefit Ryanair long-term, he claimed. “We’ll have more capacity to grow, fares will fall and in a declining fare environment, we’ll win,” Mr O’Leary said. Mr
O’ Leary made the announcement as he trumpeted new routes to Strasbourg and Faro and more flights to Sofia and Nuremberg from Stansted, Gatwick and Luton airports.
He also warned Ryanair may reduce its full-year profit guidance if a drop in ticket prices accelerates. “We’re not yet revising the guidance,” chief executive Michael O’Leary said to reporters Wednesday in London.
“But we’re very cautious on the full-year guidance. If winter fares fall by more than 10 or 12 per cent, we will have to review.”
The carrier said last week it’s seeing fares in its core summer period fall by 9 per cent, sharper than the 6 per cent to 8 per cent dip expected at the start of the budget airline’s fiscal year.
After the comments, Ryanair shares fell as much as 2.5 per cent and were down 1.6 per cent on Wednesday morning.
PA | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/transport-and-tourism/apple-tax-government-should-tell-eu-to-f-k-off-says-ryanair-s-o-leary-1.2774314?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/e42437caf0b59a519a24fa73b3e9c934c985a5122b4531d3dc0771eda35a6c5e.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T22:51:52 | null | 2016-08-29T22:46:00 | Inmates had climbed roof in protest after being locked in rooms during staff dispute | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fireland%2Firish-news%2Fmajor-fire-follows-protest-at-oberstown-detention-centre-1.2772383%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772374.1472507720!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Major fire follows protest at Oberstown detention centre | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Units of the Dublin Fire Brigade were fighting a major fire at the Oberstown Children’s Detention Campus in north Dublin on Monday night.
It came after a day during which a number of protesting inmates had climbed onto a roof when staff at the centre were engaged in industrial action.
Gardaí on location to monitor the protest and the fire said no one had been injured and that there was no threat of danger to members of the public or to other inmates. The fire service, which was called to the centre at 8pm, said the fire was being brought under control.
Teenagers at the State’s only youth detention centre had earlier been locked in their rooms as staff engaged in industrial action over health and safety issues.
After some of the inmates began a protest, some staff left the picket line to help maintain order.
Trade unions Siptu and Impact said the stoppage by the staff was part of an ongoing industrial dispute in response to the increase in attacks on staff at the centre in Lusk.
Staff also took part in a four-hour stoppage in May and they will engage in similar stoppages on September 5th, 12th and 19th.
Attempts to resolve the issue through talks at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) have so far been unsuccessful.
Some 38 young people were detained on Monday, director of the campus Pat Bergin confirmed. He said there had been “some challenges” in relation to managing the teenagers locked in their bedrooms. There had been a number of incidents across the campus and staff had come off their picket line to assist, he said. “It is quite distressing for everybody.”
Safety and care
Mr Bergin said management and the unions had to utilise the systems in place, including the WRC, to address the issues. The action was not going to lend itself to resolving the issues on an ongoing basis, he said.
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“Ultimately, we need to manage the campus and make the decisions that are in the best interest of the campus and the young people and the staff going forward,” Mr Bergin said. Management and unions both wanted the same thing, which was to ensure the staff were safe and the young people were cared for appropriately.
Tom Hoare, assistant general secretary with Impact, said some progress had been made before the WRC in relation to training and equipment. But the injury and assault rate on members was such they could not continue to operate in “an unsafe working environment”.
Mr Hoare said the management regime was not responding to the risks that were already there, and he said a survey was required to “correct and adjust” and to deal with the matter. Oberstown provides 54 places for young people ordered to be remanded or committed by the courts. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/major-fire-follows-protest-at-oberstown-detention-centre-1.2772383?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/93d66bb21a2c5f688a2268e4b12185ca981373cbdbd344f6634bd11fa42d3be3.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T10:48:41 | null | 2016-08-29T10:48:00 | Proposed ‘Help-to-Buy’ scheme which could offer incentive of up to €10,000 may exclude returning emigrants who have previously bought property abroad | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fwill-new-first-time-buyers-package-hit-home-what-we-know-so-far-1.2771852.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771851.1472464118!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Will new first-time buyers package hit home? What we know so far | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | First-time buyers are expected to get a filip this October, with plans afoot for a new incentive type scheme which should help them get a first step on the property ladder.
The so-called “Help to Buy” scheme for first time-buyers (FTBs) will be outlined by Minister for Finance Michael Noonan on budget day, and should offer some form of monetary incentive for beleaguered home buyers stymied by restrictive mortgage lending rules and exorbitant rents.
The Help to Buy initiative is part of the Government’s overall housing strategy, which aims to increase the n umber of homes built per year to 25,000 by 2021, as well as providing 47,000 social housing units in the same period.
Previous efforts to incentivise first-timber buyers through Dirt free savings have failed to take off so will the Government strike the right note with its new plan? All will be revealed when Budget 2017 is announced, but here are some preliminary pointers:
1) It will be revealed on Budget day: Minister for Housing Simon Coveney has indicated that the new scheme will be revealed on Budget day, October 11th 2016.
2) It could be worth up to €10,000 per couple: In its manifesto, Fianna Fail previously proposed a type of Special Saving Incentive Account (SSIA) scheme, which would see the Government give people €50 for every €200 they saved towards a mortgage deposit. The incentive would be capped at €5,000 for a single buyer and €10,000 for couples. However, while the Government’s scheme is thought to be of a similar order, it’s understood to work around a tax rebate scheme. This means that rather than incentivise people to save for a deposit for a property, the Government will give you money back once you purchase, something akin to the Home Renovation Incentive scheme, which gives you 13.5 per cent VAT refund on new kitchens/extensions etc . The new scheme could however, be a combination of the two. The UK’s Help to Buy shceme for example, gives those saving for a home a 25 per cent reward on savings of up to £3,000, so a maximum reward of £750. However, while the scheme was originally understood to be introduced to help those saving for a deposit, it now appears that the reward can only be used
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3) It will be backdated to July 19th. Announcing the scheme on July 19th, Minister for Housing Simon Coveney said that any incentive will be backdated to this date, which should reassure FTBs who are hoping to buy before the Budget. However, it is not yet clear what this date actually means - ie does it apply to property buyers who go sale agreed after this date? Or does it apply to mortgage drawdowns? This could potentially exclude FTBs who bought a property in June, and drew it down in August.
4) The scheme may be limited to particular homes: Conal MacCoille, economist with Davy Stockbrokers, notes that the scheme may be limited to homes under a certain value and/or new build properties only. Given that the scheme is to be introduced to “incentivise the construction of more starter homes”, the latter could make sense, while a cap on values is pretty much a certainty. As Mr Coveney said when launching his housing plan in July, “We’re not in the business of supporting the purchase of mansions.”
5) It could push up house prices: If, as is expected, the rebate is as much as € 10,000 for a couple, when this is set against an average mortgage loan of € 197,000 for the second quarter of this year the rebate “could push up house prices significantly” Mr MacCoille says. The aforementioned Help to Buy scheme in the UK for example, is said to have added an average £8,250 to the cost of a home.
6) It’s for first-time buyers only: Under Revenue rules, a FTB is someone who has never - either jointly or individually - purchased or built their own house in Ireland or abroad. FTBs must intend to live in the property, and can’t earn rent on the property (for the first 5 years) apart from letting a room under the rent-a-room scheme. If the Government applies this understanding of a FTB to its new scheme, it means that if your partner previously purchased a property and you now hope to buy one together, you won’t be entitled to avail of the scheme. Moreover, if you’re a returning emigrant and previously purchased a property abroad, you won’t be considered as a FTB either. And if you leave the country or move to another property and rent out the entire property within the first five years, you may face a claw-back of any incentive you received.
7) It’s part of a review of mortgage lending limits: The Department of FInance is working on the scheme in conjunction with the Central Bank, as part of its review of its mortgage lending limits. Whether or not this means changes to the mortgage lending review remains to be seen however.
8) Mortgage insurance may be part of the scheme: In its housing plan, “Rebuilding Ireland”, the Government noted that the goal of Help to Buy is to provide “affordable mortgage finance or mortgage insurance” for FTBs. Mortgage insurance is a way of allowing homeowners borrow more than the 80 per cent or so of purchase price allowed under the Central Bank’s new rules, as some of the mortgage risk is transferredfrom lenders to insurers. However last year a senior economist with the Central Bank expressed concern about the potential cost of mortgage insurance, warning that it could “act counter” to the regulator’s lending rules. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/will-new-first-time-buyers-package-hit-home-what-we-know-so-far-1.2771852 | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/d93464cadf394b53e2e45d5f6a7c445623ebaf7faa6b1dd894a9d162a970cbeb.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:06:48 | null | 2016-08-26T13:14:00 | Gavin Friday disinters Sir Roger Casement’s long-lost poetic voice in a work of ambient poetry, one of the strangest and rarest gifts offered up this centenary year | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fculture%2Fbooks%2Fthe-casement-sonata-by-gavin-friday-review-the-curve-of-words-1.2769401%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769400.1472213416!/image/image.jpg | en | null | The Casement Sonata by Gavin Friday review: The curve of words | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | One would think poetry could not only survive but thrive in an age of audio technology of every kind, but the old silos within the arts are slow to crumble. Pop music remains mired in a mess of crude song forms – with only exceptional talents like Leonard Cohen providing literary enlightenment in common song. Meanwhile, so much poetry is still stuck in recitative amber, adopting false mannerisms much as Vachel Lindsay’s vocal antics which influenced Yeats and others to intone poetry artificially.
Contemporary spoken word was born pretty much at the same time as rock and roll, with Dylan Thomas not only providing the initial impetus at the Caedmon label but lending his forename to pop’s most durable literary star. Now, with The Casement Sonata, Dublin singer songwriter Gavin Friday has delivered a feature-length work that might push the envelope by fusing dramatic monologue and the Irish long poem with ambient music as initiated by Brian Eno in the 1970s. Collaborating closely with fellow Dubliner James McCabe, a James Clarence Mangan aficionado, Friday disinters Sir Roger Casement’s long-lost poetic voice to re-inhabit the trauma, glory and transcendence of imperialism as it shattered into nationalisms of every race and colour.
Casement is the original for both George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan (another outsider in defiance) and Joseph Conrad’s Kurtz (how closely Marlon Brando’s toying with divinity in Apocalypse Now mirrors Casement’s final imitation of Christ). The fascination of Joan of Arc, Kurtz and Casement, punk antagonists of monolithic power systems, lies in their epic refusal of power but also in their infatuation with it. In a fitting final image from the sonic installation, Casement compares himself to David, a comparison taken directly from the man’s final letters:
Unarmed, save with a pebble, I have walked through history
As though I were to die this very day.
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The Casement Sonata lies in a submerged tradition of modern Irish letters that includes Patrick Kavanagh’s Lough Derg as well as Eugene Watters’ The Week-End of Dermot and Grace (when will some clever radio producer finally stumble across this sonic gem from 1964?). At the same time, it reflects and expands upon Gavin Friday‘s 2011 album catholic. That album’s artwork featured Friday’s uncanny re-enactment of Sir John Lavery’s iconic death portrait of Michael Collins. It is no coincidence, for example, that the Sonata is aired in the Hugh Lane Gallery, alongside Lavery’s dramatic portrayal of the Casement trial, High Treason. It is also highly appropriate that the artwork accompanying the new recording should prefigure Casement as a Dada-esque head complete with attendant mosquitoes. 1916 was a year of not only historical but also artistic revolution, the original punk rebellion if you will.
Since his days with The Virgin Prunes, Friday has travelled a staunchly independent path, with many backwoods encounters with the world of film. His successive influences in pop, cabaret and film are all to be heard evenly matured in a new auditory genre Friday and McCabe are calling ambient poetry. Five interlocked movements form the body of the Sonata – from Banna Strand, Congo and Peru to Ammersee and Pentonville. In other words, key meridians along Casement’s lifeline that conduct the dramatic story arc of his existence. Functioning as one giant flashback after capture on Banna Strand -– much like Citizen Kane (and didn’t Welles also attempt to film Heart of Darkness?) – the Sonata zooms you sonically back to African jungles of the 1890s, forward again to Peruvian rainforests in 1910, onward to a Bavarian lake during the military stalemate of 1915, before finally landing us in Pentonville prison where Casement arrives at a final vision of transcendence, imagining his burial at Murlough Bay along the Antrim coast, in view of Celtic Scotland.
The Casement Sonata is a classically designed sonic work that would make an album on its own, filed alongside Jim Morrison’s American Prayer. A radio interlude, reflecting the fact that Sackville Street witnessed the world’s first radio broadcast during Easter Week, comes between Ammersee and Pentonville, simply entitled Easter Rising (also John Huston’s original title for an unmade film on the subject). A bonus track not appearing in the main installation, you’ll be the first to read it below. The Casement Sonata, which ran until last Sunday at the Hugh Lane Gallery, is one of the strangest and rarest gifts offered up this centenary year.
Malcolm MacClancy is a writer and lyricist with cult band Interference. His poetry has appeared in Agenda, The London Review and Poetry Ireland Review. His debut volume After Hours is forthcoming (Dublin: Silkenbeard Press).
Radio Interlude
Easter Rising
The mirror ripples from the single stone of your life.
In the dream gourd of the skull now see
Sackville Street in smithereens, rumour riding
Ireland like a nightmare, the red glare at night
And sunlight burning on the Liffey like armour.
Great-breasted Calliope with her magic grammar
Troubles the darkness into song: the Aud lies wrecked
At the bottom of the water, while here clouds of dust
And smoke consume Kelly’s tackle shop, the DBC café,
Hopkins & Hopkins, jewellers, and the Imperial Hotel.
Elsewhere, Jutland and Verdun grumble and thunder
While here the dead horse stiffens on the empty street.
Elsewhere, time is streaming away, but here the past lingers
Like Pompeii graffiti. Time moves slowly through you
As Hector is dragged through the dust and debris.
This train, or the other one, begins to move.
I don‘t know whether I‘m coming or going.
A dream or sword opens my flesh above the dark pool.
I have walked through history to the other side.
Aeneas, Odysseus, drifting on the same sea.
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Almost a life, not quite a death, an Ireland
Of cloud swims slowly through the sky above the Post Office.
Mauser and Maxim, Lee Enfield and Lewis gun
Bark and chatter across the barricades.
The burnt-out trams and the ricochets,
Imagine these too, as the moon lies oystered in cloud.
O in the book of my soul now I read
How those Amazonian solitudes have led
To this strange desert, this barbarous tongue.
Sackville Street is speaking in flames, in smithereens
And dead language poetry where English ends.
This interrupted dream of life, the wandering planets
Have already forgotten this lost world
But the future too can be remembered.
Time moves slowly through you as the Liffey
Rivering with pain reaches the sea.
An Ireland of cloud swimming slowly through the sky,
I wake with the taste of Gaelic in my mouth.
Aeneas, Odysseus, drifting on the same sea.
I have walked through the other side of history.
From The Casement Sonata,
Words: Friday & McCabe | http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/the-casement-sonata-by-gavin-friday-review-the-curve-of-words-1.2769401?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/6c09a134883ea3750ce9f47dc7fddfe543cd5accc91377603dc02e9d8b7f704a.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T18:52:17 | null | 2016-08-30T18:16:00 | Ikea has developed its new Carrickmines store around real people, they say | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Flife-and-style%2Fhomes-and-property%2Finteriors%2Fso-who-are-the-real-people-behind-ikea-s-design-dreams-1.2773408%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773407.1472577336!/image/image.jpg | en | null | So, who are the ‘real people’ behind Ikea’s design dreams? | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Swedish furniture manufacturer Ikea has modelled its new “order and collection point” in Carrickmines on the design aspirations of real people, in real homes in Ireland, Sweden, England and Denmark, the company says.
In what has claimed is “a new way of shopping with us”, Ikea customers in south county Dublin will, from Monday, September 5th, be able to wander their “design dreams” – a series of showcase rooms in Carrickmines.
The outlet beside the M50 will feature an “order and collection point” a concept the company has piloted in Norwich and Aberdeen, and is shortly to open in London. The idea is that you come, be inspired, order you goods and collect them the next working day.
Included in the “inspirational planning space” are showcase design solutions based on the space and décor needs of “real people with real lives”.
A sittingroom on display we are told has been designed for Paul (33) and Simon (35). They are a couple with “a strong sense of style”. They bought their city centre apartment together just over four years ago and like to indulge their love of cafes, art galleries, wine bars and eateries.
Simon is passionate about wine, and more particularly red wine. Ikea has built a sittingroom adorned with vases, glassware and textiles. A collection of wine glasses sits on shelves lining one entire wall. Pictures abound - including a framed picture of a bottle of Malbec. The effect is both trendy and personal.
Elsewhere we are shown “Sinead (48) and Sean’s (49) boutique-hotel style” bedroom and dressingroom with black furniture, black glass topped bedside lockers and dressing table, a yellow stool and yellow bedroom chair. With subdued lighting white bed linen and the shiny-black surfaces it is at once luxurious and like an advertisement for a designer hotel. We are told Sinead and Sean live in their “forever home” in Bray and Sinead has reserved “about three quarters of the walk in dressingroom is for her own clothes”, with the remainder going to her partner.
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But are these invented people, we ask? “No” comes the reply. “These are real cases, based on interviews and research to create a design dream for these people”.
“The idea is that you can come in and tell us: I have a lot of full length dresses what can you do for me? Or I have a lot of shoes, what can you do for me” and Ikea will find a design dream for you, explaines commercial manager Eithne Lavin.
The real people’s design solutions continue with six-year-old “Charlie” from Co Kildare. Charlie’s mum and dad, we are told, had moved to Co Kildare before the economic crash and were now “still there” and starting to look at investing in the house, beginning with the child’s bedroom.
The child’s room is laid out with cupboards and drawers in orange and white with storage boxes for toys, a scaled-down bed, books and a toy dinosaur reflecting Charlie’s interests.
Next along we have a kitchen for Aoife and Darragh both aged 41 years. The kitchen is a 12 square metre space with wall units topped with glass-fronted, back-lit cupboards reaching full height to the ceiling. The effect is to utilise a previously dusty unused kitchen space to display glassware and maximise cupboard space. The wall cupboards themselves have sliding shelves so you can find items without feeling you might lose a hand in the darker recesses. Darragh, a carpenter from Tallaght was able to put the kitchen together himself, we are told.
For all others Ikea can recommend someone to put the furniture together, says Lavin.
Keeping with the “super personal” theme Ikea has discovered that some 3,000 apartments are scheduled to be built in the Cherrywood area, close to the new store and the company has designed a “landlord’s” space to be helpful .
The landlord’s space is an open plan kitchen/dining and sitting room of 20sq metres. In terms of trends “open plan living is everything” says Lavin who goes on to explain the apartment is designed for renters Monica and Paul who are aged 25. Textiles and accessories are in pinks and browns and almost all Ikea sofa covers can be changed to give the place a new look, we are told.
Potential customers can avail of this personalised design advice at over a glass of freshly squeezed fruit - and vegetable - juice in the Ikea coffee shop which is also part of the “personalised inspirational space”.
Or they can peruse the “Zen-like” garden space where you can read about Ikea’s use of sustainable materials, such as bamboo and birch, as well as the €100 million the company gives to children’s charities each year.
Smaller items, including food - we particularly wondered how the Knackebrod would go in south Dublin - can be taken away immediately of course. Accessories including solid wooden chopping boards for €4.75 and ‘throws’ - that’s a rug to you and I, are on sale for €15. | http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/homes-and-property/interiors/so-who-are-the-real-people-behind-ikea-s-design-dreams-1.2773408?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/8ff67ffe54221ab31f9174a1fe429e45cdacf58540c7c35007d1032c8e0fee30.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T12:50:34 | 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%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.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?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/5e5c8ee693ea6b2cd33db82827a91be51e77f1e6010458784ed275317a5fa934.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T00:51:49 | null | 2016-08-29T01:00:00 | Government faces dilemma as more than 20 right-wing mayors defy state council ruling | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Feurope%2Ffrench-mayors-refuse-to-lift-burkini-ban-despite-court-ruling-1.2771278%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771275.1472413311!/image/image.jpg | en | null | French mayors refuse to lift burkini ban despite court ruling | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | A majority of mayors who have banned burkinis in about 30 French coastal resorts are refusing to lift their restrictions, despite the country’s highest administrative court ruling that the bans are illegal – leaving the state facing a dilemma about how to react.
More than 20 mayors have defiantly kept in place decrees under which municipal police can stop and fine any women in full-body swimsuits at the beach, despite the ruling from the state council that the burkini bans are a “serious and manifestly illegal violation of fundamental freedoms”.
Stigmatising Muslims
In a test case expected to set legal precedent, the court suspended the burkini ban in one French Riviera town, Villeneuve-Loubet, which was obliged to immediately scrap its decree. But the ruling was dismissed by other mayors.
The interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, who has called for calm and warned against stigmatising Muslims, is expected to make an announcement on Monday.
Minister for housing Emmanuelle Cosse, of the Greens party, said mayors who refused to take the court ruling into account were playing with fire. Most of the bans are still in place along the French Riviera, including in Nice and a swath of resorts along the Côte d’Azur. The mayor of Cannes, David Lisnard, from Nicolas Sarkozy’s Les Républicains party, was the first mayor to ban burkinis this summer.
He said the ruling “does not in any way change my conviction that ostentatious dress, whatever the religion, is a problem in the current context”.
He said burkinis were “Islamist” and a sign of the “salafisation of our society”. Only two mayors lifted their bans in the wake of the ruling: the Socialist mayor of Oyes-Plages near Calais and the centrist mayor of Eze in the Alpes-Maritimes.
Mayors from the right-wing Les Républicains party, and from the far-right Front National, are keeping their bans in place, insisting that the Villeneuve-Loubet case does not apply to them.
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Illegal
The burkini bans – which are now seen as illegal – pose a major problem to the French state, which is responsible for making sure the rule of law is respected. In theory, the state could now instruct local prefects to take action to force mayors to withdraw the bans.
Human right groups have also said they will pursue the towns through courts.
The Socialist prime minister, Manuel Valls, who had caused divisions in his party by supporting the mayors’ bans, insisted that the political debate on burkinis must continue.
In a written statement on Facebook, he said the burkini was “the affirmation of political Islam in the public space”. The issue of the burkini and Islam in France has been pushed to the top of the political agenda in the run-up to next year’s presidential and parliamentary elections by Mr Sarkozy, who is running a hardline campaign on French national identity in a bid to win his party’s nomination to run again for president.
Mr Sarkozy reiterated that he wants a nationwide law to ban burkinis and also wants to ban Muslim headscarves from universities and private companies.
Alain Juppé, the mayor of Bordeaux, who remains favourite to be chosen as the right’s candidate, launched his campaign against Mr Sarkozy this weekend, deliberately striking a conciliatory tone.
He is against a nationwide law against burkinis, saying it would be illegal and anti-constitutional, and it was pointless to push for a new law “amid media agitation”.
He told Europe 1 radio that politicians should stop using inflammatory rhetoric to “throw oil on the fire”.
Holding a rally west of Paris on Saturday, Mr Juppé nonetheless proposed creating a special accord between the state and Muslim leaders to lay out clear rules for respecting French secularism.
“It is legitimate to ask them to have a knowledge of the principles of the organisation of the republican state, especially French-style secularism,” he said.
The short-term burkini bans, which began to be issued by mayors at the end of July, have sparked a heated political row about the French principle of laïcité – secularism built on the strict separation of church and state – amid accusations by rights groups that politicians are twisting and distorting this principle for political gain, and using it to deliberately target Muslims in the wake of a series of terrorist attacks.
Following reports of some women being stopped by police for simply wearing a headscarf and loose clothing while standing on the beach, controversy has grown.
Benoît Hamon, a former Socialist government minister seeking the left’s presidential nomination, said on Sunday that the burkini debate was “targeting Muslims once again” and criticised the Socialist prime minister for supporting burkini bans. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/french-mayors-refuse-to-lift-burkini-ban-despite-court-ruling-1.2771278?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/d7860db2279951474c9c00be5fd9e17a96731b9909585dd4901393a80ad40a3a.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T16:52:18 | null | 2016-08-30T17:20:00 | Big US companies have used the interplay of European and US tax laws to pay very little tax on profits earned in European markets | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fopinion%2Feditorial%2Fthe-irish-times-view-a-damning-verdict-in-apple-case-leaves-government-with-little-option-but-to-appeal-1.2773307%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/assets/images/favicons/irishtimes.png | en | null | The Irish Times view: A damning verdict in Apple case leaves Government with little option but to appeal | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The European Commission’s judgement about Apple’s tax affairs in Ireland was always expected to be negative. All the signals were that it would maintain its original view that the US giant was the recipient of illegal state aid from the Government over a long period of years. However the scale of the bill which the European Commission feels is owed to Ireland is extraordinary.
It remains to be seen what the European courts will decide, but to some extent considerable damage to Ireland has already been done. The huge scale of the judgement, involving €13 billion in back tax plus interest, means this is a story on a completely different scale to other cases taken by the Commission on the tax issue.
Ireland has always presented itself as having a tax system with a clear legal underpinning, offering certainty to companies. Rightly or wrongly the judgement casts doubt over the way we taxed at least one major corporation – and this carries with it reputational damage for Ireland.
The Government will argue – and there is a basis for this – that rule changes in recent years have closed off some of the tax arrangements central to the Apple case.
However the damning verdict by the European Commission on how tax was applied in the Apple case left it with little option but to lodge an appeal, given the central importance of foreign direct investment to our economy. As Apple will also appeal, a lengthy legal process is inevitable.
Precedent offers little guide to what the European courts may decide. The Irish side is insistent that the Commission has erred legally, as is Apple. Ireland will also claim an infringement on our tax sovereignty. The case has all the hallmarks of a landmark debate about the scope of powers or “competences” of the Commission in national affairs.
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One aspect of the judgement is particularly strange, which is the contention that all the tax may not be owed to Ireland – and some may be owed to other European countries, or to the US.
That the Commission would say this, while simultaneously ruling that the money should be paid to Ireland appears contradictory. Either the company owes tax in Ireland, or it doesn’t.
In a wider sense this point also goes to the heart of the issue. Big US companies have used the interplay of European and US tax laws to pay very little tax on profits earned in European markets. Ireland’s tax system is only a part of this and, in fact, much of it is based on the peculiarities of US tax law.
There is no doubt that this needs to change and that the amounts paid by many of these companies has been indefensibly low. It remains to be seen, however, if the European courts support the Commission’s drive to address this problem via state aid rules. | http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/editorial/the-irish-times-view-a-damning-verdict-in-apple-case-leaves-government-with-little-option-but-to-appeal-1.2773307?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/9493c91faebd24beb546bd645768ad5001d852dbcd4168d3570bf4039dd9f45f.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T12:51:25 | null | 2016-08-28T12:26:00 | Flight, carrying 141 passengers, eventually took off for New Jersey with new crew on board | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Fuk%2Fpilots-arrested-on-alcohol-charge-prior-to-transatlantic-flight-1.2770936%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2770935.1472383678!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Pilots arrested on alcohol charge prior to transatlantic flight | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Two pilots have been arrested in Glasgow on suspicion of being under the influence of alcohol as they prepared to fly a transatlantic passenger jet from Scotland to the US.
Concerns were reportedly raised over the pilots before the 9am United Airlines UA162 flight to Newark, New Jersey, was due to depart from Glasgow Airport on Saturday.
Police said the two men - aged 35 and 45 - were arrested and detained in police custody.
The flight, carrying 141 passengers, eventually took off on Saturday evening with a new crew on board.
The men are expected to appear at Paisley Sheriff Court on Monday.
A Police Scotland spokesman said: “Police Scotland can confirm that two men aged 35 and 45 have been arrested and are presently detained in police custody in connection with alleged offences under the Railways and Transport Safety Act 2003, Section 93.”
The section of the Act relates to carrying out pilot function or activity while exceeding the prescribed limit of alcohol.
A spokesman for Glasgow Airport added: “We are aware of the police incident yesterday involving two pilots.”
The incident follows the appearance in court last month of two Canadian pilots charged with being drunk as they prepared to fly a passenger jet from Scotland to Toronto.
Jean-Francois Perreault (39) and Imran Zafar Syed (37) were arrested on Monday July 18th before they were due to take off on the Air Transat flight from Glasgow Airport.
The men were remanded in custody when they first appeared at Paisley Sheriff Court, also charged under section 93 of the same Act.
At a second hearing at the same court they were granted bail on condition they surrender their passports.
Section 93 of the Railway and Transport Safety Act states: “A person commits an offence if he performs an aviation function at a time when the proportion of alcohol in his breath, blood or urine exceeds the prescribed limit, or he carries out an activity which is ancillary to an aviation function at a time when the proportion of alcohol in his breath, blood or urine exceeds the prescribed limit.”
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For pilots, the limit of alcohol in the case of breath is nine microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres, according to the Act. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/uk/pilots-arrested-on-alcohol-charge-prior-to-transatlantic-flight-1.2770936?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/1863583d2f8af03b514ea61d923ecdcc3be7c93e0efb82cc3db0679fe6b1e656.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T06:50:26 | null | 2016-08-27T06:00:00 | Despite splits and court cases, New Order are playing and recording again – and coming to Electric Picnic | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fculture%2Fmusic%2Fnew-order-return-forget-the-rows-play-the-music-1.2769555%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769548.1472246213!/image/image.jpg | en | null | New Order return: forget the rows, play the music | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Given their past it may not be a surprise that New Order’s recent history has been an eventful one. The alt-electro pioneers return to Electric Picnic next weekend. The 10 years since they last appeared has been defined by a hiatus, members falling out with the band, members rejoining the band, members suing the band, and, last September, a return to form with album number 10, Music Complete.
Its success was strategically important. It deflected attention away from the disputes and back to the music while striking an impressive balance between forging new ground and harking back to their signature of straight-faced dancefloor anthems (much to the delight of fanboys everywhere).
“We eased our way back into writing because we were playing live again. Doing it that way, you couldn’t help but notice that the dance stuff went down well,” says Stephen Morris, New Order’s drummer, explaining why it played to their strengths. “We had thought, Wouldn’t it be good to have a couple of new songs in the set that would work well? So we were writing to fit into the set rather than go into the studio with no ideas and hope to come out with an album at some point in the future.
“It started out with Singularity, which we did with Tom [Rowlands] from the Chemical Brothers, who did a spot of production. We thought we’d help him out,” he says. “Then we did Plastic, and once we did two or three we decided not to worry about doing the gigs and concentrate on writing a record. And the reaction’s been great: it’s gone down fantastically.”
The only issue with the praise is that many compliments were backhanded, often having a little dig at the band’s previous two albums, Get Ready and Waiting for the Siren’s Call. Recorded without Gillian Gilbert, Morris’s wife, adding her keyboard magic, these albums were more indie than usual, as suggested by the lead singles Crystal and Krafty. With the benefit of hindsight, what does Morris make of their early-2000s output?
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He’s on the fence, it transpires.
“You always look back on it and you can’t be objective about it; your opinion is always coloured by the experience you have making it,” Morris says. “Siren’s Call was like a marathon. We had too many songs, and we knew they were good, but we couldn’t see the end product. Get Ready was the opposite: we knew where we wanted to go but didn’t know how to get there.
“Get Ready was also the last album where we went away to record it,” he adds. “Up to that point we worked by messing about at home, and then, when we wanted to get serious, the only way to do that was to spend a hell of a lot of money to go to a posh recording studio with nice food, and stay there for as long as you could manage.
“As far as the albums go, I think they’ve got good songs, but I can’t listen to them in the way that other people hear them.”
It was the same, he says, back in the late 1970s, when he first began drumming with Ian Curtis, Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook in the bleak northern English town of Macclesfield. After four years of live shows Joy Division began recording with Martin Hannett, who was responsible for both Closer and Unknown Pleasures, and arguably their inimitable sound.
“We had an idea of what we sounded like in our heads from what it was live, which was all very raw and aggressive. But Martin pulled out something else. It was a shock. With Unknown Pleasures everyone was – what’s the word – upset with how it turned out. We were like, ‘You’ve ruined our songs!”
The talk of Joy Division is bitter-sweet, mostly because of Curtis’s untimely death, in 1980, and now also because of their acrimonious split with Hook, who’s calling the reassembled group – completed by Tom Chapman, replacing him on bass, and by the guitarist Phil Cunningham – a “New Order tribute band”. Ouch.
“The whole situation is desperately sad,” Morris says. “But Peter seems happy doing what he’s doing, which is playing New Order and Joy Division songs, and that’s fine. We’re doing what we’re doing, which is fine.” In suing the rest of New Order over royalties, however, Hook is obviously not happy with what they’re doing.
“It would seem not. We’ll sort it out one way or another, but a lawsuit is an expensive way to go about doing it. Hopefully one of the parties will go bankrupt first,” Morris says, seemingly not wishing for New Order’s bankruptcy. “Until then the meter’s ticking, and the only people who come out on top are the lawyers, which is sad.”
Burning his bridges by no half-measures, Hooky is also adding fuel to the fire by releasing Substance: Inside New Order, an autobiography about his time in the band. What does Morris make of its timing?
“You’ll have to wait until my book comes out! Except I’m not going to write about Joy Division or New Order, because that’s been done to death,” he says, markedly.
He won’t be leafing through Substance, then, in anticipation of what a man with a chip on his shoulder might recall?
“No. I’ve lived it, and that’s enough,” he says. “I’ve tried reading Bernard’s book, and Debbie Curtis’s, and Lindsay Reade’s. There’s loads of them. I just get a bit annoyed. The thing is, it’s just one person’s point of view. And when you’re writing a biography you always cast yourself as a hero – unless you’re being brutally honest.”
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While Hooky busies himself with the book and his current venture, Peter Hook & The Light, New Order are rounding off a summer of festivals. After Electric Picnic and, the following weekend, Lollapalooza in Berlin, their focus will return to a long and tricky project: a definitive New Order box set. It has been on the back burner for years – understandably, given the difficulty in representing 36 years of seminal, consistently relevant music.
“It’s the most difficult thing in the world. Everyone else has a great box set, but when it comes to doing ours it always seems like we can never get it right,” Morris says. “And I don’t think there’s any point in doing something if it’s not going to be at least 99 per cent right.”
Will Hook be involved in its creation?
“Peter talks to the record company, so I suppose he’s involved in that respect. We’ve got to agree on it all. So I guess we just have to come up with a list of things for it . . . and then argue about it afterwards.”
The Electric Picnic festival takes place at Stradbally Hall, in Co Laois, on the weekend of September 2nd-4th | http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/new-order-return-forget-the-rows-play-the-music-1.2769555?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/415caa5e9d6295aa6662c4dc675b0dfcfbb0f57d9b8869b44f2e299dc567eca5.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T20:51:06 | null | 2016-08-28T21:09:00 | More than 180 wounded as Libyan forces close in on Isis militantss in city of Sirte | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Fafrica%2Fat-least-28-soldiers-killed-in-libya-battle-against-islamic-state-1.2771305%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771303.1472414914!/image/image.jpg | en | null | At least 28 soldiers killed in Libya battle against Islamic State | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | At least 34 Libyan fighters were killed and more than 180 wounded yesterday as they closed in on the last Islamic State militant holdouts in the coastal city of Sirte, according to field hospitals.
Forces aligned with Libya’s UN-backed government, supported since August 1st by US air strikes, have pushed militants back into a small residential area in central Sirte in a three-month-old campaign. Heavy fighting resumed yesterday after a one-week lull.
The Libyan brigades, mostly from the city of Misrata, say they are close to victory in Sirte, but they have struggled to defend themselves against suicide bombings, sniper fire and landmines.
Several brigades stationed close to Sirte’s seafront advanced several hundred metres eastwards through Sirte’s neighbourhood Number One, while other fighters overran Islamic State positions in street-to-street fighting to the south.
Fighters used tanks, rocket-propelled grenades and anti-aircraft guns to try to blast through Isis sniper positions.
The Misrata-led brigades said there had been five attempted car bombings on Sunday in a “desperate attempt to disrupt the advance”, though at least one of the bombs had been destroyed before it could reach its target.
The front lines in Sirte were quieter earlier this week as government-led forces said they were giving time to the wives and children of Islamic State fighters to leave the battle zone.
Almost all the city’s estimated 80,000 residents left after Islamic State took full control of the city last year, turning it into its regional stronghold and expanding its presence along about 250 km (155 miles) of coastline.
The United States has carried out dozens of air strikes against Islamic State positions and vehicles in Sirte. This week the U.S. Africa Command said Marine AH-1W SuperCobra helicopters were being used in the operation, alongside jets and drones.
Libyan commanders say some Islamic State militants probably escaped around the start of the campaign to recapture Sirte in May, and their forces have been trying to secure the desert to the south and west of Sirte. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/africa/at-least-28-soldiers-killed-in-libya-battle-against-islamic-state-1.2771305?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/c3a308434bd3c440c84be9936127a07faa93b540a37eda4ab1272e0e2b7918f2.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T10:52:30 | null | 2016-08-30T10:22:00 | FilmOffaly releases video for new initiative featuring ‘Red Rock’ actor Darragh O’Toole | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fculture%2Ffilm%2Fnew-campaign-aims-to-boost-film-tv-production-in-midlands-1.2772902%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772901.1472549059!/image/image.jpg | en | null | New campaign aims to boost Film, TV production in midlands | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | A new campaign to encourage film and television production in the midlands will be launched on Tuesday by FilmOffaly.
Red Rock actor and Tullamore native Darragh O’Toole features in the video which was directed by Bob Gallagher who was recently awarded the Radar Music Videos Best Young Director Award. Darragh is also in the 2016 film A Date for Mad Mary.
Both are alumni of previous projects by FilmOffaly, which is the county’s film commission and a project of Offaly County Council.
O’Toole commenced his acting career in the short film Toy Soldiers which was made with a bursary from FilmOffaly while Gallagher won an OFFline challenge - a filmmaking competition set up by FilmOffaly - in 2010.
FilmOffaly started in 2008 with the aim of encouraging more production in the county following the success of the television series Pure Mule.
One of its early projects was the establishment of a bursary for short films which had to be made in the county.
Actor Domhnall Gleeson was the first recipient for his short film Noreen which starred his father Brendan and brother Brian and was filmed in Banagher.
The film went on to win multiple awards at film festivals at home and abroad.
Previous films and television made in the area include Pure Mule, Eden, Garage, The Tudors, You’re Ugly Too, Becoming Jane and A Nightingale Falling. | http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/film/new-campaign-aims-to-boost-film-tv-production-in-midlands-1.2772902?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/7d4ee1a6f1c3d956ec9bfe228273d365cc40e3f9f5ff795ee4a5bac452e9fd8f.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T10:48:42 | 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%2Flucy-kellaway-poolside-working-no-longer-a-sign-of-importance-1.2770991.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2770989.1472393563!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Lucy Kellaway: 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/lucy-kellaway-poolside-working-no-longer-a-sign-of-importance-1.2770991 | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/802d64f2cea35513fe08d83a682987898129d6833cebeef2523fa90c5c113989.json |
[
"Declan Burke"
] | 2016-08-27T14:50:27 | null | 2016-08-27T15:23:00 | Declan Burke found William Ryan’s WWII novel both nuanced and gripping | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fculture%2Fbooks%2Fthe-constant-soldier-review-a-good-german-takes-on-the-nazis-1.2766949%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769470.1472218648!/image/image.jpg | en | null | The Constant Soldier review: A good German takes on the Nazis | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Book Title:
The Constant Soldier ISBN-13:
978-1447255017 Author:
William Ryan Publisher:
Mantle Guideline Price:
£16.99
William Ryan’s debut, The Holy Thief (2010), was the first of a series featuring Capt Alexei Korolev, a Moscow police detective in the 1930s. His subsequent novels, The Bloody Meadow (2011) and The Twelfth Department (2013), confirmed that Ryan was a crime-writing talent to watch, his unconventional police procedurals given a Kafkaesque twist as Korolev struggled to assimilate the genre’s notions of justice and truth into Stalin’s grotesque interpretation of same.
The Constant Soldier, then, is something of a departure for Ryan, a standalone novel set in an idyllic Silesian village in the autumn of 1944. This is territory once Polish but now German – although everyone knows, with the Russians advancing rapidly from the east, that it won’t be German much longer.
Paul Brandt, a Wehrmacht soldier, returns home a decorated hero from the Eastern Front, invalided out of the fighting after losing an arm, his face so burnt that his own father almost fails to recognise him at the train station.
Paul’s family are outraged when he accepts a position as steward at a “rest hut” – in reality, a luxurious villa – serving the Nazi officers who work at a nearby “work camp”. But his apparently docile acceptance of the status quo masks a vague desire to sabotage his country’s war effort.
Paul, we learn, joined the army as the lesser of two evils: charged with subversive activities before the war, he is given the choice of the military or prison. When he learns that Judith, a fellow plotter, has spent the war doing slave labour, and now works at the rest hut, Paul acknowledges that he has “wrongs he had to put right”.
However, trapped between the implacable evil of the Nazis and the mercilessly irresistible force of the oncoming Russians, what can one man do?
Perverted ideologies
There are comparisons to be drawn between the Korolev novels and The Constant Soldier. The most obvious is that both feature good men trying to do the right thing in a world where even basic notions of good and right have been perverted by the ideologies of megalomaniac dictators. But while the reader can be fairly sure that Korolev, as the protagonist of a series, will survive and thrive, Paul Brandt is a much more vulnerable character.
Essentially a self-appointed spy operating behind enemy lines, Paul has the wounds suffered on the battlefield in his favour (“behind his frozen face he could be anyone”). Yet he is operating at a time when suspicion is the very oxygen of a political system. As a result, and despite Ryan’s deceptively gentle pacing, the tale quickly becomes an emotional rollercoaster that sustains an increasingly tense mood of impending disaster.
Paul Brandt’s isn’t the only perspective we get. We also see the dog days of the war through the eyes of the idealistic Polya, a tank driver in the vanguard of the Russian advance, as well as those of Obersturmführer Neumann, the commandant of the “rest hut”. Neumann is a long-serving Nazi party member who secretly listens to the banned Jewish composer Mendelssohn and battles personal demons as he tries to maintain a semblance of order in the growing chaos.
Auschwitz’s shadow
The multiple perspectives lend themselves to a subtle and sympathetic portrayal of the characters and their conflict. As the shadow of nearby Auschwitz casts a long shadow across the story, Ryan is particularly acute in dealing with the subject of how ordinary people allowed themselves to engage in monstrous acts. “Mostly,” Neumann observes to himself, “no one had ever imagined it would come to this. Until it had, of course.”
For his part, and despite being the closet thing the novel gets to a conventional hero, Paul Brandt is as guilty of brutal depredations as any German veteran of the Eastern Front. “When everyone else is doing something,” he tells his despairing father, “you end up doing it too – without thinking about it. Sometimes terrible things.”
The Constant Soldier is a beguiling blend, a spy novel-cum-historical thriller that offers a gripping but nuanced narrative set against the horrors of the absolute abuse of absolute power. It’s a bleak but rewarding novel about guilt, personal and shared, and taking responsibility for your actions, even if doing so offers no possibility of reward. “What did it matter anyway?” Neumann asks. “Once you had killed even one innocent person, then the number becomes irrelevant . . . They were both of them guilty past the point of any form of redemption - on any scale.”
Declan Burke is an author, journalist and editor of the short story anthology Trouble Is Our Business (New Island), which will be published in September. | http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/the-constant-soldier-review-a-good-german-takes-on-the-nazis-1.2766949?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/be899f509cd57fe8ccae6caa5f1722d217cf03712765ca6beb44cde0f15f12e8.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T14:49:19 | null | 2016-08-26T15:13:00 | Fed boss says case for raising rates bolstered by improving labour market conditions | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Feconomy%2Fyellen-comments-reinforce-expectations-of-us-rate-hike-1.2769500.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769499.1472221361!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Yellen comments reinforce expectations of US rate hike | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The case for raising US interest rates in the US 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 labor 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.
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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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/yellen-comments-reinforce-expectations-of-us-rate-hike-1.2769500 | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/d02c660bef4813b42c37da6590cb29ddd161c1dc1f86e45d73bd4ca895f602bc.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T00:50:22 | null | 2016-08-27T01:01:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fopinion%2Feditorial%2Fitaly-pays-its-teens-to-take-in-a-bit-of-culture-1.2769709%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/assets/images/favicons/irishtimes.png | en | null | Italy pays its teens to take in a bit of culture | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | With youth employment standing at an appalling 40 per cent, there isn’t much to be cheerful about if you’re a school-leaver in Italy. But prime minister Matteo Renzi has introduced a little happiness into young people’s lives with his announcement of a new “culture bonus”.
From September 15th, every 18-year-old in the country will be entitled to register online and access €500 through a special app. The money can then be spent over the following 15 months on a range of cultural activities, including going to theatres, cinemas, concerts and museums, visiting archaeological sites, and buying books.
The bonus will benefit 575,000 teenagers, at a cost of €290 million, and forms part of a larger government initiative announced following last November’s terrorist attacks in Paris, when Mr Renzi said an increase of a billion euros in defence and security spending would be matched by a further billion on culture. “We have centuries of history that proclaim the fact that culture will beat ignorance, that beauty is more tenacious than barbarism,” he declared.
For the moment, it seems, the culture bonus is a one-off for those lucky enough to turn 18 this year. In 2017, a similar scheme will give teachers €500 to spend on their professional development. It’s an intriguing example of how governments can and should think more imaginatively about supporting cultural activity.
And it will be fascinating to see how more than half a million young adults choose to spend their money. By targeting specific sectors of society and encouraging them to engage more actively with culture, governments can help to develop and empower new audiences in a different manner from the traditional – and not always satisfactory – system of direct state subvention or subsidy for cultural institutions and arts practitioners. When Minister for Arts Heather Humphreys’s aspirational but disappointingly vague Culture 2025 strategy plan is debated in the Oirechtas later this year, the Italian initiative is exactly the sort of visionary, lateral thinking that deserves to be put on the table for discussion. | http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/editorial/italy-pays-its-teens-to-take-in-a-bit-of-culture-1.2769709?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/20248915e0321307901f9759b1fd146cc1820c7fe63d32c59db15cc1f6201646.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T04:49:37 | null | 2016-08-31T05:00:00 | Colliers says sale price of €625 per sq ft underlines increasing values in the Georgian market | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fcommercial-property%2Fgeorgian-on-fitzwilliam-square-sells-for-2-8m-1.2772915.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2772913.1472550319!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Georgian on Fitzwilliam Square sells for €2.8m | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | In a further sign of the recovery in values on Dublin’s Georgian squares, Colliers International has secured just over €2.8 million for 26 Fitzwilliam Square, well above the €2.35 million guide price.
The house is on the south side of the square, and is in immaculate condition. It has a floor area of 418sq m (4,500sq ft) and six car spaces to the rear. However, the sale did not include a mews building which is held under separate ownership.
The house is let to tenants including Adare Cosmetics and Grafton Recruitment at an overall rent of €92,000. The net initial yield will be only 3.1 per cent.
Michelle McGarry of Colliers said the sale price of €625 per sq ft underlined the increasing values in the Georgian market and the higher demand for these properties.
Last December Colliers sold the vacant 40 Fitzwilliam Square for €2.1 million, equating to €507 per sq ft. A year earlier the same agency got €2.45 million for number 43 – the equivalent of €570 per sq ft– with the benefit of a potential mews site. Both properties were bought by international investors.
With the property market in the doldrums in 2012, 10 Fitzwilliam Square was sold for a mere €950,000, reflecting a capital value of only €257 per sq ft.
Ms McGarry says the much improved demand for the houses since then has come from domestic and international cash buyers as well as others looking to reconvert them to residential use. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/commercial-property/georgian-on-fitzwilliam-square-sells-for-2-8m-1.2772915 | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/1e148afaf598df0f01fddb386cccce459c76e987ab5036fa71afd1011d89fdcf.json |
[
"Rob Doyle"
] | 2016-08-26T16:49:52 | null | 2016-08-26T17:15:00 | Rob Doyle says Jarett Kobek’s satirically ‘bad’ book is a memorable rant against just about everything | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fculture%2Fbooks%2Fi-hate-the-internet-review-a-novel-so-bad-it-s-really-a-lot-of-fun-1.2769647%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769645.1472228069!/image/image.jpg | en | null | I Hate the Internet review: A novel so bad it’s . . . really a lot of fun | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | ‘How great to find a writer railing so bitterly against the internet! What happened to us all? Kobek asks.’ Photograph: Jie Zhao/Corbis via Getty Images
Book Title:
I Hate the Internet ISBN-13:
978-0996421805 Author:
Jarett Kobek Publisher:
We Heard You Like Books Guideline Price:
$15.95
I Hate the Internet is a bad novel. It does not, as great fiction is reported to do, teach us how to think; it tells us what to think, and in the most hectoring, right-on way. (From the opening pages: “She was a woman in a culture that hated women”.)
If we are under any doubt that I Hate the Internet is a bad novel, we need not be: the novel itself tells us so. “This is a bad novel,” it says. “Most books are quite bad,” it adds. “Almost all movies are better than books.”
This bad novel flagrantly violates the rules that govern “good writing”. It is proud to be a bad novel because the enemy here is the good novel. The good novel and literary fiction itself, the narrator tells us in his unfiltered rage, were the creations of the CIA. (One of the many irritating things about this bad novel is that its conception of the world is so US-centric.)
As part of its anti-Soviet propaganda effort, the CIA funded both The Paris Review and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, the latter the prototype of a swarm of creative writing courses. These courses serve as production lines for the manufacture of lyrical epiphanies, tea-time affairs and gentle melancholy. We turn to their products in the same way that we might listen to a Coldplay album: for the illusion of humanity in a world from which it has vanished utterly.
However, just as it is certain that Chris Martin’s skin will one day peel back to reveal the murderous skull of a Terminator, the good novel can’t do a damn thing – so this bad novel tells us – to help us navigate our shitty new world. Said world is run by multinational tech corporations that profit from our misery, suffocates in online sanctimony, and is given over to the law of the mob, with its brutal/sentimental binary of a drunken bruiser.
Twitter hordes
A little about this bad novel’s plot, which is not really up to much. An annoying woman named Adeline falls afoul of the Twitter hordes who, of course, viciously abuse anyone whose worldview does not precisely accord with their own, or who they judge to have been “offensive”, whether or not anyone really is offended.
As Adeline hangs out in San Francisco with her bourgeois-bohemian friends and weighs up her possible courses of action, the bad novel starts to resemble one of the good novels it so violently lampoons. That is, one in which white, middle-class Americans bore us with their boring predicaments.
Jarett Kobek, this bad novel’s author, can’t resist taking a swipe at the literary herd’s favourite punching bag, Jonathan Franzen. For all his well-informed fury, there are few trends that Kobek is not willing to surf.
But let’s not worry about that: how great to find a writer railing so bitterly against the internet! What happened to us all? Kobek asks. How the hell did we allow ourselves to be herded so docilely by these Silicon Valley twats? The author comes from a tech background; he knows well what he lambasts, and his assault on how we live now is withering indeed.
That we make such easy targets is no reason to deny Kobek our gratitude for shooting us down. Survey the scene: our primary pastime is going on social media to parade our “outrage”, not out of conviction but out of narcissism, and for the pleasure of being applauded by the herd.
“TRUMP IS BAD”, we tweet, on our devices produced by slaves in China. “RACISM IS WRONG”, we post, and dollar signs flash in the White Man’s eyes. “DOWN WITH THE PATRIARCHY”, we tweet, and all it does is generate advertising revenue for our new male masters, and the masturbatory illusion that this will change anything.
Google is our God
Meanwhile, the writers are on Twitter as well, abandoning all dignity in the scrabble to reach a broader audience, though no one gives a damn. Our lives having become so impoverished, we cultivate our capacity to be offended as the last meagre source of pleasure. We fellated Steve Jobs to death and now we grovel at the altar of Zuckerberg. Google is our God and Master. The gears of capitalism in its most lethal phase are kept running and Earth hurtles towards an extinction which, frankly, can’t come too soon.
In summary, I Hate the Internet is not really much of a novel at all: like this bad review, it is a screed, a polemical essay, a rant against the internet, against morons, against racism, against so many shades of bullshit. It is an anti-novel about why San Francisco, most beautiful of American cities, has become so awful. (You guessed it: it’s the Ayn Rand-worshipping tech wankers with their new money and messianic self-importance.)
It is also tremendous fun, inventive, smart and, again, highly irritating. I read it more avidly and will remember it longer than many of the good novels I’ve read recently, most of which I’ve already forgotten.
Rob Doyle’s second book, This Is the Ritual, is published by Bloomsbury and the Lilliput Press. | http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/i-hate-the-internet-review-a-novel-so-bad-it-s-really-a-lot-of-fun-1.2769647?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/41c34a4665f2af58903da212268a7ab63c72f263ff4943d7afab376fcc119c30.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T08:52:52 | null | 2016-08-31T09:15:00 | Liam McEntee (5) born prematurely at 23 weeks weighing less than one pound | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fireland%2Firish-news%2Fboy-celebrates-first-day-of-school-after-four-years-in-hospital-1.2774090%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2774089.1472631346!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Boy celebrates first day of school after four years in hospital | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Liam McEntee (5) celebrates his first day of school on Wednesday at Clonbern national school in Co Galway.
It is an occasion that his family feared he would never see when he was born prematurely at 23 weeks, weighing just less than one pound and suffering from chronic lung disease and infections leading to multiple operations,the loss of his left leg and a dependency on a tracheotomy tube. He spent the first four years of his life in hospital.
His mother Louise McEntee maintains that the HSE has a lot to learn from Liam’s case particularly in the area of home care packages.
She told RTE’s Morning Ireland: “The HSE has a lot of lessons to learn in this sense because they’re destroying a whole family, not only the child itself developmentally, they’re putting everybody’s lives on hold within the family unit.”
Ms McEntee suggested the HSE should “try and get their home care package sorted and quickly” and get patients out of hospital and closer to home.
“We were separated as a family for a long time - for four years - my two older lads, their lives are only staring now since Liam came home because all our lives were on hold when he was on hospital for that length of time.
“It took nearly two and a half years to secure a home care package to get Liam actually home to his home environment and that took an awful toll on the family.
“The lads now are both working, we couldn’t afford to send them to college because we were paying for our mortgage here and we were also paying for parents’ accommodation in Crumlin hospital, so money was very tight, non existent at times, so the lads’ lives were affected as well.”
Liam was very ill for the first two years of his life, she explained.
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“The rest of the time we were just waiting to get back to Galway, or get home.
“That’s why I contacted Liveline, I couldn’t bear to spend another year in Crumlin because I knew Liam wouldn’t develop any more than he would at that stage, he needed to be at home or closer to home so that the family could actually see him, and interact with him and give him some life skills.
“He couldn’t do that in Crumlin because he was in isolation all the time, he wasn’t allowed to play with children or go down to the playroom.
“He was quite isolated for all that time in hospital so getting back to Galway was the start of getting home.
“Two years on, he has got on so well, today starting mainstream school is a day we never thought we’d see.
“He’s like any normal five year old, he gets up he looks for the iPad, he communicates with the iPad, he has no words, his only way of communication is through sign language and if we can’t get what he’s trying to tell us then he goes to the iPad and points it out to us.
“Like every other child he loves his trains and his television, just normal. We were told he would have severe cerebral palsy and be very brain damaged but we hope that his global developmental delay is only due to his long term admission in hospital.
“We hope that as the years go on he will balance out to any normal child his age. He’s coming in at a developmental age of four so he’s catching up quite quickly since he came home.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/boy-celebrates-first-day-of-school-after-four-years-in-hospital-1.2774090?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/e587d24cfa81f9725199afd76d669266721542b42604dacd77e78676e18455f0.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T00:52:39 | null | 2016-08-31T01:00:00 | Detectives look for indications of pressure in investigation into murder-suicide motive | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fcrime-and-law%2Fcavan-deaths-garda%25C3%25AD-focus-on-mental-health-of-father-1.2773642%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773638.1472591851!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Cavan deaths: Gardaí focus on mental health of father | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | A sealed note taken from the house where the Hawe family were found dead in a case of murder-suicide was being examined by gardaí in the hope it may shed light on the motive for the tragedy.
Detectives trying to unravel the mystery are now set to focus on speaking to friends and colleagues of Alan Hawe.
They are hopeful those interviews will determine if he was under any pressure in the period before he killed his wife Clodagh and children Liam (13), Niall (11) and six-year-old Ryan in their Co Cavan home.
Their bodies were found on Monday morning at their home in Barconey Heights near Ballyjamesduff.
Gardaí took a number of knives from the property which they believe were used in the murders by Mr Hawe before he took his own life by hanging.
He was deputy principal at Castlerahan National School in Ballyjamesduff while Mrs Hawe taught at Oristown National School in Kells, Co Meath.
Gardaí are trying to determine whether Mr Hawe’s mental state had deteriorated suddenly as the beginning of the new school year approached and are hopeful his colleagues can assist in that regard.
Of particular interest would be any indication prior to the summer break that he was under pressure or had come into conflict with anybody which might have troubled him as he prepared to return to work.
Senior officers said because the family were not regarded as being at-risk and had not required assistance from any health or mental health State agency, the investigation was keen to establish as much about Mr Hawe’s life as possible.
A note was found on the backdoor of the family home instructing any caller to the house to alert the Garda rather than enter the property themselves.
A second more substantial note or letter was also found. Garda sources said it had been taken away for fingerprint and DNA testing as part of their efforts to confirm its authenticity.
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Key to tragedy
The same sources said the letter may hold the key to the tragedy, adding that Mr Hawe did not have a history of known mental health problems and that his actions were a “bolt from the blue”.
Other notes were also taken from the property for examination.
Because Mr Hawe is the only suspect for the murders of his wife and three boys there can be no criminal charges. However, gardaí will prepare a file for the coroner’s inquest based on their investigations. | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/cavan-deaths-garda%C3%AD-focus-on-mental-health-of-father-1.2773642?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/a2c958204df283bd82170d0fec3bdf694e0912897ccaa125bf7d2805d9ea3610.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T00:52:09 | null | 2016-08-30T01:10:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fopinion%2Fletters%2Fthe-rose-of-tralee-politics-and-light-entertainment-1.2772152%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/assets/images/favicons/irishtimes.png | en | null | The Rose of Tralee, politics and light entertainment | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Sir, – Breda O’Brien (“Rose’s comment on ‘Eighth’ blurs lines of light entertainment”, Opinion & Analysis, August 27th) writes: “By politicising something like the Rose of Tralee, which is intended to link people in the diaspora to their roots and heritage, something designed to unite and entertain is hijacked and becomes divisive.”
One might think that the current lively political debate about reproductive rights in Ireland is an important part of what it is to be Irish – of the “roots and heritage” to which Irish people abroad are, supposedly, to be linked via the Rose of Tralee.
At least, one might think this if one believes that what is important about Ireland includes the free and open exchange of reasons, not merely a fading picture postcard scene. – Yours, etc,
DAVID O’BRIEN,
Madison,
Wisconsin.
Sir, – The recent controversy over remarks made by the Sydney Rose has intrigued me. I had heard of the Rose of Tralee competition, and I always understood it to be a step above a beauty pageant, where a girl with Irish roots was chosen because of personality, confidence, elegance and perhaps most of all, being a modern woman, with all that entails. How disappointed I am that when a Sydney woman dares to express an opinion about what is a modern issue for women she is regarded as having behaved inappropriately for a Rose. The Rose of Tralee competition organisers should issue a statement clarifying exactly what kind of woman they are looking for.
If they want women without opinions, maybe they should reinvent themselves as just another bikini-clad beauty competition. – Yours, etc,
BRUCE MITCHELL,
Sydney,
Australia.
Sir, – I write to commend the articles by both Breda O’Brien and Brianna Parkins (“Inside the Rose of Tralee: It’s like a ‘Kate Middleton impersonation competition’” (August 27th) in Saturday’s edition. They have opposing views on repealing the Eighth Amendment and they both recognise that the Rose of Tralee Festival is not apolitical.
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Politics is the process of making decisions applying to all members of a group. Therefore when the festival seeks to avoid giving offence to anyone, it is being political.
For too long women have been duped into thinking that politics is for the men and their exclusion is not relevant. Whether you participate or not decisions will be made about your life, health, employment, pensions, housing, etc.
The 50:50 group was formed to raise public awareness about the exclusion of women from elected politics in Ireland – namely the Dáil, Seanad and local government councils. The Fine Gael/Labour coalition passed the general election 30 per cent candidate selection gender quotas for general election 2016. However, the quotas do not apply to the local council elections. This is a significant problem as it may lead to an insufficient pipeline of experienced female politicians for future general elections. After 2023, the general election candidate selection gender quota increases to 40 per cent.
If the Rose of Tralee festival wants to survive, it has to tone down the show-pony element and recognise that celebrating women includes their opinions as well.
Rose of Tralee contestants need to resist the forces in the festival that say that women should keep their opinions to themselves. – Yours, etc,
Dr COLETTE FINN,
Cork.
Sir, – Despite the razzmatazz of the Rose of Tralee extravaganza, and the fact that it brings a lot of lolly to the area, I think it has finally outlived its usefulness. While each one of the lovely, talented and beautifully gowned young ladies deserves the title, it has become an adult bonny babies competition. – Yours, etc,
VERA HUGHES,
Moate,
Co Westmeath.
Sir, – Breda O’Brien writes about Brianna Parkins and asks “if she had called for the retention of the Eight Amendment, would media people be queuing up to congratulate her?”
If Brianna Parkins had called for the retention of the Eight Amendment, would Breda O’Brien have written critically of her?
Your columnist also wrote that “double standards in the media have become increasingly obvious” due to “American money in Irish political campaigns”.
If the pro-life groups were given American money, would Breda O’Brien be critical of that? – Yours, etc,
PAUL SODEN,
Santry,
Dublin 9.
Sir, – There were two political points made at the Rose of Tralee. Given the extensive coverage and additional platform you gave to the Sydney Rose and her opinion on the Eight Amendment, and the lack of same provided to a man who was protesting that other men should have equal access to their children, it is obvious that men are second-class citizens in this regard.
I hope Fathers for Justice continue its protests in Ireland. – Yours, etc,
ULTAN Ó BROIN,
Dublin 8.
Sir, – With regard to the fading appeal of the Rose of Tralee festival, surely it is time to take out the secateurs. – Yours, etc,
GUY STEPHENSON,
Letterkenny,
Co Donegal.
A chara, – Brianna Parkins writes that female empowerment amounts only to “platitudes if women are not allowed to speak up for themselves” (“Sydney Rose stands over moment of ‘sweaty bravery’”, August 27th). Given that she is a journalist by profession, it is reasonable to assume she has plenty of opportunities to air her views other than on stage at the Rose of Tralee contest.
What next? Perhaps the winning All-Ireland captain will be inspired by Brianna Parkins to give us a lecture on planning law or reform of the common agricultural policy as Michael D waits to present him with the Sam Maguire. There is a time and a place. – Is mise,
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DAVE SLATER,
Kilkea,
Co Kildare. | http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/the-rose-of-tralee-politics-and-light-entertainment-1.2772152?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/829caa05efadfe176a4b7aa3a2725d1dd9f0b0a7d40d438d305c3faa6c33f3cd.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T12:52:09 | null | 2016-08-30T13:36:00 | Realistically I know Russia will be my last opportunity to do anything with England’ | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fsoccer%2Finternational%2Fwayne-rooney-to-retire-from-international-football-after-world-cup-1.2773037%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773036.1472560563!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Wayne Rooney to retire from international football after World Cup | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Wayne Rooney has announced the 2018 World Cup will be his final tournament with England after he was kept on as captain by new boss Sam Allardyce.
Rooney, 30, has led his country since August 2014 and is England’s record goalscorer having netted 53 in 115 international appearances.
However, after taking over from Roy Hodgson following Euro 2016, Allardyce initially refused to confirm whether the Manchester United forward would keep the armband.
Allardyce also declined to name a skipper in his first squad announcement on Sunday night, adding a minor element of intrigue, but Rooney officially retained the armband in an announcement on Monday.
Question marks over his place in the team also appear to have been answered by Allardyce’s decision and Rooney, preparing for Sunday’s opening 2018 World Cup qualifier in Slovakia, says Russia 2018 is likely to be his last chance to win a major international competition.
Speaking at a press conference at St George’s Park, Rooney said: “Realistically I know myself that Russia will be my last opportunity to do anything with England. Hopefully I can end my time with England on a high.
“I said before the Euros I enjoyed playing in this team, and that’s the case still. There were some questions about whether I should stop playing, but I am looking forward to getting back on the pitch.
“I made my mind up before the Euros, whether we did well or not, that I was going to continue. I’ve had nothing to think about since then.”
He added: “My mind is made up... Russia will be my last tournament.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/international/wayne-rooney-to-retire-from-international-football-after-world-cup-1.2773037?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/a367727048a961d862fc3d6a0fc4e536cffeba4dd50dfd2cf91489a4ce359f3a.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T00:47:36 | null | 2016-08-27T01:00:00 | Court hears firm was in position to catch and stop fraud but missed multiple red flags | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Ffinancial-services%2Fpwc-settles-5-5bn-fraud-detection-lawsuit-1.2769779.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2769774.1472234235!/image/image.jpg | en | null | PwC settles $5.5bn fraud detection lawsuit | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | PwC has settled a lawsuit brought against it over one of the biggest bank collapses in US history, in a landmark case that shone a light on the responsibility of auditors to detect fraud.
The world’s biggest professional services firm by annual revenues had been accused of failing to catch a multibillion-dollar conspiracy between executives at Taylor, Bean & Whitaker, a defunct mortgage lender, and counterparts at Colonial Bank, an Alabama-based lender that supplied TBW with loans.
PwC gave the bank’s parent, Colonial BancGroup, a clean audit opinion for six years until it collapsed in 2009, when it emerged that huge chunks of its loans to TBW were secured against assets that did not exist. The plaintiff, the bankruptcy trustee of TBW, had been seeking $5.5 billion plus punitive damages, in the biggest accounting negligence lawsuit ever to go to trial.
The decision to settle – for a confidential sum – came four weeks into proceedings in a state court in Miami.
“The case was settled to the mutual satisfaction of the parties,” said a PwC spokesperson.
Steven Thomas, lead trial lawyer for the plaintiff, declined to comment on Friday’s settlement. But speaking broadly, he told the Financial Times: “The history that has happened here over the last few years, and the fallout of the Great Recession, has shown that what auditors do, matters. Auditors owe ultimate allegiance to the investing public; I think that is becoming more and more clear.”
A separate lawsuit filed against PwC by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the regulator, and Colonial’s bankruptcy trustee is pending in Alabama federal court.
Mr Thomas’s team had claimed that PwC was in a position to catch and stop the fraud but missed multiple red flags. In its opening statements, PwC countered that no auditor can reasonably be expected to catch a well-organised and determined fraud.
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Last year, PwC agreed to pay $65 million to settle a separate lawsuit claiming it failed to properly audit MF Global’s internal controls before its collapse.
– (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016) | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/financial-services/pwc-settles-5-5bn-fraud-detection-lawsuit-1.2769779 | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/bb3dcf603cfce83471d0188e7ddbea0a220ae0540c07af0a7e1564c258ceda58.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T18:48:31 | null | 2016-08-28T18:38:00 | Zenith exit linked to row over access to insurance industry database | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fmedia-and-marketing%2Fseen-heard-spend-apple-tax-windfall-on-health-says-minister-1.2771202.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771199.1472405917!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Seen & Heard: Spend Apple tax windfall on health, says Minister | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | The unwanted tax bonanza that may flow to Ireland from a ruling against Apple in Brussels should be used to fixed the health service and build houses, Minister of State for Training and Skills John Halligan has told the Sunday Independent.
The Independent Alliance Minister of State said no company should able “to hold the country to ransom” and “if Apple owes taxes to the State they should pay them and that’s it”.
Minister of State for Disability Issues Finian McGrath echoed Mr Halligan’s view.
The European Commission’s ruling on whether Ireland’s tax deal with breached state-aid rules is expected this week. Brussels is widely expected to find that illegal state aid was given to Apple.
Zenith exit linked to fraud data access
A dispute over access to a new industry database was partly responsible for Zenith Insurance’s decision to exit the Irish motor cover market, according to the Sunday Times.
The Gibraltar-based insurer is to stop offering car coverage here from February, citing soaring claims costs in a loss-making market.
Zenith has sought membership of Insurance Ireland, the umbrella group for the industry, but could not reach agreement about access to a database containnig information about drivers’ penalty points and no-claims bonuses.
The database was established to identify fraudulent and incorrect information.
Among other issues, Zenith is believed to have baulked at the cost it would have to pay to use the database, which was developed jointly by rival insurance firms, the paper said.
Vulture funds turn up heat on SMEs
According to the Sunday Business Post, the rate at which vulture funds are moving in to seize or sell assets held by small businesses has doubled this year.
An analysis of enforcement orders by the newspaper indicates that a handful of funds were behind 20 per cent of the total in the last eight months of 2015. However, that rate jumped to 43 per cent in the first eight months of 2016.
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The paper cites an expert who says US private-equity firms are likely to accelerate their enforcement activity even more in the coming months as they look to cash out of the Irish market in the shortest time possible.
Billionaire snaps up Ex-Quinlan French Riviera bolthole
Kazakhstan’s richest man, not Borat (Sacha Baron Cohen’s comic alter ego) but Bulat Utemuratov has emerged as the €65 million buyer of a lavish French Riviera house once owned by Dublin financier Derek Quinlan.
Quinlan sold the Cap Ferrat mansion, known as Villa La Carriere, in 2011 to a French limited company, according to a story in the Sunday Business Post. The paper noted that funds from the sale went to Barclays Bank, which was repaid in full by Quinlan.
Utemuratov, a former economics teacher, made his fortune from mining, banking, property and private equity.
He is a friend and adviser to Kazakhstan’s long-time president Nursultan Nazarbaev. | http://www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/seen-heard-spend-apple-tax-windfall-on-health-says-minister-1.2771202 | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/6b31b79268f4d6cf93bff0e969b80ab8d10e88c2301ad81994a851f4c4d9c18e.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T06:50:40 | null | 2016-08-27T06:00:00 | Artist’s vibrant art deco designs regularly feature on ‘Antiques Roadshow’ | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Flife-and-style%2Fhomes-and-property%2Finteriors%2Fdesign-moment-clarice-cliff-ceramics-c-1928-1.2767145%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2767143.1472056246!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Design Moment: Clarice Cliff ceramics, c.1928 | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Clarice Cliff (1899-1972) pottery makes regular appearances on BBC’s Antiques Roadshow. Cliff is one of the best-known English ceramic artists of the 20th century and the wonder always is the variety in the design.
Prolific and inventive, Cliff started work in a pottery in Staffordshire at the age of 13 doing the relatively simple work of adding gold lines on tableware. She studied art in the evenings and by 1928 she was in charge of her own studio, Newport Pottery. There she started experimenting with factory seconds covering over imperfections with strong glazed colours in geometric art deco shapes.
She created angular shapes for her vibrant hopeful patterns and they were so popular that by the start of the 1930s she had 70 painters producing her “Bizarre” “Crocus” and “Ravel” designs. Her range of patterns expanded and her popularity grew. There were tea sets, vases, biscuit barrels, tea pots and milk jugs, all in distinctive shapes and patterns – the “Bon Jour” range alone came in 20 different shapes.
Her work was widely exported and sold in high-end shops in London including Harrods . By the end of the 1930s she had become quite a celebrity in Britain.
Her most famous quote is a lesson to all: “Having a little fun at my work does not make me any less of an artist, and people who appreciate truly beautiful and original creations in pottery are not frightened by innocent tomfoolery”.
Unusual pieces of her work fetch high prices at auction. | http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/homes-and-property/interiors/design-moment-clarice-cliff-ceramics-c-1928-1.2767145?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/18bf274ce0093fd9ac9eebb3d2f12cacc128b359ee686e24df16e2b42be318ea.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T12:52:08 | null | 2016-08-30T13:48:00 | Ireland boss has no problem with allowing players out of camp to complete medicals | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fsoccer%2Finternational%2Fmartin-o-neill-rewards-dundalk-goalkeeper-gary-rogers-with-a-call-up-1.2773042%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773041.1472561288!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Martin O’Neill rewards Dundalk goalkeeper Gary Rogers with a call up | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Martin O’Neill says he abandoned a plan to invite several Dundalk players to train with the Ireland squad due to the club’s hectic schedule just now but goalkeeper Gary Rogers has been added to the squad for the games against Oman and Serbia.
Rogers will join up with the group and train with them for the rest of the week then return to Dundalk for the league game against Cork City on Friday before flying out to Belgrade on Saturday afternoon. The 34 year-old will get back from Serbia in the early hours of Tuesday morning and then rejoin Dundalk for their game in Sligo that evening. “That might be a problem for him,” said O’Neill, “but if Dundalk have no objections...”
The call up comes after David Forde, who recently joined Portsmouth on a season long loan, opted to stay on at the club which has games against Yeovil and Crawley Town this week. “David has just joined a new club,” said O’Neill. “He is first choice at the minute. He feels that just at the moment that his first duty is to Portsmouth. They have some games during the break and he doesn’t want to give up that position. I agree with that sentiment and so he’s not with us.”
Rogers, meanwhile, may not be the only one to do a bit of coming and going over the next few days with Jeff Hendrick likely to have to return to England over the next 24 hours in order to complete his move away from Derby County, whether it is to Hull or Burnley.
Robbie Brady too may yet get the chance to leave Norwich and return to the Premier League - and O’Neill says that he has no objections to players sorting out their club careers as long as things have settled down by Thursday morning.
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“Some of the players might leave to have medicals if there are opportunities at clubs,” he said. “I don’t have a problem with that. That’s just part things of this week. Hopefully it will all be cleared up on Thursday morning after which we can get completely focused on the Serbia game.”
Barring James McCarthy, who remains a doubt with a groin strain, O’Neill is still hopeful of having a full squad for that game although he says that John O’Shea and Seamus Coleman are likely to sit Wednesday’s friendly against Oman out.
The manager says that the game can provide a useful opportunity for the team: “We played them two years ago then went and got a really important win in Georgia,” he says, although he accepts that the game this time may best be remembered for providing the backdrop for Robbie Keane’s departure from the international stage.
Keane, he said, has a good chance of starting the game before, in reference to the striker’s standing in the international goalscoring charts, he joked: “Is he one behind Gerd Muller? Well, he’d better do it in the first 20 minutes of the game, otherwise he’s going to find time pressing.”
Shay Given may also make an appearance with the manager saying that he would like the goalkeeper’s contribution to be acknowledged too although he said that the Donegalman remained a little wary of “stealing anybody’s limelight”. | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/international/martin-o-neill-rewards-dundalk-goalkeeper-gary-rogers-with-a-call-up-1.2773042?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/4d7484dcbdeab7fd9e5cf47992161ea9c3f662e6553b1ef91e8b65833c0714f7.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T00:51:45 | null | 2016-08-29T01:00:00 | A woman explains why she decided to stay on in Australia after her two-year visa expired | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Flife-and-style%2Fgeneration-emigration%2Fillegal-in-perth-everyone-told-me-not-to-come-home-1.2771302%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771301.1472414969!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Illegal in Perth: ‘Everyone told me not to come home’ | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | In 2011 I went to Australia to visit my brother, as a present from my parents for my 21st birthday. I was supposed to be there a month but ended up staying on because I loved the weather and lifestyle.
When my two-year visa was coming to an end, everything was going belly-up at home. Everyone was telling me not to come home, that there were no jobs.
My mother lost her job and my father was self-employed in construction, and work dried up for him too. I wanted to be able to help my parents out financially.
I was working two jobs in Perth, in a bar and a nursing home. I was working every hour I could. Why would I come back to no job in Ireland?
I did try to get a visa, to get sponsored to stay, but it didn’t work out. The agent I went to said the amount of Irish whose visas were running out was keeping him awake at night.
My housemate’s brother had been living there illegally for five years and he kept saying it would be fine. I was still able to travel freely within the country using my driving licence.
I was petrified for the first month. I was living with Irish friends and they would play pranks on me, knocking on my window pretending to be the police. From seeing shows like Banged up Abroad, I thought that was going to happen to me.
I came clean with my boss in the nursing home and they were fine with it, and paid me cash. But I never told my boss in the bar. I got away with it for 13 months.
Officers
I think someone dobbed me in. I was in the bar working one afternoon when three officers arrived to pick me up.
They wanted to bring me out the fire exit and into the van, but I had to call my boss. She was so upset when she arrived – she had no idea I was illegal.
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I spent eight days in the detention centre (Perth Immigration detention centre beside the airport) before I was sent home. The conditions were absolutely appalling.
After the second night I refused to stay in the girls’ dorm because I didn’t feel safe, so I slept on a couch in the TV room for the remainder of my stay. It was basically like prison. They told me nothing.
Every day I asked when I was going home, but they said I had to wait until an officer came to speak to me and they would decide then if I was going home or not.
When I finally met him he said someone could pack a suitcase and bring it to the airport for me, but I wasn’t allowed it while in detention.
I got on the phone to a friend and she packed up all my things, I had to tell her what to dump, what to pass on to other people, what I wanted to bring home.
Flight
They paid for my flight. I offered them the money – they had my cards and I told them to pay for it from my account, but they told me that’s not the way it works.
I know I overstayed, but the reaction was completely over the top. I was still paying my taxes for the bar job, paid my rent and my bills, paid my car insurance, paid a lot of taxes on petrol. The way I was treated was horrendous.
For the first year back at home I was very unaccepting. When you haven’t chosen to do something and you are forced into it suddenly it is hard.
I had no money and had no work for the first while, until I got a minimum wage job. But now I’m doing good. I’m back at college and have readjusted.
I didn’t think I was doing anything that wrong, but then when it happened I realised it was actually so serious. I had no idea of the repercussions.
The four Irish people I was living with all came home within a few months. Their visas were running up and they were thinking of staying on but when they saw what happened to me they said no way. It is not worth the risk.
In conversation with Ciara Kenny. The interviewee has remained anonymous to protect her identity. | http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/generation-emigration/illegal-in-perth-everyone-told-me-not-to-come-home-1.2771302?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/4911bd3e476db72b6476fa491a3587b7b21d006c98b280bd6e15cd6b24784ac4.json |
[
"Tom Moriarty"
] | 2016-08-27T00:50:29 | null | 2016-08-27T01:29:00 | Browser review | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fculture%2Fbooks%2Fdublin-the-heart-of-the-city-by-ronan-sheehan-and-brendan-walsh-1.2764420%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2764772.1471884515!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Dublin The Heart of the City by Ronan Sheehan and Brendan Walsh | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Book Title:
Dublin The Heart of the City ISBN-13:
9781843516903 Author:
Ronan Sheehan, Brendan Walsh Publisher:
The Lilliput Press Guideline Price:
€15.0
Brendan Walsh captures the impish grins of Dublin chisellers as they play in the ruined north city centre. His wonderful but undated black-and-white photographs provide a perfect counterpoint to Ronan Sheehan’s narrative of the neglect, despair and poverty that afflicted the communities living in “the beating heart of the city”.
Now deservedly reissued by The Lilliput Press, the 1988 edition ended with hope that the Dublin docklands could be developed for the benefit of local people; what we got was the IFSC. Hope had grown in the 1980s with Tony Gregory’s “Summerhill deal” and community activism against crime and drugs; now the north city centre has gangland warfare.
Sheehan has a cold-eyed but warm-hearted socialist perspective, linking crime directly to poverty and stressing the shared neighbourly spirit that thrived even in the bleak 1930s but has now been dissipated by consumerism. Despite the heroin and the violence, Sheehan believes fervently in “the traditional spirit and energy of the Dublin working class”. | http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/dublin-the-heart-of-the-city-by-ronan-sheehan-and-brendan-walsh-1.2764420?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/97f784fc94338ac0cac710284c810253eb007695d6126b731dda6c00e37c4ebb.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T16:51:14 | null | 2016-08-28T15:59:00 | Saido Berahino greeted with chorus of boos after coming on in second half | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fsport%2Fsoccer%2Fenglish-soccer%2Fwest-brom-s-need-for-new-blood-laid-bare-in-dour-draw-1.2771037%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2771032.1472396332!/image/image.jpg | en | null | West Brom’s need for new blood laid bare in dour draw | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | West Brom 0 Middlesbrough 0
An afternoon full of frustration ended with the predictable sound of boos at the final whistle as the desperate need for new signings at West Brom was laid bare. Tony Pulis looked as exasperated as the home support, who endured 90 minutes of tedious action in a game where both teams were lucky to get nil.
Albion, who have completed only one permanent transfer this summer, were woeful as an attacking force. There was no creativity or spark and they looked totally devoid of ideas as to how to break down Middlesbrough.
Saido Berahino started on the bench and the reaction to his introduction in the second half – a chorus of boos – suggested that the Albion fans would have been happy for him to remain there. Berahino could not get off the pitch quickly enough at the final whistle.
The only bright note for Albion was the performance of the 18-year-old Sam Field, who looked composed in possession on his full Premier League debut and left the field to deserved applause when he was withdrawn with just under quarter of an hour remaining.
As for Middlesbrough, this will probably be viewed as a useful point, although Aitor Karanka’s team may feel that it could have been more if they had played with a bit more conviction.
Albion actually started reasonably brightly, with James McClean lively on the left flank – Antonio Barragan’s well-timed tackle brought one promising run to an end and Brad Guzan smothered at the winger’s feet after a fine pass from Darren Fletcher – yet the game soon slipped into a lull.
It was painful to watch at times and for a long period in the first half it felt as though nothing happened. Middlesbrough were dominating possession during that period but the neat and tidy passing at the base of their midfield, where Adam Clayton and Adam Forshaw were seeing plenty of the ball, rarely led to anything meaningful.
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Albion flickered into life at the end of the first half when Brendan Galloway, who was making his Premier League debut for the club after joining on a season-long loan from Everton, made a couple of bursts forward from left back. A low, drilled shot from the edge of the area was held by Guzan and six minutes later an inviting cross picked out Salomon Rondon.
The Venezuelan failed to make decent contact with his header, however, and the chance was spurned. Pulis, throwing his arms around in the technical area, made his thoughts clear.
There was little improvement after the interval. Craig Dawson’s header from a Matt Phillips corner dropped the wrong side of the post and that was as much as Albion mustered in the second half. Boro were no better. Barragan’s sinuous run ended with Cristhian Stuani shooting tamely into the arms of Ben Foster. The final whistle could not come quickly enough.
(Guardian service) | http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/english-soccer/west-brom-s-need-for-new-blood-laid-bare-in-dour-draw-1.2771037?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/bd2d3be9e1530636071dc2425255506a0a5d8a29274ef5d332b84e4866b0d944.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T00:52:42 | null | 2016-08-31T01:00:00 | Document circulated before ruling says European Commission is hurting Ireland’s reputation | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fpolitics%2Fapple-ruling-government-paper-accuses-brussels-of-selective-bias-1.2773580%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2773624.1472590739!/image/image.jpg | en | null | Apple ruling: Government paper accuses Brussels of selective bias | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | A confidential briefing paper circulated within Government
before the adverse tax ruling on Apple accuses the European Commission of selective bias, damaging Ireland’s reputation and undermining international tax law.
The briefing pack, circulated to Government TDs including the Independent Alliance, also argues strongly against the State retaining the windfall, which stands at €13 billion.
To a prospective question asking why should Ireland not just keep the money to build houses and schools, the briefing paper states: “It would be irresponsible and extremely short-sighted to consider the European Commission decision as a windfall for the State”.
“Keeping the money would mean accepting the Commission’s hugely damaging analysis which would mean, agreeing that Ireland provided illegal State aid; accepting the Commission’s encroachment into sovereign tax rights; and creating huge uncertainty for business in Ireland,” it says.
Appeal
The 20-page document has set out how Government members should respond to the commission decision on the Apple state aid case.
Under the heading of ‘general speaking points’, it sets out a five-point reaction, stating Ireland “profoundly disagrees with the analysis”; does not do deals with taxpayers; has no choice but to appeal; points out that no fine has been levied; and argues that the decision has no effect on the 12.5 per cent corporation tax rate and no other company is subject to the decision.
Government members have been briefed that Government will have a period of two months and 10 days to bring an appeal and the appeal process may take several years.
It has argued it is “simply untrue” Ireland provided favourable treatment to Apple.
“It is very damaging for our reputation to be called into question in this way. In its approach, the Commission is undermining the fundamental principle of international tax.”
It also accuses the EU of selectivity. “The Commission itself has shown a clear selective bias, in targeting small Member States and US companies.” | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/apple-ruling-government-paper-accuses-brussels-of-selective-bias-1.2773580?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/6ee52d05fcbef342fe55faceba40ea96be4fbb3358f420b74550ba7175392c3c.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T00:51:18 | null | 2016-08-29T01:04:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fopinion%2Fletters%2Fcorfu-neutrality-and-mussolini-1.2769819%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.json | http://www.irishtimes.com/assets/images/favicons/irishtimes.png | en | null | Corfu, neutrality and Mussolini | null | null | www.irishtimes.com | Sir, – Mark Phelan’s “An Irishman’s Diary” (August 25th), concerning the Italian bombardment and one month’s occupation of Corfu (September 1923), valuably discusses the contributions of WT Cosgrave and Eoin MacNeill to the League of Nations debates on the issue, which are inexplicably ignored in the main literature on the subject.
Italian expansionist belligerence in this incident was addressed feebly and ineffectively by the League, but in the Irish context there was an important extra dimension in addition to the status of a small nation – neutrality.
By a quirk of the “Great Powers” (Britain, France, Russia, Prussia and Austro-Hungary), the 1864 Treaty of London recognised Corfu’s “perpetual neutrality”.
This neutrality had been tested and validated four times, including during the Balkan Wars of 1912-13, but was unilaterally set aside by Mussolini’s invasion and, although it remained in force in 1923, was disregarded by the League in its deliberations.
The invasion can be seen as a foreunner of German aggressions against neutral countries in the second World War, which the League was intended to prevent.
Unlike the case of Corfu, Irish neutrality during the “Emergency” was unilaterally declared rather than internationally recognised. – Yours, etc,
RICHARD PINE,
Corfu,
Greece. | http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/corfu-neutrality-and-mussolini-1.2769819?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/43cc4aac8811f27e2ab7d39542f808f9f78af03d66387970c709942816ef2d5d.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T12:52:26 | 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%3FlocalLinksEnabled%3Dfalse.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?localLinksEnabled=false | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.irishtimes.com/b42c8e1ae20e703d5d94d278d1d31ab16e33f07eb4801ae595266b77be77248c.json |
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